How to choose school software for your institute

If  you are on the lookout for a Student Information System or School app, you might have downloaded open source or in-app payment software, may be signed up for a few demos or subscribed for trials of a few cloud/SaaS platforms.  If you are feeling exasperated, you are not alone. This could be a mind boggling exercise and saps your energy midway, resulting in you end up taking a sub-optimal decision. 

This detailed guide is an attempt to help you achieve your objective of selecting the best school software with features that are important for you. So let’s get started

In this definitive guide for selecting a school management system, you will learn about:

1. What is a school management software
2. Primary functions of a school software
3. Structural differences of various school softwares
4. Requirement analysis for school system
5. Importance of various integrations in school app
6. Non operational features of a School ERP system
7. ROI of School management software
8. Pricing structure of a School management system

TutMe has helped educational institutions to derive maximum advantage from digitisation of processes. Get in touch with us to know how can we help you. Log in at http://www.tutme.in or whatsapp TRIAL @ 7982466300.

What is a school management software

School Management System is a software that powers your school/ institute with automation and digitizes the daily administrative & academic operations. The objective is to bring in accuracy and efficiency that can be measured by student learning outcomes and predictability of events.

As we exit a Covid-19 ravaged 2020 and usher into 2021 of hope and reignite, it has become pivotal for all types of institutions to implement the best school management system in their organizational ecosystem to automate and digitize the daily operations. An Online School Management System Software is useful to all stakeholders – it helps parents to keep track of their child’s academic progress, teachers can easily conduct online classes, admin can track all online payments in real-time & students can connect with their teachers for doubt clearing and track their assignments from anywhere at any time.

It simplifies the work of staff members, enhances data security, and helps in saving time & money by automating complex and time-consuming tasks, showing in more ways than only projecting an enhanced image to the world.

Primary functions of a School Software

A school software is a work horse for a school. It plays a part in admissions management and alumni connect and everything in between. At this stage, you may believe that you know all the requisite functions of a school ERP after reading the first paragraph, but be a little patient and read the details below with me to understand all the functions that a school software can perform.

1. Admission management – As an administrator, you know that the management of various processes related to admission is not simple and can be quite overpowering at times. Therefore, a school app that helps parents enrol students for admissions online and gives admission manager a comprehensive view of all applications along with providing one-click action menu.
2. Student attendance management – Manually maintaining attendance is a mandatory task for every teacher, but because of its tiresome and repetitive process, it indirectly impacts the productivity of the teachers. It also doesn’t allow for easy analysis of this data. With a good online school management system, you can not only use an auto-attendance system but can also get automated analysis of this data. Isn’t it great.
3. Timetable management – Creating a timetable with various constraints is a challenging task. However, a school management application can do the job in a few clicks and also help publish the output directly on student and parent portals, eliminating the chances of any miscommunication.
4. Fee management – A fee management system simplifies fees creation and collection, automates transactions and provides In-depth financial reports to understand critical information. A good fee management system ensures a peace of mind and therefore, is one of the key features of a good school management software.
5. School Bus management – If a parent knows the time when here comes the bus, it adds a comfort and confidence. A good bus management system also ensures that school administration can track the movement of the bus, keeps all the records of vehicles in one place and analyse maintenance and fuel data for an advantage that at times helps save as much as 10% on cost of transport. A predictive system like the one used in TutMe helps your institute to also save from avoidable incidents.
6. ID cards and certificate management – Embedded systems in a school application can help you print a student ID card in real time, delighting the parents. Also, the complete certificate management brings a world of convenience to you in a few clicks. It looks a small addition, but can mean unimaginable saving of workload for various staff members and an accuracy that flows across the system.
7. Academics management – Whether it is about sharing study notes or videos or conducting an online class, whether you are looking to give an assignment and want to get it and check it online or conduct an online test; a school management system is the tool that makes it possible. You can even publish a report card online and help parents and students keep informed. What’s more when using system like TutMe, you can see the performance of a student across the years. Did I hear you say “voila”.
8. Communications management – There are various instances of communications needed between teachers and other staff, between parents/ students and teachers or administration. This could be daunting to do traditionally or by using disparate resources. However, with modern School ERP applications moving onto apps, the task becomes not only simple but also very intuitive. Parents have hugely positive reviews about this feature as they don’t have to live in uncertainty any more. 

