Using TESS on a Network

When TESS is installed, it is usually installed on the C: drive of your PC, either in C:\TESS\ or C:\Program Files\TESS

During installation, other files which are required to run TESS are installed in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32.

To use TESS on a network, and allow other users to run TESS and share access to the same database, you can either use a file-server, or share the TESS folder over the network.

Instructions for sharing your TESS folder over the network (if you don’t have a file-server).

On the main PC where you already have TESS installed, click the File Explorer icon at the bottom of the screen:

In File Explorer, click on This PC (on the left), so you can see the drives on your PC:

Double-click on the C: drive, so you can see the folders on your PC.

Look for the C:\TESS folder.

Right-click on the C:\TESS folder and choose “Properties” (at the bottom).

Under TESS properties, click on the Sharing tab.
In the Network File and Folder sharing section, check the box to Share this folder on the network.

Then choose the people to share the folder – you can choose Everyone to allow all network users, or select other users. Then click Share.

You should now see something like this:

Make a note of the location (for example \\HARTS-ONE\tess\) – this is the name of the server and folder that will be seen by other PCs on the same network. Your server or PC will have a different name.

Click Done. TESS is now shared on the network.
To run TESS on another PC connected to the network:

On the other PC click the File Explorer icon at the bottom of the screen:

In File Explorer, look in the left column and scroll down until you see the Network folder, then click Network:

In the Network folder you will see the main computer (for example Harts-one) – on your network it will be different.

When you find it, double click it and look for the TESS folder.

Locate the TESS folder and open it. Locate the TESS.EXE program. You can drag the TESS.EXE to your desktop to create a short-cut.

In order to run TESS properly, you will need to install some registry files. Download the registry files from here:

https://harts.systems/tessupdates/tess_registry_install_2015_07_08.exe
Download and run this file and it will install all the registry files that are required.

Now you have TESS setup to run on this PC, and it will be using the same folder and the main computer so the data is shared. You can repeat this process on other PCs to run TESS.

At the end of the process, TESS will be installed, and a short-cut to run TESS from the shared network folder has been created.

What Administrators Should Know About Remote Learning

Many schools around the world are striving to offer students effective and equitable distance learning in light of the current global situation. Administrators have had to support teachers in their to move from classroom to remote learning, and ensure students continue to learn and connect with their teachers and fellow students.

With a well-developed online learning program, teachers can offer their course curriculum remotely and ensure students succeed academically away from the classroom. A effective remote learning program that offers students a real learning experience takes a significant amount of time and planning to develop.

Below are some obstacles administrators need to consider:

Do All Students Have Access to eLearning?

Many schools are able to provide students with devices to use at home, but they may not have access to high-speed internet. Portable wifi hotspots can enable these students to connect devices such as laptops, computers or tablets to the internet.

A single online hub should be established for students to visit for up-to-date information. A single online hub allows students to feel comfortable visiting the same site and using the same online tools.

Is the Bandwidth Sufficient

School administrators and district leaders should work with their vendors to ensure sufficient server capacity and system monitoring. The networks must be able to handle the increased bandwidth required to access the student information systems (SIS) and learning management systems (LMS).

Students with Learning Needs

Distance learning programs should meet the needs of all students, including those with learning needs. Assistive technologies including devices, software and services that are used to improve the capabilities of students with learning needs. Administrators must also consider how students’ individualized education plans (IEPs) will be implemented through remote learning.

Parental Involvement and Communication

For younger students, their parents and guardians will likely be the ones supervising their learning in an online environment. Therefore, communication with parents is critical, particularly when online learning is being implemented for the first time.

If online learning is being used for extended periods of time, video conferencing tools such as Zoom or Google Meet should be considered for engaging parents. Holding online meetings with parents to address their questions and concerns is critical.

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Approach

A synchronous approach means online learning with classes corresponding to a regularly scheduled school day (e.g. online learning as a group to maintain social connections). An asynchronous approach means students will have minimal contact with teachers (projects are assigned and materials are made available online). A hybrid approach incorporates both the synchronous approach and asynchronous approach. Factors to consider:
1. Number of teachers
2. School and class sizes
3. Sufficient access to technology for educators and students
4. Training required by staff, students and parents

Supporting Educators

A successful transition to remote learning requires teachers to be prepared to use digital tools and to manage their classes online. The type of training and its delivery must be considered. Technical support and assistance must be provided to staff when it is required.

TESS/WebTESS

TESS/WebTESS is a integrated suite of student information and learning modules. TESS/WebTESS will help your school manage student and staff data, communicate effectively with parents, students and teachers, and meet all of your data management and record collection requirements.

Online Teaching Tips for Teachers

Online learning has become a necessary tool for educators and students in the current environment. Here are some tips that may to help teachers navigate the move to remote learning.

Keep It Simple

Develop online learning experiences with clear instructions and expectations, try to use one or a maximum of two resources. Clear objectives will promote student engagement and participation.

Online learning, in general, is more effective for review. Focus on what students have already learned, rather than introducing new material. For new information, break it up over several shorter lessons.

