Systems, program products, and methods of organizing and managing curriculum information

• US 8,172,578 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2005
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: KATY Independent School District
• Original Assignee: KATY Independent School District
• Inventors: Clark, Elizabeth A., Mathis, John, Lambson, David, Black, Tom, Helbach, Linda, Pollard, Darla, Adams, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Thai, Xuan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yip, Jack
• Application Number:
  US11/076,398
• Publication Number:
  US 20060035206A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,617 Days
• Field of Search: 434/350, 434/323, 434/322, 434/118, 434/353, 434/362, 434/365, 705/1.1, 705/7.38, 705/7.39, 706/927, 707/792, 707/802
• US Class Current: 434/365
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 706/927 Education or instruction

Abstract

Systems, program products, and methods of curriculum planning are provided. An embodiment of a system includes instructional course instructions, responsive to user input commands, to associate one of several instructional courses with one of several teachers, calendar instructions, responsive to user input commands, to create a calendar schedule and assign the instructional course to a date and time for display on the calendar schedule, lesson-plan assignment instructions, responsive to the calendar schedule and user input commands, to assign one of several lesson-plans to the instructional course at the date and time on the calendar schedule, and lesson-plan indicator instructions, responsive to the calendar schedule and lesson-plan data, indicating whether the instructional course for the date and time has been assigned a completed lesson.

Claims

1. A system to manage and organize teacher class schedules and lesson plans for an educational institution, the system comprising:

a first computer associated with an educational institution to define an educational institution computer, the educational institution computer adapted to communicate via a communication network with a second computer associated with an administrator to define an administrative computer, the administrative computer positioned remote from the educational institution computer and configured to designate a plurality of instructional courses to be taught during a future instructional term to define a plurality of predetermined instructional courses, the educational institution computer further adapted to communicate with a plurality of third computers associated with a plurality of teachers to define a plurality of teacher computers, each of the plurality of teacher computers positioned remote from the educational institution computer and the administrative computer;

one or more databases accessible by the administrative computer, the one or more databases having listed therein names of the plurality of teachers to teach during the future instructional term and a lesson plan depository having stored therein a plurality of lesson plans associated with the educational institution for a plurality of school terms;

one or more non-transitory computer readable memories having computer program stored therein, the computer program operable on the educational institution computer and comprising a set of instructions that when executed by the educational institution computer cause the educational institution computer to perform a process of assigning the plurality of teachers to scheduling requirements for the educational institution, the computer program comprising;

an instructional course associator module to establish the plurality of teachers at the educational institution to teach the plurality of predetermined instructional courses, the instructional course associator module comprising the instructions of;

establishing, by the educational institution computer responsive to receiving user input commands from the administrative computer, each of the plurality of teachers at the educational institution as teaching one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses to be taught during substantially all the future instructional term to thereby set an instructional term curriculum schedule;

retrieving data from the one or more databases to populate one or more sections of a plurality of teacher profiles including name of the teacher, one or more classroom locations, and institutional term, each of the plurality of teacher profiles being stored in the one or more databases and associated with one of the plurality of teachers;

communicating, via the communication network, the instructional term curriculum schedule to each of the plurality of teacher computers responsive to the establishing step; and

assigning each one of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses from the instructional term curriculum schedule with one of the plurality of teacher profiles to thereby create a schedule depository, the schedule depository having one or more fields indicating days of a week and a plurality of times during the days of the week;

a calendar scheduler module to build a teaching calendar schedule for each of the plurality of teachers, the calendar scheduler module comprising the instructions of;

assigning each one of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses to one or more days and a time of the one or more days in the schedule depository to thereby build the teaching calendar schedule for each of the plurality of teachers, the schedule depository further having each of teaching calendar schedules;

a lesson plan module to assign the plurality of lesson plans to a respective one or more of the plurality of teacher profiles, the lesson plan module comprising the instructions of;

creating a share network comprising a plurality of sharing teachers from the plurality of teachers, each one of the sharing teachers allowing another of the plurality of sharing teachers to access each one of the sharing teacher'"'"'s lesson-plans from each one of the plurality of school terms stored in the lesson plan depository;

creating one or more lesson plans for one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses for one or more days and one or more times in the schedule depository, each of the one or more lesson plans being stored in the lesson plan depository on the one or more databases;

assigning one or more of the plurality of lesson plans stored in the lesson plan depository to one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses, one or more days, and a time of the one or more days on one or more of the teaching calendar schedules, the one or more of the plurality of lesson plans to be implemented by one or more of the plurality of teachers; and

a status indicator module to indicate on each of the teaching calendar schedule whether one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses for a date and time on the teaching calendar schedules have been assigned one or more lesson plans, the status indicator module comprising the instructions of;

indicating on each of the teaching calendar schedules for each of the plurality of teachers whether one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses for a date and time on each of the teaching calendar schedules has been assigned one or more of the plurality of lesson plans stored in the lesson plan depository, each of the teaching calendar schedules being accessible by the administrative computer to monitor the one or more lesson plans to the plurality of predetermined instructional courses;

indicating on each of the teaching calendar schedules for each of the plurality of teachers whether the one or more of the plurality of lesson plans have been complete; and

displaying a status indicator indicating a number of times each one or more objectives have been chosen by each one of the plurality of teachers so that each one of the plurality of teachers can more readily monitor a progress of the one or more objectives and so that the administrative computer can more readily monitor the progress of one or more of the plurality of teachers.