There are other subordinate functions like analysis of attendance and result as well as understanding of teacher effectiveness in the classroom through data merging, which a school management system can perform for you. However, the ones listed above are must haves and even if you feel that a few of these you don’t need, you will certainly need even those in near future. So keep these in your list of what you want your school management software to certainly do.

If you believe a function should be automated, reach us – we will certainly have a solution for you. Whatsapp @ 7982466300.

Structural differences of various solutions

There are plethora of choices when you have to choose a school management ERP system for your institution. These can be On-site or Cloud solutions. While On-site solutions are cheap, these come with major disadvantages and can’t be used on mobile phones or tablets. Additionally these solutions are limited in scope. Cloud based software is the most secure and efficient solution for schools, which are offered as SaaS. 

Another way solutions can be differentiated are whether they can be run only on a computer/laptop or can be accessed from computer as well as mobile. The ones which offer access through mobile apps are the best as they bring in intuitiveness to use, with mobile devices in always-on mode. The share of information is always quick and effective with such applications.

Another important difference, which has been brought into open with Covid-19 school lockdown, is whether a school management solution is only an administrative solution or a management solution. An administrative school software focuses only on the functions performed to administer education. But classroom management software solutions don’t just stop with these. There are other aspects of it, including monitoring student behavior, offering effective virtual classes, organizing an effective workflow — for all of these aspects too, there are excellent classroom management software solutions that are available

Another way the school management systems are differentiated is whether it can support multiple languages. Today, while schools teach in English, a number of parents can’t still read or understand English. Providing a vernacular language support for parent app, therefore, improves the utility and adoption of a school application, manifold.

Requirement analysis for your school 

Having understood what school management system means and various functions it can perform and the broad categories, let’s help you with a framework to list down your specific requirements. How one should go about doing this is by first creating a team of teaching and non-teaching staff representing various functions and ideally involving a few parents/ students. This could be the core group. They should then list down all the functions that they perform now and which of these they would like to be digitised. Also, they should be able to describe a couple of points which if possibly available will make them happy.

Once this exercise is done, you can proceed with classifying these requirements into certain broad buckets. You can run this list with the core team again to check if their requirements have been captured well. Once this step is complete, look at the list of functions as above once again to check if something is missed. You can then complete this list and are now ready for sharing this with the people who matter.

A well drafted requirement is the first step to get your digitization on efficiency super highway. Need help – give us a shout @7982466300.

Various integrations in school management ERP system

School is a microcosm of society and it needs multiple functions to be performed. The work will be simpler, if various integrations are available/ possible in your school software. An integration with your accounting software, link up with various payment platforms or a compatibility with data updation through excel/ csv formats makes a school software, capable to handle various requirements that you may have from time to time.

Non operational features of a school ERP system

While we discussed various operational functions of a good school ERP system, there are a few non functional features which are as important. Let’s look at these.

1. Installation – The current trend is to opt for a cloud based system. These are not needed to be installed on a particular system and can be logged in from different devices from anywhere with a net-connectivity. This also avoids the issues of software or data corruption, which plagued the traditional systems.
2. Service support – There is always a learning curve in using any system. There has to be a support from the vendor in such situations. A user manual, ideally in the form of “How to use” videos could be a great help in training.
3. Notifications – Sharing information through notifications can be a great way to convey information automatically and in real time.TutMealso uses this to share birthday greetings.
4. Customisation – Every school has its own way of operating and it, therefore, will need various customisations to create its own unique personality to be shared with the outside world. A good school application should be able to do this by using a modular approach.

ROI of school management system

There are various expenses that a school incurs operationally. A school management software is probably a new expense item, and it is important to understand the savings it can offer. Various ways to understand the savings and therefore, to calculate ROI on this investment, will mean understanding the areas where it can either decrease the cost or increase the revenue. Let’s look at both of these.

1. Savings – A school ERP system implementation helps save a lot of paper and other supplies. It is generally observed that a savings of 30-50% can be expected depending on how does one use the system. Another area where schools save money is when lesser manpower is required to do the same work. It is a major head and typically 20% of administrative staff can be used elsewhere, if using a good school ERP.
2. Additional Revenues – An efficient and accessible admission system improves the student admissions in the school. That’s a clear additional revenue that a school earns, without increasing any cost. Similarly, the effective and customised fee follow ups result in faster and higher collections.