Create an Online Hub

Establish a single online hub for students to visit for up-to-date information. The online hub may be a learning management system provided by the district or the school (e.g. WebTESS, Google Classrooms or Microsoft Teams), or it can a class website that you create. A single online hub allows students to feel comfortable visiting the same site and using the same online tools.

Synchronous Learning

It is important to balance both synchronous and asynchronous learning. Online learning as a group allows teachers and students to maintain social connections. Don’t try to replicate a regular school day, you may find that it is ineffective through remote learning.

Asynchronous Learning

Focus on assignments that are longer term with clear milestones and reporting points. Keep students engaged by allowing them opportunities to make their own choices and have discussions with friends and family.

Assign projects and activities for students to work on offline to decrease the amount of time students spend in front of their screens. Offline tasks are also a great way to engage students without electronic devices or internet access, or who can’t sit still in front of a screen for extended periods of time.

Consistant Contact with Students

Check-in with students regularly via telephone calls, emails, chat messages, video conferences, etc. Establish a structure that works for you and stick with it.

TESS/WebTESS

TESS/WebTESS is a integrated suite of student information and learning modules. TESS/WebTESS will help your school manage student and staff data, communicate effectively with parents, students and teachers, and meet all of your data management and record collection requirements.

Publications for School Administrators

Canadian Association of Principals

Comprehensive School Health Programs (Fall 2019)

Authentic Learning and The Changing Student (Spring 2019)

Marijuana Legalization: how will this impact our schools? (Winter 2019)

Technology Leader or Leading Technology (Fall 2018)

Hot Topics in Education (Spring 2018)

Keeping Your Students Safe and Secure (Winter 2018)

National Association of Elementary School Principals

The Principal’s Guide to Leadership (Nov/Dec 2019)

Personalized Learning (Sep/Oct 2019)

Assessment & Feedback (May/Jun 2019)

Recruiting & Retaining Teachers (Mar/Apr 2019)

An Aligned Learning Experience (Jan/Feb 2019)

Safe & Healthy Schools (Nov/Dec 2018)

National Association of Secondary School Principals

Distributed Leadership from the Top (December 2019)

NASSP’s 2019 Assistant Principal of the Year (September 2019)

Catholic Principals’ Council

Ethical Leadership (Fall 2019)

Change Makers (Summer 2019)

Shared Leadership (Winter 2018)

Equity (Fall 2018)

Support Services and Human Resource Management (Summer 2018)

Association of California School Administrators

The Many Forms of Crisis (Nov/Dec 2019)

The Generation of Leaders (Sep/Oct 2019)

BC Principals’ and Vice-Principals’ Association

Fall 2019

Summer 2019

Spring 2019

Fall 2018

June 2018

February 2018

Ontario Principals’ Council

Lead to Include (October 2019)

Managing Challenging Interactions with Parents (June 2019)

Starling Minds (February 2019)

Culturally Responsive Leadership (October 2018)

A 20-year Evolution(June 2018)

Traumatic Events (February 2018)

Setting Up Tomcat for SSL – Part 1

The core function of an SSL certificate is to protect server-client communication. On installing SSL, every bit of information is encrypted. This means that all the communication and data transfer between your web-server and your users’ web browsers is secure.

The second primary task of an SSL certificate is to provide authentication to a website. This means that your users can be certain they are connected to your web-site.

Webtess runs on the Apache Tomcat web-server software. To set it up to use a SSL certificate, you will need to change the configuration of the server.xml file, and use the Java keytool function to create a keystore file, generate a certification request and import the SSL certificate.

Getting started:

On your web-server, locate your Java Runtime Environment folder. Usually this is in c:\program files (x84)\java\jre6. Inside this folder is another folder called \bin. The keytool.exe program is located here.

Start by adding this folder to the Path settings in your Windows environment variables:

1. Open Windows File Export and locate This PC – right click on This PC, and choose properties. You should see this window:

2. Click on Advanced system settings.

3. Click on Environment variables.

4. In the System variables, find Path, and click Edit…

5. Click New, and type in the name of the Java Runtime environment folder. (Example: C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\)

Setting Up Tomcat for SSL – Part 2

Create keystore file and generate a SSL certificate request:

Now that you have added this folder to the Path, it is easier to use the keytool program to create a keystore file and generate a SSL certificate request.

Click the Windows button and run the CMD.EXE (command line) program

Then create a folder where you will save the keystore file, along with the various certificate files. For example: C:\SSL\

1. Now start by creating the keystore file using this command:

keytool -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048
        -keystore tomcat.keystore
        -dname “CN=yourdomainname, OU=shortname, O=schoolname, L=yourcity,
                ST=yourstate, C=yourcountry”

 
In this example, change “yourdomainname” to the domain name you are using for your web-site. Change shortname to a short abbreviation for your school or company name. Change schoolname to your school name or company name. Change yourcity, yourstate, yourcountry to your location.

When you run this command, it will ask for a password – enter a new password, then re-enter the password, then press RETURN for the key password. Write down the password somewhere safe – you will need it! This will create a file called tomcat.keystore which will contain your certificate request, and also eventually contain your SSL certificate.

