Teacher instructions for the Homework Messenger for ADHD

Step by step instructions for teachers using the Homework Messenger

adhd - Homework Messenger Help

Article Index
Entering information
Behavior tracking
Making an Inactive Behavior Active
Daily Behavior Rating
homework
To Add a new assignment click
Discussion
Grades
Notification emails
User feedback

As a teacher, you can define up to four active target behaviors for each child to work on at school. You are limited to four active behaviors because with more than that change efforts can become so diffuse that they are ineffective. Behaviors are best described in positive terms. That is, it is better to say "raise his hand before speaking", vs. "not blurting out in class". This not only serves to set a positive mindset for the goal, but also keeps all the graphs easy to read with good up and bad down. After you login you will be taken to the "Members Home" page.

Entering information

For each child you are working with via the homework Messenger, a row in the Individual table of the Members page will be created. A separate row is created for each child. To access the information relative to that child click

When there is new information since the last time you logged on this button will be red, as shown above. When there is no new information the button will be gray.

Behavior tracking

Create a new behavior by double clicking on the blank row, then typing in the new behavior and clicking

A behavior may be edited by double clicking the text, typing in the change and clicking

The number of behaviors is limited to four active behaviors. At that point, to add a new behavior, one must be made inactive. It is better to make a behavior inactive than just to edit it into a new behavior. Otherwise, you cannot tell where on the daily behavior graph the old behavior stops and the new one begins.

To make a behavior inactive, single click and hold your left mouse button on the text while you drag it to the Inactive table at the right. After the background of that table turns dark green, release the mouse button. The behavior will then show up in the inactive list. Then another active behavior can be created

Making an Inactive Behavior Active

Many times, it is easier to reactivate an old behavior than to create a new one. To reactivate a behavior simply click on . Then, left click and hold on the text of the behavior you want to reactivate while you drag it to the active behaviors column on the left. When the background of that table turns dark green release the mouse button. The behavior will then reappear in the active behaviors column. Remember that you may only have four active behaviors that any time. If you try to reactivate the behavior when they are all are already four active behaviors, it will give you a message that you already have four active behaviors and you cannot add another one.

Daily Behavior Rating

On a daily basis, you should rate the child's performance on each behavior on a 1-5 scale, where 5 is excellent and 1 is poor. To rate a behavior, place your cursor on the graph. Up to four colored vertical bars will appear at the right of the graph. Place your cursor over the bar whose color corresponds to that of the behavior you want to rate. The bar will turn into a thermometer. Slide your cursor up and down until you have the value you want. You can see the changing numeric value of your rating in a gray box at the top edge of the graph. When you have the value you wish, left click your mouse. A dot for that value will be placed on the graph for that behavior. Since only one rating per behavior per day is allowed, the rating bar for that behavior will vanish until tomorrow.

Because it would unnecessarily complicate the user interface, there is no way to correct a rating error. If you make an error just note it in the Discussion section.

Note: If on the same day you give two behaviors the same rating you will only see the last rating because it is covering the prior rating, but they are both really there.

homework

The Homework section allows you and the child's parents to track homework step by step, from its assignment, through its completion and finally being turned in. At a glance, you can tell whether this chain of events is unfolding on schedule to be completed by the due date.

To Add a new assignment click

When the a new row with yellow cells appears, enter a description of the assignment, date assigned, the due date and eventually the date turned in.

The parent will enter the date they supervised the assignment's completion. You should monitor homework assignments that the parent has dated as completed, but you have not received from the child. After a few days, you should pursue this with the child and parent. The completed assignment may be finished, but not turned in..

You can use Sort to find homework that has not been turned in. Just click on the to the right of the "turned in" heading to see which ones have not been turned in. You can also use the function to find any combination of dates and text.

Discussion

Here you, the parents and I can discuss the child. Often it is very helpful not just to rate a behavior, but also to describe exactly what precipitated and reinforced it. Also, extra information can help parents develop better rewards, punishment and WebCAER targets. Sometimes a homework assignment may need extra elaboration, or kudos needs to be sent.

To Add a new comment click A new window will open for you to enter your comment. When you are finished, click .

To edit a comment click . You can only edit discussion comments the same day you create them.

Grades

Only a teacher can enter grades for assignments, tests, quizzes etc You can define different grading subsets such as quizzes, homework, class participation or the whole course. You do this by defining a name you consistently reuse for that subset. For example, you might name math tests MathT, and math homework MathH , and quizzes MathQ. This is often more useful than an overall class grade, since it more clearly points to where special effort needs to be applied. A different average will be computed for each subset.

Of course, you must consistently enter the parts of the course in their corresponding category. You can have all grades averaged together or the homework messenger can compute separate averages for each part of a subject.

Grades must be in a numeric format such as 2, 8, 70 or .70. You must be consistent with whatever format you choose. You cannot use letter grades such as A, B, C,. passing, or satisfactory etc. You need to translate these into a numeric equivalent, and be consistent with whatever metric you choose so that averages of these numbers make sense.

A grade average for each course is automatically computed. You can see the average for each course by putting your cursor over the course name.

To enter the date range that the grades should be computed over, just enter the number of days and click

Notification emails

When ever there is a new entry in this section, an email is automatically sent to the other party notifying them.

User feedback

Because there are no final answers, this will always be a work in progress. Your ideas, clarifications, suggestions, criticisms, additions and help are always appreciated. Correspond with me at \n This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Article is in the following categories:

ADHD

behavior problems.

Therapy

ADHD

school problems