Pricing structure of a school management system 

There are different ways different softwares charge a user school. The on-site installation typically charge a one time cost and the charge an amount towards maintenance or if a new feature is required. A cloud based solution, however, may charge on per user basis. They can charge it quarterly or annually and may have a setup charge included.

By now, you must be quite clear on how can you choose the best school software system for your institution and what implications your choice can have. It is good to take time to look at various factors and not rush into decision. You also need to ensure that training cost for teachers and other staff is included in the total cost of software. Ideally the vendor should have a way to provide support to parents and students directly in case they struggle in setting up the application.

TutMe provides a SaaS based, modular and value for money solution that helps you create a strong identity for your institute. To know more, pl log in at www.tutme.in or for a free trial, whatsapp TRIAL at 7982466300.

What should you look for in your school ERP in 2022

Schools worldwide have faced an unprecedented challenge in last 2 years when they faced closures for varying durations. 2022 has come with a new hope for students as well as for schools. Another change that is expected to sweep this space is vanishing of resistance to use of technology in schools. This will be both in the form of adoption of school management systems or ERP as well as Learning management systems or LMS. What then will be the features that a school should look out for in a school automation product. 

The basic features that all school management systems/ ERP should provide are:

School management software should allow a simple and secure login.

School management software should allow a system wide access to login to any of the school modules such as Financial management, Human resource management, Attendance, Learning management, etc.

School management software should allow teachers to have access to student information such as attendance, class attendance, course attendance, grade history, etc.

School management software should allow school administrators to have access to the students and teachers information such as address, contact, etc.

School management software should allow parents to have access to a school website where they can pay their fees online and provide other relevant information such as the location of the school, contact details, etc.

School management software should allow staff and students to have access to class material such as attendance notes, homework, assignments, etc.

School management software should allow access to any information that is required for school activities.

School management software should be able to generate reports on a regular basis such as monthly and weekly reports, etc.

School management software should allow to integrate various applications/ software.

School management software should allow the creation and management of school programs or courses such as school projects, extracurricular activities, etc.

Incorporation of school management system/ERP can also create a powerful and secure environment for schools to deal with various risks. The most important risk faced by school administrators is to have access to student data. Schools have also been subjected to cyber attacks as well as hacking that has exposed student data such as information on grades, class schedule, contact information, attendance and attendance history, attendance notes, assignments, etc. A school management system allows schools to store student data securely and protects it from any possible damage. School management systems usually allow to store all student data in one place called ‘student data center’. The student data can be accessed by various applications such as Financial management, Attendance, Learning management, Parent management, etc. A school management system also allows administrators to restrict access to student data.

School management systems should allow schools to be equipped with all necessary information required for a school. A school should be equipped with a well-planned and planned school management system/ERP. A school management system/ERP allows a school to make critical decisions such as the planning of school programs, planning of courses, planning of extracurricular activities, etc. A school management system/ERP also helps in analyzing the impact of various decisions and planning accordingly. These systems also allow schools to have a record of all the activities and projects that are conducted in the school. A school management system/ERP also allows a school to plan and make critical decisions based on the historical information such as school activities that have led to desired results, school activities that have not led to desired results, etc. This allows administrators to make proper decisions for the future of the school. School management systems/ERP should also allow school administrators to monitor and track the activities of school by collecting and analyzing various information.

A school management system/ERP can also integrate various important school applications such as Financial management, Attendance, Learning management, etc. A school management system/ERP can also integrate applications/software such as Moodle, Google Drive, Dropbox, Socrata, Google classroom, etc. The integration of these applications/software reduces the need for installation of various applications/software on different computers.

A school management system/ERP should provide easy and safe access to all relevant information required for school activities. School management systems/ERP provide an interface for the users to create and manage school programs such as school projects, extracurricular activities, etc. A school management system/ERP can also allow teachers and administrators to access and store class notes, homework, assignments and keep reusing the same as and when needed.

There is no doubt that 2022 will need school management systems to adapt to new requirements of schools. They should work closely with school administrators, teachers and parents to understand their expectations from the system and provide for the same.