2. The system as defined in claim 1, the computer program further comprising a search module to enable searching the one or more databases, the search module comprising the instruction of:

searching the lesson plan depository for one or more of the plurality of lesson plans stored therein by keyword, grade level or course responsive to user input.

3. The system as defined in claim 1, the lesson plan module further comprising the instruction of:

forming a lesson plan creation page having a plurality of features to assemble and complete the one or more lesson plans, and a feature configured to access a bank of completed lesson-plans, each one of the completed lesson plans comprising objectives, resources, strategies, assessments, activities, and homework assignments.

4. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the status indicator is one of a plurality of status indicators and one or more of the plurality of status indicators are color coded with a first color to indicate no lesson plan has been assigned to the date and time, and a second color to indicate one or more lesson plans has been assigned to the date and time.

5. The system as defined in claim 1, the computer program further comprising a search module to enable searching the one or more databases, the search module comprising the instructions of:

searching the lesson plan depository for one or more of the plurality of lesson plans stored therein by keyword, grade level or courses responsive to user input; and

importing one or more lesson plans for one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses from the lesson plan depository responsive to searching the lesson plan depository.

6. The system as defined in claim 1, the lesson plan module further comprising the instruction of:

importing one or more lesson plans for one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses from the lesson plan depository.

7. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer program stored therein, the computer program operable on a computer associated with an educational institution to define an educational institution computer and comprising a set of instructions that when executed by the educational institution computer cause the educational institution computer to perform a process of assigning a plurality of teachers to scheduling requirements for the educational institution, the computer program comprising:

an instructional course associator module to establish a plurality of teachers at an educational institution to teach a plurality of predetermined instructional courses, the instructional course associator module comprising the instructions of;

establishing, by the educational institution computer responsive to receiving user input commands from an administrative computer, each of the plurality of teachers at the educational institution as teaching one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses to be taught during substantially all a future term to thereby set an instructional term curriculum schedule;

retrieving data from one or more databases to populate one or more sections of a plurality of teacher profiles including name of the teacher, one or more classroom locations, and institutional term, each of the plurality of teacher profiles being stored in the one or more databases and associated with one of the plurality of teachers; and

communicating, via a communication network, the instructional term curriculum schedule to each of the plurality of teacher computers responsive to the establishing step

assigning each one of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses from the instructional term curriculum schedule with one of the plurality of teacher profiles to thereby create a schedule depository, the schedule depository having one or more fields indicating days of a week and a plurality of times during the days of the week;

a calendar scheduler module to build a teaching calendar schedule for each of the plurality of teachers, the calendar scheduler module comprising the instructions of;

assigning each one of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses to one or more days and a time of the one or more days in the schedule depository to thereby build the teaching calendar schedule for each of the plurality of teachers, the schedule depository further having each of teaching calendar schedules;

a lesson plan module to assign a plurality of lesson plans to a respective one or more of the plurality of teacher profiles, the lesson plan module comprising the instructions of;

creating a share network comprising a plurality of sharing teachers from the plurality of teachers, each one of the sharing teachers allowing another of the plurality of sharing teachers to access each one of the sharing teacher'"'"'s lesson-plans from each one of the plurality of school terms stored in the lesson plan depository;

creating one or more lesson plans for one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses for one or more days and one or more times in the schedule depository, each of the one or more lesson plans being stored in a lesson plan depository on the one or more databases;

assigning one or more of the plurality of lesson plans stored in the lesson plan depository to one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses, one or more days, and a time of the one or more days on one or more of the teaching calendar schedules, the one or more of the plurality of lesson plans to be implemented by one or more of the plurality of teachers; and

a status indicator module to indicate on each of the teaching calendar schedule whether one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses for a date and time on the teaching calendar schedules have been assigned one or more lesson plans, the status indicator module comprising the instruction of;

indicating on each of the teaching calendar schedules for each of the plurality of teachers whether one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses for a date and time on each of the teaching calendar schedules has been assigned one or more of the plurality of lesson plans stored in the lesson plan depository, each of the teaching calendar schedules being accessible by the administrative computer to monitor the one or more lesson plans to the plurality of predetermined instructional courses;

indicating on each of the teaching calendar schedules for each of the plurality of teachers whether the one or more of the plurality of lesson plans have been complete; and

