Curriculum planning and the daily diary

Curriculum planning lets you lay out what each subject will cover and track how far teaching has got. The daily diary is where homework and class notes are posted for students and families each day.

Before you start

• The subject must already exist under Curriculum > Subjects.
• You need access to the Curriculum menu. Teachers post the diary from the staff portal. If you do not see this option, it may not be included in your plan or your role may not have permission; ask your administrator.

Steps

Plan a subject

1. Go to Curriculum > Subjects and open the subject.
2. Under Faculty Assignment, click Assign Teacher and choose who teaches it.
3. Click Add Unit and give each unit a number, a name and its learning objectives. Then use Add Topic to list the topics in each unit, with study hours if you track them.
4. In the Lesson Plan, click Add Lesson. Choose the unit and topic, enter a Lesson Title, and set the Planned Start and Planned End.
5. As teaching happens, set each lesson to In Progress, Completed or Missed and record the Actual Start and Actual End. The subject's progress shows how far it has got.
6. Under Learning Resources, use Add Resource to attach a PDF file, image file, video link or web link.
7. Under Question Bank, use Add Question to build questions by topic and difficulty. These can later be imported into LMS quizzes.

Post the daily diary

1. Go to Curriculum > Diary and click Assign Diary. Teachers use Diary in the staff portal side menu.
2. Choose the Class, Section and Subject, and the Diary Date.
3. Pick the Diary Type: Text, or Image for something like a photo of the board.
4. Write the homework or note and save.
5. To notify families, use Send Diary SMS and choose whether it goes to the student mobile or the guardian mobile.

Good to know

• Students see the diary under Diary in their portal.
• Units, topics and the question bank are reusable across sessions, so next year you mostly update the dates in the lesson plan.
• Sending SMS needs a gateway set up for your campus. SMS availability and cost depend on your region and provider.
• Use Print Diary if you also hand out a paper copy.
• Curriculum reports show completeness and lesson coverage across subjects, which is useful for a head of department review.

Common questions

Can a teacher only post for their own subjects?
Teachers work with the classes and subjects assigned to them. If a teacher cannot see a subject, check the subject's faculty assignment.

For an overview, see Curriculum.