Growth mindset and better teaching outcomes

Traditionally we believe that there could be Math brains and No math brains. But is it true. Research shows that Growth mindset can help anyone acquire any skill. Read on to know how to introduce this in your classroom…

The growth mindset believes that with the right guidance, practice, and hard work, anyone can improve their skills. Studies have shown that students with a growth mindset score higher than students with a fixed mindset. Therefore, when students change their thinking, their achievements will change. 

 One of the central aspects of the growth mindset is brain plasticity (neuroplasticity). 

 Neuroplasticity means that the brain can grow and change. Recent research in neuroscience shows that the brain does not stop growing at a certain age and that we can learn new things that can be challenging. 

 When it comes to learning new things, teachers, parents, and students carry on several different myths. For example, in math, a harmful myth is that you either have a “math brain” or you don’t. 

 Growth mindset research and neuroscience research (especially brain plasticity) challenge this myth. 

 The results of this research are: 

 When teachers believe that everyone’s abilities can grow and give all students the opportunity to achieve high levels, students will achieve high levels. The teacher’s mentality is critical. 

 When students believe that everyone’s abilities can be increased, their grades will improve significantly. The student’s mentality is very important. 

 Ability and intelligence increase with hard work and practice. The plasticity of the brain has been confirmed. 

 Now that you have heard about brain control, some of the best techniques for developing a growth mindset in mathematics are: 

 Check your own learning mindset and beliefs. 

 Explicitly teach a growth mindset. Explain what this means in specific terms (for example, without fixed skills, we can find different solutions, and completing tasks quickly does not make us look smarter). 

 clearly teaches the brain and how we know it can “grow”. Gone are the days of believing in whether you have a talent for mathematics. When you are struggling with a concept, it is just your brain growing! 

 Do not group math skills. Let the children work together. 

 Praise the process, not the result. Praise the courage and determination of the students who do not give up. 

 Standardization error. Restrain students’ urge to comfort them when they make mistakes. Errors are not “bad”. Make mistakes a natural and necessary part of learning. 

 provides a variety of teaching strategies and activities to maximize interaction with the subject. 

 Is this information new to you? Can you reflect on the growth mentality in your own practice? To become a growth mindset teacher or parent, what small step can you take?

TutMe is a state of the art school management system which helps school adopt technology for better learning outcomes.

The best way to teach math is here

Most math classes across the country struggle with students’ apathy and fear. Is it that students are not smart enough? Do you have math hating students in your class? If these sound familiar situations, read on…..

Photo by Vanessa Garcia on Pexels.com

Math is tough and not every student can learn math. Yes, that’s the most common concern shared by most K-12 math teachers across the country. So what do they try to do to handle it – Give a list of formulas and more worksheets to practice, sometimes teach some tricks. Unfortunately that is the genesis of students’ struggle with math.

Let us look at some practical ways educators across the world have tried to manage this problem with positive results. A lot of what is mentioned here is contributed by a group of K-12 math teachers from Finland, a country who has been scoring high in PISA scores for a few years. 

1. Fear is real, Confront it – The biggest math anxiety of students come from the fact that they believe they are not math person. In our society, where math excellence is taken as a proxy for being intelligent, not being a math person means “I’m stupid”. That’s where the problem starts. As a teacher, you need to ensure that no student believes that he can’t do math but believes that “I’m learning”.
2. Mistakes be appreciated – Math is always believed to be a set of problems which have a right answer. As a result, the right answers are appreciated and there is no scope for making a mistake in the classroom. Unlike languages or social sciences, math doesn’t allow a student to be midway of right and wrong, and therefore, teachers demand a right answer all the time. But, can you change it and let students try and make mistakes and struggle on their way to get the right answer. In a classroom, where students are allowed to make mistakes while trying to find answers on their own the learning in foundation math was much better than the classrooms which only celebrated the right answers.
3. Give them time – Continuing from above points, it is important that all the students in the class are given more time to solve problems. Don’t rush through it as then there will be a set of 10% of class which will keep giving answers and others will feel they are dimwits. A simple trick is to not allow students to raise hand or make any other gesture or noise as they solve a problem. A 2008 experiment in a math classroom showed that in a classroom, if some students raise hands to answer quickly, others get into a self-destructive thought, “math is tough for me”.
4. Don’t give easy problems – A number of math teachers have tried to give easy problems to help students fight the Fear of Failure. However, it has been found to be counter productive. When you give students tough problems and allow them time, students explore wrong solutions before they arrive at the correct solutions, which deepens their understanding of the right methods. 
5. Generate genuine interest – Math is so much around us that if you can draft these into your math teaching, a genuine interest of students in the process can be aroused. Sometimes we just need to tap a bit into student’s surroundings to find simple math examples that will make a concept less intimidating. For example, when introducing ratios, if you could talk about a daily process whereby, a mother, uses this concept while cooking for different number of people every day. With such examples, the concept looks simple and student is genuinely involved, making learning stronger.
6. Growth mindset – Avoid using negative terms in your classroom when it comes to math learning. Don’t bring stereotypes to the classroom, as they are always wrong. Girls are worse than boys in math learning, good math grades result in better career choices are stereotypes and should be avoided in the classroom. 

