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Report or Export Scheduled Resources?
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Is there anyway to get a report/listing of:
- all resources that I have input into my Organizer including my divisions as listed, and
- a report of everything that has been scheduled to do (the resources, their start date, and the days of the week scheduled)?
How about a way to export my added resources to a CSV or other such file?
Thanks,
I like those ideas, Cindy. We’ll have to see if we can add them to the additional reports list for future creation.
Currently, I use the Scheduler page to see everything that has been scheduled. It lists the resources by subject, in order with their start dates and days of the week scheduled. It shows how many divisions you have assigned to each resource, but it doesn’t list each division. I can see how that information might be helpful.
The reason I asked about this is 2-fold:
- At the end of the school year, I like to create reports of what our school year covered. So I would like to have a resource list, by student and subject, of all the resources (books, etc.) that we used throughout the year including full bibliographical information as entered. I think this kind of list is a great way to document and/or create a portfolio of what we have accomplished. This report would not need the divisions listed or specific divisions completed. Would this be covered by using the Summary Report? (I haven’t been able to seen current examples of reports that the system creates and since I can’t create a report until AFTER we have used the resource, I can’t see what this looks like.)
- It would be nice to see a report showing kind of the future schedule. IOW, if I have book A listed for 2 times/week, 2 chapters/day, by what day will it be complete and book B be started (assuming that book B is listed as starting after book A.) I guess I have to just use my Term and Weekly Plans (from the 5-step planner) and look at a calendar manually to see when we will reach a certain point?
- As for the exporting, I was wondering because it would be nice to be able to export all of the information that I have already entered in the Organizer for use in Excel or Access to create custom reports of my own choosing/format without having to type it all in again by hand.
I am seeing that the CM Organizer seems to be a very good tool for setting up work for day-to-day use, but it is not the comprehensive planner and reporting tool that some of the other programs are. For instance,
- There is no end of year Course Report complete with a Course Description, and a list of Course Resources that can be used to document the year.
- There is no transcript creator using the information gathered in the Organizer to output a basic transcript. (I know that some have mentioned narrative transcripts, so I am talking more for traditional transcripts with maybe a Pass/Fail for courses that don’t have specific grades like math would have.)
- There is no calendar function to help see when days off are scheduled and if too many are scheduled to complete the school year’s plans.
Is there a way to print out something that would amount to a Reading Log for a student? For instance, if I record each book the boys read as “Leisure Reading” for those read outside of normal assignments, is there an easy way to print a list of those with their completion dates? I am not as concerned about the “Worked On” status of these – I would just input them when complete and mark them finished.
Thanks,
Cindy
Hi, Cindy! I think you will find that reports, both summary and detailed, will give you a lot of what you need. I print up summary reports of all the things the children worked on and read during the year and include them in the folders I make. It lists all their leisure-reading books that I’ve entered in, in addition to all the coursework we’ve done. So I think that will help you for those things. I do the same thing you describe-when my kids read a book on their own that I decide I want listed, then we just “add a resource” with the ISBN number, select no divisions, save it, then check it off. Easy as pie. Then I have a record of what they read. I keep separate course descriptions, since often my courses are NOT just the same as my books–often I have more than one resource listed on the Organizer that constitutes a course, and many of my “courses” are multi-year–for example, instead of doing a “world history” course in one whirlwind year, we follow our typical history rotation, and then at the end I will put together all that goes with that course, and write a description and list our work.