displaying a status indicator indicating a number of times each one or more objectives have been chosen by each one of the plurality of teachers so that each one of the plurality of teachers can more readily monitor a progress of the one or more objectives and so that the administrative computer can more readily monitor the progress of one or more of the plurality of teachers.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium as defined in 7, the computer program further comprising a search module to enable searching the one or more databases, the search module comprising the instruction of:

searching the lesson plan depository for one or more of the plurality of lesson plans stored therein by keyword, grade level or course responsive to user input.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium as defined in 7, the lesson plan module further comprising the instruction of:

forming a lesson plan creation page having a plurality of features to assemble and complete the one or more lesson plans, and a feature configured to access a bank of completed lesson-plans, each one of the completed lesson plans comprising objectives, resources, strategies, assessments, activities, and homework assignments.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium as defined in 7, wherein the status indicator is one of a plurality of status indicators and one or more of the plurality of status indicators are color coded with a first color to indicate no lesson plan has been assigned to the date and time, and a second color to indicate one or more lesson plans has been assigned to the date and time.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium as defined in 7, the lesson plan module further comprising the instruction of:

importing one or more lesson plans for one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses from the lesson plan depository.

12. A computer-implemented method of managing and organizing teacher class schedules and lesson plans for an educational institution, the method comprising:

establishing, by a computer associated with an educational institution to define an educational institution computer, responsive to receiving user input commands from an administrative computer each of the plurality of teachers at the educational institution as teaching one or more of a plurality of predetermined instructional courses to be taught during substantially all a future term to thereby set an instructional term curriculum schedule;

retrieving, by the educational institution computer, data from one or more databases to populate one or more sections of a plurality of teacher profiles including name of the teacher, one or more classroom locations, and institutional term, each of the plurality of teacher profiles being stored in the one or more databases and associated with one of the plurality of teachers;

communicating, via a communication network, the instructional term curriculum schedule to each of the plurality of teacher computers responsive to the establishing step

assigning, by the educational institution computer, each one of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses from the instructional term curriculum schedule with one of the plurality of teacher profiles to thereby create a schedule depository, the schedule depository having one or more fields indicating days of a week and a plurality of times during the days of the week;

assigning, by the educational institution computer, each one of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses to one or more days and a time of the one or more days in the schedule depository to thereby build a teaching calendar schedule for each of the plurality of teachers, the schedule depository further having each of the teaching calendar schedules;

creating, by the educational institution computer, a share network comprising a plurality of sharing teachers from the plurality of teachers, each one of the sharing teachers allowing another of the plurality of sharing teachers to access each one of the sharing teacher'"'"'s lesson-plans from each one of the plurality of school terms stored in the lesson plan depository;

creating, by the educational institution computer, one or more lesson plans for one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses for one or more days and one or more times in the schedule depository, each of the one or more lesson plans being stored in a lesson plan depository on the one or more databases;

assigning, by the educational institution computer, one or more of the plurality of lesson plans stored in the lesson plan depository to one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses, one or more days, and a time of the one or more days on one or more of the teaching calendar schedules, the one or more of the plurality of lesson plans to be implemented by one or more of the plurality of teachers;

indicating, by the educational institution computer, on each of the teaching calendar schedules for each of the plurality of teachers whether one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses for a date and time on each of the teaching calendar schedules has been assigned one or more of the plurality of lesson plans stored in the lesson plan depository, each of the teaching calendar schedules being accessible by the administrative computer to monitor the one or more lesson plans to the plurality of predetermined instructional courses;

indicating, by the educational institution computer, on each of the teaching calendar schedules for each of the plurality of teachers whether the one or more of the plurality of lesson plans have been complete; and

displaying, by the educational institution computer, a status indicator indicating a number of times each one or more objectives have been chosen by each one of the plurality of teachers so that each one of the plurality of teachers can more readily monitor a progress of the one or more objectives and so that the administrative computer can more readily monitor the progress of one or more of the plurality of teachers.

13. The computer-implemented method as defined in 12, the method further comprising:

searching, by the educational institution computer, the lesson plan depository for one or more of the plurality of lesson plans stored therein by keyword, grade level or course responsive to user input.

14. The computer-implemented method as defined in 12, the method further comprising:

forming a lesson plan creation page having a plurality of features to assemble and complete the one or more lesson plans, and a feature configured to access a bank of completed lesson-plans, each one of the completed lesson plans comprising objectives, resources, strategies, assessments, activities, and homework assignments.

15. The computer-implemented method as defined in 12, wherein the status indicator is one of a plurality of status indicators and one or more of the plurality of status indicators are color coded with a first color to indicate no lesson plan has been assigned to the date and time, and a second color to indicate one or more lesson plans has been assigned to the date and time;

and the method further comprising;

importing one or more lesson plans for one or more of the plurality of predetermined instructional courses from the lesson plan depository.