Teaching expert group at TutMe is happy to support you for better learning outcomes. If you have any question related to classroom, reach out

These are some of the tips for teaching math better. However, every classroom evolves in is own unique way and therefore, these should be used as indicative principles. TutMe makes available a number of digital tools in its application for teachers to use for effective math teaching. You can use these to make your class more fun and productive. 

TutMe is a complete school software solution, which provides both administrative and academic tools for efficient outcomes. You cam login at www.tutme.in for more details.

6 tips for effective online teaching

The pandemic has pushed all of us into online teaching like never thought. There have been hits and there have been misses, but for sure there have been a lot of learnings. Our team has observed many such online classes, conducted surveys with teachers and students to distill out the best practices that are simple to use, yet important for students’ learning and well-being. Check these out here:

1. Compared to in-person learning, everything takes more time. The amount of work you’d plan to complete in a regular school day will most definitely take more than a day online. It’s okay to feel like you didn’t get a lot of content covered, especially the first day or two.
2. This is a new experience for many students, too. As much as we like to assume that students are great with tech, they will need time to get comfortable with their new learning platform. Be patient, and be prepared to not only be their teacher but also their tech support.
3. Not all of your students will want to be on camera. Some students don’t have a safe space to learn in their home, or perhaps they’re just feeling shy. Whatever the reason may be, there’s plenty of other ways to engage with students that does not require video interaction.
4. Teaching synchronously online for a certain period of time does not mean you are constantly speaking to the whole class, for the full duration of that time. Synchronous learning can be many different things, including time for small group instruction and independent work.
5. kids don’t appreciate your fancy PowerPoint. They want to see teacher. And when you are showing slides, you can’t see the students. I watch my son’s classmates completely disengage. Stay with them. Use a whiteboard if you have to.
6. Many of your colleagues have already been teaching online for a while now. Don’t hesitate to reach out to them if you’re looking for resources, have a question, or just need to vent. 

TutMe has a playlist of videos which can help a teacher to connect with students and help them appreciate tricky concepts. If you need help on using it, give us a shout

I hope you will find these tips useful in your online teaching journey. Pl remember, online teaching is here to stay for sometime and we will do good to keep learning and implementing ways to improve our online teaching skills in the classroom.

TutMe offers multiple ways to help you communicate with students and parents and conduct classes online. We have an experiencing of hand-holding more than 200 institutions and almost 1000 teachers to deliver effective lessons online. Reach out to us at care@tutme.in, if you need any specific help.

Why Zoom for Online Classes

Schools can go digital by adopting TutMe school ERP. However, one critical requirement they still have is in terms of conducting online classes when need be. Our aim is to provide best solutions for virtual classroom to you.

While evaluating various tools for it, we find Zoom to be the best tool. The fact that it allows certain amount of free online class conduction is an added advantage for our customers.

What is Zoom?

Zoom is a very user friendly web-conferencing solution. It ensures stable video and easy connectivity even in India where data speeds tend to be slow. That is also the reason why people have chucked Skype or other such solution and have adopted Zoom. You just need a camera with a microphone (your smartphone and computer have both) and you are ready to connect with your students and conduct class.

Why Zoom?