As for some of the other stuff–the CM Organizer is a different tool. And I’m glad. There are lots of very traditional schedule-bound planners. There are lots of transcript creators. But there is only one CM Organizer. I use this product precisely BECAUSE it is NOT Homeschool Tracker or Transcript Pro. If I want those, I can use those. But I want the kind of flexible scheduling and record keeping that fits my Charlotte Mason-style homeschool, so that I don’t have to fill in a lot of boxes for things I don’t need. I don’t WANT my kids’ records to look like they were kept by a textbook-using public school teacher. That’s not how they were taught. I actually LIKE not having future stuff locked in. This is the only program that does what it does. I have to confess I always hope that when new features are rolled out, that they will be cosmetic only and not alter the fundamental structure of the Organizer, which I have come to love. If the Organizer would turn into a “comprehensive planning and reporting tool” like other programs, it would no longer meet my needs, and there isn’t really anyplace else for those of us who like it this way to go! LOL
If the Organizer would turn into a “comprehensive planning and reporting tool” like other programs, it would no longer meet my needs, and there isn’t really anyplace else for those of us who like it this way to go! LOL
But as a result, you wind up doing a lot of things by hand, manually. Or at least developing endless Excel spreadsheets to contain all of the information. So far, using the 5-step planner from Simply CM, I have created an extensive Excel spreadsheet with each of the 5 steps as a different worksheet within the file. Then I will have to have other files elsewhere with course descriptions that I can then attach (probably not electronically) the reports from the Organizer with the completed resources listed. Then I need a separate calendar program to help me calculate days off and how many school days that leaves me with and how taking a vacation spontaneously affects the number of school days for our year. The boys are still young enough that they want to know WHEN they will get time off – something that they still look forward to since they are still very concrete thinkers. Technically, here in Nevada, we are supposed to homeschool for 180 days/year, even though we never have to prove that. 😉 And somewhere down the road, I will need to hand-create a transcript. It feels so disjointed, though I can see how the CM Organizer does what it does very well and has made entering our “plans” for the year much easier. In fact, I keep looking at what I have entered so far and wondering – “Am I done? Do I really already have everything in there that I know about so far?” LOL!
The thing that I liked about Homeschool Skedtrack as compared to Homeschool Tracker was it’s simplicity and that it is ONLINE and that it is FREE! Because of the cost of the CM Organizer, I would probably be trying right now to force myself into the Homeschool Tracker program except that it isn’t ONLINE and I really need that since I work full-time.
Similar to the CM Organizer, in Homeschool Skedtrack, I would go into a subject, or course, and list all of the assignments that I wanted to do for that course in a straight listing – kind of how the divisions work here. Then I would decide which days each course would be on. Then the Today view would automatically take the next lesson and show it for that day if that course was scheduled for that day. I liked that for 2 years. My only real complaint with that program is that the lessons are not tied to the resources. I can’t just pick the book I want them to read and assign them to read a chapter/day on specific days. So I have to hand-type each resource (using abbreviations!) and the pages I want them to read and any other tasks I want them to do all in one, large textbox. Not very user-friendly now that we are now starting to use several books in one day for one course. And it doesn’t allow me to assign more than one lesson to one day, so everything has to be in that box. Basically, what I would have to do to mimic the CM Organizer is create a separate “Course” for each resource I am using, group them into a Course Group so that they all show up as “Science” or whatever, and then assign each of them individually for those days similar to how the Organizer does it. But that would make for a complicated display! And I really like how the Organizer has the Worked On setting so that I can see that yes, they did do some of the assignment, but for whatever reason they were not able to finish.
Anyway, sorry for the long post. Just thinking aloud, I suppose. Thanks for all of the feedback you have provided – you have given me a lot to think about and really helped me get my head wrapped around this! Especially since you have boys older than mine and have BTDT on so much already.
I agree with Bookworm. I love the CM planner as is. I don’t want or need all of the options other programs offer. I simply use the Planning Your CM Education with paper & pencil and then input that into the CM Organizer and then it flexes with our CM schooling style.
If the Organizer would turn into a “comprehensive planning and reporting tool” like other programs, it would no longer meet my needs, and there isn’t really anyplace else for those of us who like it this way to go! LOL
I agree with this statement from Bookworm, whole heartedly! However, I do like that Sonya & the SCM team listen to the requests of the users and implement many of them while keeping the CM focus and simplicity in mind.
Cindy, I think you’re wise to try the Organizer and compare it to what you’re used to and make the best choice for your family. However, keep in mind that a CM style education is quite different from traditional and this tool was designed for CMers who don’t necessarily need/want the same things from their planner. I, for one, prefer the simplicity of the Organizer as is.
I wish you the best in making this decision for your family.
