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Wednesday, March 27, 2019 - Volume 11, Special Issue 3
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St. Benedict rolls out online interview booking school-wide
System goes live Thursday morning at 8:00am
Yesterday morning in period 1, students received their Interim Reports for semester 2. If your son or daughter does not have a period 1 class, they can pick up their interim report in the Main Office.
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What follows next is parent-student-teacher conferencing. Conferencing is set for Thursday, April 4 from 1:30 to 8:00pm.
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Traditionally, students have gone to their teachers to see what time teachers have available and have booked appointments with their teachers throughout the day as they traveled from class to class. The process would take, typically, the entire school day, and often involve booking and often times trying to move appointments to either allow more travel time or "tighten up" parents' interview schedule.
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This semester, all teachers are using an online booking system to (hopefully) simplify the process. You will be able to go onto the school website and--with a few clicks--very quickly and easily be able to book appointments yourself.
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Traditionally, students have gone to their teachers to book appointments ...
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"Parents and Guardians, please take this opportunity to sign up for your child’s interviews via our new online interview process," says school principal Mrs. Temple. "Many teachers offered this option last semester, but now we are offering it as a full school. It is very easy to do and you will find instructions in this Special Edition of the BENN. As parents, you are a very important part of the learning process and we look forward to seeing you on April 4th to share your student’s progress."
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STEP 1: Go to the school website
You can do this on your computer, tablet or smart phone.
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STEP 2: Go to the Staff list page
Hover over About us (or on your phone, click on the down arrow beside About us) and click on Staff List. This will take you to our complete staff listing page.
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STEP 3: Select your teachers
Staff are grouped by position, and then alphabetically within each employee group. In front of every teacher's name you will see an icon; clicking on the icon takes you to the teacher's personal page.
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TIP: Note that clicking on the icon opens the page in a separate window or tab. You can open all your child's teachers pages before booking to see when they are all available prior to starting the booking process.
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STEP 4: Make your booking
In the rightmost column of the page you will see the Interview booking section. On the calendar navigate to April 4, scroll down, and you will see available times. Select the time that works best for you, fill in your information including your son's or daughter's name and click on Book.
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You will receive a verification email within a few minutes of booking.
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If you need to change your appointment, please contact the teacher and they will do it for you.
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The interview booking system will go live Thursday, March 28 at 8:00am.
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If you are not able to book an appointment, students can still ask teachers to book a time slot for them.
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If your son's or daughter's teacher does not have any time slots available that would work for you, you can also email teachers directly from their personal page.
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"I am really excited that teachers have embraced online booking", says Mr. Milardovic. "a survey to parents regarding the pilot in the fall garnered nothing but positive responses, so we are hoping that parents find this process simple and effective. If nothing else, it eliminates students running back and forth between teachers trying to find times that work for their parents, and then only to have those time slots disappear as they are in transit. Parents can book all their appointments at once and they get an email record of all of them with a link they can then put on their personal calendars."
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Mr. Milardovic tested over sixty online booking systems before deciding to go with Office 365 Bookings. "Bookings integrates automatically with teachers' Board calendars, it is a totally automated management system, so it should be great for teachers. For parents, booking an appointment is as simple as filling out a form; no need to create logins, passwords, or anything else that would make the process overly complicated for what it needs to do."
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Putting this together has been a whole school effort, and Mrs. Temple is pleased with the enthusiasm with which staff have embraced this "technological advance" in our interview booking process: "Many thanks to Mr. Milardovic for his support in making this happen for our school community and to our staff for jumping on board to offer the online booking to our families."
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On interview day, watch for the QR codes posted on the exit doors with an invitation to complete the Interview Booking Survey. Your feedback will help us determine how to proceed. "The feedback from parents and staff after the Fall interviews helped us design this semesters roll out", adds Mr. Milardovic, "I'm not sure the process will be perfect but we're hoping to accommodate as many people as possible."
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... staff have embraced this "technological advance" in our interview booking process.
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Mr. Milardovic is quick to add that it's not just about simplifying the process, "it will also save a ton of paper, so it's a win for the environment as well." If you check out the BENN page on the school website, you will see that we are quickly approaching the "2.5 million sheets of paper saved" mark since the inception of the BENN newsletter; this is just another step on our journey to be more respectful of the planet we live on by saving another precious resource.
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Calendar of Events
Be sure to visit our school website for an updated calendar with detailed information links for most calendar entries.
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Wednesday, March 27 2:00pm: Rock Orchestra practice 2:00pm: Games Club 2:15pm: Homework Club Thursday, March 28 8:00am: Online Interview booking opens 10:35am: AP Lit practice session 10:35am: E-car meeting 10:35am: Mario Kart club 10:35am: Praise Choir 2:00pm: Math Club 2:15pm: Homework Club Friday, March 29 10:35am: Giving Back Club meeting 10:35am: Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Club 10:35am: Star Trek Club 2:00pm: Doctor Who Club Monday, April 1 10:35am: Eco Club 10:35am: E-car meeting 10:35am: Finance Club Tuesday, April 2 10:35am: Science Team info meeting 10:35am: Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Club 10:35am: Arts Council 10:35am: E-car meeting 10:35am: Reach for the Top club 10:35am: Champions for Change club
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Wednesday, April 3 BENN Newsletter release Math Contest: Euclid 9:00am: SHSM Event: Standard First Aid and CPR-C Training 10:35am: Guitar Club 10:35am: E-car meeting 10:35am: Model UN Club 10:35am: Anime Club 2:00pm: Dungeons and Dragons info meeting 2:00pm: Rock Orchestra practice 2:00pm: Games Club 2:15pm: Homework Club Thursday, April 4 1:30pm: Parent/Student/Teacher Conference Friday, April 5 10:35am: Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Club 10:35am: Star Trek Club 2:00pm: Doctor Who Club
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