Now, one can argue that there are multiple solutions like Microsoft teams, Bigbluebutton etc available for web conferencing. These come from big software companies. So why should one use Zoom? The answer lies in understanding requirements of a virtual classroom and checking as to which product can offer the optimal solution. Here is how I have evaluated it:

1. Any number of students:

Zoom allows users to conduct a class for upto 100 students. Now this is a big number and offers me a kind of flexibility. Sometimes, I can club students of more than one class to create one classroom virtually. There can be other times when I want to take a special class of just 5 students, it is as convenient.

2. Using presentations:

Most of the content is available as PPTs. It is also simple to manage one’s PPTs on the computer or on smart phone. Once done, it is absolutely thrilling experience to share the same on the students’ screen. As the voice streaming is good, you can explain the slides easily. Students can also ask questions and if you can’t understand the question, you can ask them to explain the problem on their screen. It makes the entire experience very good and involving.

3. Avoids Disturbances:

One huge advantage Zoom offers over other web conferencing softwares is that it allows one to keep a tab on students that they are not using the same device to do chatting etc during the class. It offers the required discipline even in this virtual classroom and therefore avoids disturbances. It is no secret that when students face less distraction, they are likely to learn better. Using TutMe’s support in conducting online quizzes during the lecture makes it the best suite for me.

4. Easy to operate:

While using any other online classroom tool, one has to look at different screens and take help from a tech savvy person. However, the entire setup with Zoom is very simple. It allows user to just share the clickable links to all students and students can connect back quickly using that link. Also works seamlessly on all kinds of devices with various specifications.

These are the reasons that make educators love using Zoom. Who would have thought that running online classes can be so simple. Most of the educators were initially very skeptical of conducting online classes but Zoom has taken all those worries out. That I guess the most wonderful thing to have happened for the educators and school else, the learning of students would have been impacted immensely.

10 tips for schools to take learning online

Covid 19 pandemic has created a very difficult situation world-wide. In India, as it has struck at a time when new session was about to start, it has created a different set of challenges. There are parents, who want kids to engage into some learning rather than stuck to Netflix and Amazon prime, and then there are educators, who are at a loss as to what to do. Online learning is being advocated and pushed. Here are 10 tips to ensure that you get optimal outcomes when you take learning online.

1. Spread Positivity -During the current period when depressing news of death is all around us, having a positive mental attitude can cheer up the mood. Educators understand the importance of creating a vibrant and cheerful atmosphere for learning to be better. So smile more often than what you would do otherwise.

2.  Fix Timetable – It is important to understand that children are taking these lessons in unfamiliar settings. It is, therefore important to set some rules. So if you are doing an online classroom, share the timetable in advance. If you are sending study material to students, pl ensure that you follow a routine.

3. Keep assignments simple – Assignments should be described very clearly so that students can succeed. It can be tempting for teachers to assign lots of independent work. However, teachers should give assignments that are bite-sized. It will, in fact, help if you give assignments in digital forms by using tools like Google forms as a lot of students might not be able to take print outs for various reasons.

4. Include video – Students prefer video-based mini-lessons in addition to written instructions. Most students will find it tough to concentrate on online classes or may find it intimidating to read a lot of stuff. Therefore, encourage teachers to include videos. There are excellent Maths videos available on TutMe library. You can also reach us to get help on videos for other subjects like Science and SST.

5.  Virtual classrooms should not be compulsory -Virtual classroom sessions restricted to 1 or 2 times per week can help students feel connected to their teachers and classmates, but it is helpful to make them optional. There can be issues around internet accessibility or device availability. Also, it is helpful to record meetings and post them for those who could not attend.

6. Be creative in using content When students do not have printed textbooks at home, the digital curriculum can fill the gap. However, make sure that the digital resources you share are creatively done and happy looking.

7.  Limited Screen time – Excessive screen time can have negative side effects. Although there are many wonderful online tools and e-curriculum resources, teachers can reduce screen time by assigning book reading, handwritten work, or hands-on physical activities. These handwritten works and projects can be evaluated, when schools reopen, and to make sure these are done regularly, you can create a submission rule by uploading pictures.