Christie
I simply use the Planning Your CM Education with paper & pencil
Agghh!! Paper and pencil?! LOL! Sorry for laughing. As you can tell, I am not much into pencil and paper for anything. I am a software engineer by trade and spend most of my time on the computer. As a result, I cringe whenever I might have to print something out on paper instead of being able to do everything on the computer. Especially something that will get thrown away as soon as we are done with it or as soon as it changes!
I do like that Sonya & the SCM team listen to the requests of the users and implement many of them while keeping the CM focus and simplicity in mind.
I love that a company will listen to their users and have a feature wish list like they do here. That is great!
However, keep in mind that a CM style education is quite different from traditional and this tool was designed for CMers who don’t necessarily need/want the same things from their planner.
We have only this past year started evolving to a more CM style education. (Though I have never really given grades no matter what style we have used since I didn’t feel it necessary at their age.) I am trying to learn that the CM style education is much “looser” in this planning respect. It’s still just a bit to adjust to, however the use of the CM Organizer is helping push me more in that direction. And then I have to train the boys in the new ways as well.
Dh is already a believer in not needing to plan for our time off, believing that we just should “go with the flow” and school whenever we are not doing something else like vacations and other family “stuff”. However, the boys are still in the mode of “when are we off-track?” (Off-track is the term used around here in public school because of the year-round, multi-track system they use in elementary – through 6th grade. My boys attended public school from K-2 and still have a friend in public school on this schedule.) Of course, now is a good time to force some change into this because if they were in public school, they would be moving to the middle school for 7th grade and be on a traditional school schedule with not much time off during the semesters. No more year-round schooling schedules. They should be thankful that they don’t have to do that! LOL!
Cindy,
I couldn’t do an Excel spreadsheet to save my life. LOL I’ve never done one. And I see paper and pencil are not your favorite way of coping with things! 🙂 Thought I’d just describe briefly what I do. I use the Organizer for my lesson planning. We just check things off when we are done. I take the reports at the end of the year, and enter information into my file system (for the teens–the 10yo doesn’t need so much yet) I keep a small folder for each developing course we have going. So I have a World History and a U.S. history; math I just use in one folder because I just have two sheets of paper for each level–Algebra, Geometry, etc. In those folders, I keep my evolving course description file–this contains the course objective, resources used, activities completed, tables of contents of texts, samples of writing where applicable, test results/grades where applicable, etc. all together in one spot. I don’t always even keep a complete transcript going now–I have all the info, and many of my courses are covering more than one year. It takes me a morning at the end of the year to update everything. I don’t do much during the year, as I know stuff will come out on my reports I print. I just take those reports and transfer info–books read, etc. into my file. It doesn’t take me much time at all. Sometimes I have to make adjustments–this year I took a semester Government class we had going, and combined it with a semester Political Philosophy we also were working on, into one course on American Government. And I am adding a new file tomorrow since my 14yo took his birthday money and bought two Thinking Company economics courses–for FUN! But I think I’m going to list them as a Special Topics: International Economics semester course when he finishes them, and all the reading I’m giving him to “correct” one of the professors who’s a bit off-base! Ack! Then I will have the info and can create whatever sorts of information that the individual colleges we apply to may require–some differ considerably in what they want, so. I wouldn’t feel “safe” or be able to process the info in my head if I didn’t have a file to look at. I must have grown too much in the pre-computer years! LOL Anyway, my system takes very little time to keep going on top of the work of entering stuff into the Organizer–which is pretty easy! (I have most of my stuff for August already done–yay! Because I need time to do the lesson plans for an early-morning religion class for high schoolers I am teaching this year–at 6a.m. no less! LOL)
Anyway, we all need different ways of doing things. Thought I’d just mention what works for us. We’ve homeschooled for so very long (11 years now–no one remembers anything else) that we don’t really have “off-track” and “on-track” We just have “learning you have to enter into the Organizer” and “learning you don’t” 🙂
I hope we are able to find ways to meet your needs for your kids, too, using the resources here. These are terrific people, and if they can find a way to program it, they probably will eventually. There have been many upgrades over the last few years.
Michelle,
Can I come be a fly on the wall in your home for a few days? a week? a month, maybe? I think I would learn so much!
Christie
Can I come be a fly on the wall in your home for a few days? a week? a month, maybe? I think I would learn so much!
Me, too! Can I join you?!
Bookworm, even though you use a completely paper-based system, your explanation of how you work does give me some ideas. I can convert a lot of that to creating an online notebook with Microsoft OneNote that I would store basically everything that you mentioned in much the same way as you have organized and store it all on my computer. While I would never copy someone else’s system to the letter, it does give me plenty of food for thought. Thank you for that!
So, I am getting more comfortable with this method the more I talk with you ladies. This has been very good for me. Thank you. I suppose, Bookworm, since you have been homeschooling like this for such a long time, that you don’t even have to worry about “counting days” to make sure you have at least 180 each year? You probably have more than that, don’t you? I can only hope that my boys become as good at self-learning as your boys have achieved thus far. We just finished our 4th year of homeshcooling, but as with many homeschoolers, our process has evolved from a complete, pre-planned curriculum the first semester, through moves towards a more relaxed style but with the requisite remediation required for one of my boys to overcome a host of LDs. Some of which have been remediated and others we are still working on.
I have most of my stuff for August already done–yay! Because I need time to do the lesson plans for an early-morning religion class for high schoolers I am teaching this year–at 6a.m. no less! LOL
I have quite a bit entered in my Organizer as well and each time I review that, I am getting a better feeling about being ready for us to start at the end of July/beginning of August. I still have to work on details for my science program (conceptual middle school physics) as I am creating that completely from scratch, including labs (well, I do have several books I bought from Amazon for instruction and one for labs but none of them are textbooks – yay!) This is stressing me a bit, but a dear friend just read my blog this week and has offered to loan me 2 K’Nex Education kits for Motion, Forces, and Amusement Park Explorations. That is going to be great! And I think it will help a lot!
I am just worried that I have overloaded the boys with reading materials that would present too much information too fast. However, they are old enough that elementary materials are not enough for either of them – even the on with the LDs. I think I have found 2 MORE books that might move a little slower and lighter and be more appropriate for young 7th-graders. I am waiting for them from my library to analyze. I am bummed that that might mean having bought books that we might not use this year, but they are good books, so hopefully they will be used eventually!
I still haven’t entered all of my history reading books yet, but those are pretty straight-forward and easy to enter. And I still need to enter my picture study and composer study ideas – at least choose the names that we will follow this year. I need to refer back to my CM Planner for that!
Thanks, again, for all of your help! I’ll get there eventually!
Well, y’all are welcome but I don’t recommend coming as flies–the 10yo will catch you and feed you to something. 🙂
I don’t worry too much about counting days, but then my state only requires 148 for some reason. I plan 36 weeks, but don’t stress too much if we miss a day here or there. If I had to focus on 180 days I’d probably count them too! I tend to think in “weeks” and if we miss a day, I will add a note why. Sometimes the reason is one I can count as “school” And sometimes even if we are sick, for example, we will do one or two things and so I could still probably count is as a “day”–just not a very effective day. 🙂
I’m so glad I seem “relaxed” now. I wasn’t always! I had to laugh–when I was searching for a nature study link for one of Cindy’s other questions, I found an article I wrote 8 years ago. LOL
Thank you for the link! I’ll check that out today. Is that your website? I love the fact that you have and are homeshcooling boys because it IS different than homeschooling girls and I get so much wisdom from you for the different stages of schooling pre-teen and teenage boys.
Even though we are supposed to homeschool for 180 days/year, I do have to remember that in public school, most kids don’t attend all 180 days due to illness and other factors. I am not sure what the max number of absences are allowed in our local middle school, but I forgot about that and that makes me feel better about coming up short. Maybe I should look that up and take 180, subtract the max number of absences allowed, and use that as my “minimum”!
I have to get going – work, you know. I will have more to say/ask later today, I am sure!
Also keep in mind that working one-on-one is much more efficient than trying to herd a classroom full of students all together. Your boys will probably be able to get the work done in a fraction of the time it would take a roomful.
That’s true. They really only spend 2.5-3 hours during the day on studies while I am at work (at least that was this past year) and then we spend another 45 minutes or more in the evenings, plus another 30 – 90 minutes of leisure reading at bedtime, so they definitely are not having to waste time like public schools do.
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