8.  Focus on wellness activities – Especially during times of lockdown, educators should give attention to the whole person—body, spirit, mind, and social relationships. Principals should encourage all—students, families, and employees—to practice wellness, self-management, goal-setting, as well as adopt an optimistic sense of perseverance. It is a good idea to start a virtual classroom session with some meditation exercises.

9.  Invite Parents -Each positive interaction that parents have with their children can be a motivator. Invite parents to become involved with their child’s learning at home. On a weekly basis, teachers could publish a week-long learning plan for the coming week. With a learning plan, parents and students have a sense of course expectations, which will greatly reduce the anxiety of all concerned.

10. A School Management System- If your school does not already have a learning management system (LMS), now is a good time to familiarise yourself with some of the options available. You should consider adopting an LMS that allows your teachers to do the following:

i) post files, videos, and links;

ii) accept file submissions;

iii) provide comments and feedback on submissions;

iv) administer and score quizzes;

v) share assignments, scores, and comments with students and parents via a mobile app.

TutMe is an excellent LMS, that does all this so well. School software can make a tremendous difference in the success of your school’s online program.

We have always taught our students that every problem is an opportunity. Now is the time to live that ourselves. So while we may look down and out at this moment against this virus, we are sure to come back. Positive messages from you in times like this to your students will go a long way in strengthening your relationship with students and parents.

 

5 Reasons to Use School Management Software in 2020

School management software is a necessity for every school today. Till a few years back, schools could manage themselves in old fashioned way by maintaining registers and employing a few clerical staff to manage all the required details, but no more. There have been multiple reasons for the same and we will discuss these further below. However, among the plethora of School softwares and ERPs available today, TutMe has emerged as the top choice for schools across India, specially in the Hindi speaking states of Delhi, UP, Haryana, MP, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.

Why School management software is a necessity for schools today?

1. Information requirements – The information required by various bodies overseeing school running have increased tremendously over last few years. Whether central boards like CBSE or ICSE or state boards, the circulars demanding for information are regular and it takes a lot of time to prepare these details by school staff. A good school ERP like TutMe handles these requirements by ease. Sometimes, even the school management wants to analyse achievements of both students and teachers critically and the required information are difficult to get in a paper-pen record keeping regime.
2. Need for communication – It has been realised by schools across India that the involvement of parents is absolutely critical to get better outcomes for students. Schools alone can’t prepare students for the challenges of tomorrow. Parents, with improving economic conditions, have time to focus on their wards’ future more than ever. They, therefore, want to be in the know of what is being taught and how can they play a proactive role in their child’s development. School management softwares ensure good options for communicating with parents including parent apps.
3. Technology for learning – The role of technology in better learning has never been as pronounced as it is now. Various social and educational experiments have shown that the students with a teacher directed exposure to devices and content have consistently performed better in various assessments. Also, technology brings parity in making good content available across various socio-economic backgrounds. Schools that have used technology for some time have shown consistently better school ratings.
4. Better analysis – Modern school ERPs make various reports available instantly to schools by analysing data that is being captured on a daily basis by schools. This helps teachers and school administrations in planning and executing better than otherwise.
5. Fee Management – The management of fee has been the worst nightmare for schools in India. Managing data for so many students with various discounts and additional fee is quite a troublesome job for anyone and schools have found themselves struggling to keep it updated and correct. That is where the role of School ERPs become even more strong. A good school software ensures complete control in the hands of school administrators to ensure nobody can play around with the financial records.

I am sure these are enough and valid arguments for a school to invest in a good school management software which is good and based on latest technology. Of various options, TutMe scores being based on a modern technology and offering amazing analysis capabilities.

How to Create Anger free School Environment

CBSE has recently instructed all the affiliated schools to focus on the importance of Anger free zones. Anger Management as a skill area for teachers and administrators in our schools has long been neglected. In the wake of several high-profile acts of school violence, as well as the media emphasis that accompanied them, there is a consensus among educators that comprehensive science-based anger management programs could have a positive impact on the total school climate.

Over the past few years, researchers have identified early indicators of violent behavior. The early indicators—deficient skills in empathy, impulse control, social problem solving, anger management, and assertiveness— have been consistently correlated with adolescent and adult antisocial behavior.

As per research, there is a list of 20 identified behaviors that may predispose a child to violence, and two behaviors from the list are directly related to anger or the lack of anger management skills (To get the complete details on these behaviors and other skills, WhatsApp us @ 7982466300). Educators know that when children have tantrums and uncontrolled angry outbursts and regularly make violent threats to others when angry, some action is needed. To neglect such behavior without action may put this child and others around him at great risk.

What is Anger Management in schools?

Anger management is to assist people in learning how to reduce the emotional and physiological arousal that anger causes. The program’s goals should never be aimed at the impossible task of eliminating anger, but to learn to control its effects on people and their environment.

Studies indicate that anger management techniques can be taught effectively to young children, adolescents, and adults as well. Teaching anger management strategies can help create anger in free school environments.

The emotional and physiological stimulation that both precedes and accompanies a person’s angry reaction is unique to each human being. It is necessary therefore that any adult dealing with an angry child be equipped to help that young person identify the specific emotional and physiological cues that allow him or her to regain control of the anger and to curb a violent response.

In some more advanced societies, it is observed that, rather than waiting until the violence has occurred and then devoting increased resources a more effective approach would be to redirect resources to the implementation of violence prevention programs, particularly for young children and pre-adolescents.

Educators and parents can reduce the chance of violent behavior in youngsters by enabling them to arrive at nonviolent solutions to problems by focussing on the following skills:

1. Problem-solving
2. Stress management, Assertiveness
3. Anger and impulsive behavior control

On the contrary, if an angry student is left alone to deal with feelings of hostility, the result will be:

1. Verbal and physical assaults
2. Interpersonal conflict and poor academic performance

Tutme has a special module to help schools create anger free environment in CBSE schools. Pl, reach us to get more help. You can WhatsApp us your contact at 7982466300 and we share with you some paid resources for free or login at www.tutme.in and leave us a message.

Anger free School – How to do it?

Schools are the formative years for children. Primary schools and the way these are managed can leave a life long impact on students and therefore all important interactions need to be planned well. How many times we hear the reports of angry students taking revengeful and fatal actions in the campus. How can we ensure to manage the school environment in a way to create Anger free school campus?

The first step is to acknowledge the fact that a student in a CBSE school is still a kid and he needs to be handled that way. So no child can be defined as naughty or someone with a bad temper. Instead of punishing a student for bad behaviour, can we use an approach where everyone in the school is encouraged to take responsibility for his/her own behaviour. I would call it a Reconciliatory approach. The reconciliatory approach invariably means –

1. Respect – listening to other view-points and learning to value them
2. Responsibility – Everyone being responsible for own actions
3. Repair – Helping people to develop a way to repair the damage caused by their bad behaviour (One needs to be courageous to say Sorry)
4. Re-integration – working through a structured, supportive process that aims to solve the identified problem and allows pupils to remain in school and focus on education

How can TutMe help.

Allowing children the freedom to make – and subsequently learn from – mistakes is one of the key messages of this Reconciliatory approach. “Learn to Love” and “learn to Improve” are the two basic principles to achieve this. Learning to love is about teaching students the skill of emotional stability, to have control on their emotions, to be aware of who they are as individuals, and how they can be better. We all should be improving all the time in order to be better learners and better citizens. The school should also commit itself to a nurturing culture come what may. The school administrators should be working on a principle that no student will be ever stopped from receiving education.

While saying this is easy, executing it will be a tough task. That is where the special trainers from TutMe help. They are specially skilled to help students understand and find out their cause of anger and depression. They help a school work out a detailed plan to create Anger free school campus taking into cognisance various socio-economic factors that are important. Through school-based play therapy and planned support, a student can overcome her anxiety and become a happy and enthusiastic learner. The basic principle used to develop all such programs is to respect the individuality of every child – helping understand his unique background and situation and create a relationship to his behaviour.

Treating all students equally doesn’t mean treating them in the same manner – one person’s thoughts and value system can be very different to another’s. In a punishment-free and reward-free environment, we can sit down and challenge each other if it is felt that someone has behaved poorly. If the pupils feel threatened, they will not open up and learn. This why most of the times we find students behave very differently when the teachers is there compared to when teacher is not around. We need to ensure the school operates in an environment which is not too focussed on a reward and punishment model. By creating a suitable environment in the school, one can help pupils with bad behaviour and create anger free school campus.