2. Next, generate the certificate request file:

keytool -certreq -alias tomcat -file tomcat.csr

 
When you run this command, you will have to enter your password used in the previous command. This will create a file tomcat.csr – this is a plain text file containing the certificate request, which you will send to the SSL provider. Usually the SSL provider will then verify your domain by sending an email to the admin email of your domain name. Check with your network administrator to make sure you have an email account.

3. Once your SSL provider has verified your domain, they will send you the certificate.

This usually consists of 1 file, containing 2 parts, or 2 separate files. The separate files should contain the “root” certificate and the “intermediate” certificate. If you get only 1 file, it will contain both parts, which you can edit using Notepad and split into the 2 separate parts and then save as 2 separate files.

Once you have the files, save them into the c:\ssl folder where the keystore file is located, and name them tomcat-crt.txt and tomcat-intermed.txt

4. Now you can import the files into your keystore file as follows:

Start with the intermediate file:

keytool -import -alias intermed -keystore tomcat.keystore -trustcacerts
        -file tomcat-intermed.txt

 
And then the root file:

keytool -import -alias tomcat -keystore tomcat.keystore -trustcacerts
        -file tomcat-crt.txt

 
5. If all goes well, your tomcat.keystore file now contains the completed SSL certificate.

Configuring Tomcat to use the SSL:

On your web-server, you will need to locate the server.xml file which is usually found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache\Tomcat\conf

The server.xml is a plain text file which you can open with Notepad

Look through the file and find the section for

Then, replace that section with this:

<Connector port=”443″
           protocol=”org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol”
           minSpareThreads=”5″
           maxSpareThreads=”75″
           enableLookups=”true”
           disableUploadTimeout=”true”
           acceptCount=”100″
           maxThreads=”200″
           scheme=”https”
           secure=”true”
           SSLEnabled=”true”
           keystoreFile=”[c:\ssl\tomcat.keystore]”     
           keystorePass=”[yourpassword]”
           clientAuth=”false”
           sslProtocol=”TLS” />

 
Make sure you use the same password that you used when you created the keystore file.

Save the changes. And then stop/restart the Tomcat service on the server.
The SSL certificate should now be installed and functional. You can verify this by using the https://yourdomainname address in a web-browser and see that it shows a secure connection.

TESS Backups

We highly recommend that you have a viable backup to prevent unexpected data loss or database corruption.

If possible, ask your IT department to back up your data on a daily and monthly basis.

If you don’t have an IT department, you can use the Automatic Backup in Tess under the Security menu.

Setup the frequency of the backups and whether TESS should run the backup when you log in, or as you sign out. Depending on the amount of data, this may take a few minutes.

Automatic backups are not deleted, you can go into the Automatic Backup menu to and select specific files to delete. From time to time, you should also copy these files to an external USB drive just in case the backup location becomes inaccessible.

Cyberbullying tips and prevention

With children having more access to the Internet and social media becoming more ingrained in our lives, cyberbullying has become a major issue in our communities that affects people of all ages.

Prevention tips

  • Teach children about online safety practices and put them into practice yourself.
  • Even if you use anti-virus software, never open links from strangers as they may contain viruses. It’s always easier to prevent getting a virus rather than trying to remove one.
  • Never send or post private information or images. Once posted, they are nearly impossible to erase.
  • Change passwords at least once a year and choose a secure password to help prevent accounts from being hacked or hijacked.
  • Sit with your children while they’re engaging in online activities and their virtual friends. It will give you something to talk about and allow you to encourage healthy friendships.
  • At home, set daily time limits for using connected devices. Keep them involved in social activities with family and friends.
  • Familiarize yourself with the websites or apps children are using. It’s important to review the privacy settings. For example, make sure location settings are turned off. The public won’t be able to determine where the child lives or places they frequent.

Awareness

  • Watch for signs of bullying. For example, behavior changes or a sudden worsening of grades.
  • If bullying happens online, keep a record of it, like a screen shot of a conversation and report it to authorities if necessary.
  • If someone is being bullied, don’t respond and block them from social media.
  • Teach children that reporting bullying will keep people safe, it should not be related to any type of punishment or the negative connotations associated with tattletales.
  • Counsellors can work with both the bully and the victim of bullying by listening to each child’s needs and working out a compromise.

Our products

TESS Counsellor System gives counsellors access to select student data, giving them an overview of their students’ progress while they’re at their desk.

WebTESS Student Dashboard allows users to quickly view student information at a glance from any web browser.

How to Reduce Teacher Shortages

Teacher supply shortages are a real problem in many countries, states and districts, particularly in fields such as English, mathematics, science and special education. The problem is especially pronounced in low-income communities.

In some states, policymakers are implementing short-term strategies to meet the teacher shortages, which exacerbate, rather than solve, the problem. For example, some states have lowered their standards to allow untrained teachers to be hired in order to meet demand. When states and districts put untrained or unqualified teachers into classrooms to fill vacancies, they leave at 2 to 3 times the rate of teachers who are fully prepared.

Teacher Demand Trends

The demand for teachers is rising as a result of changes in student enrollment, student-student ratios and teacher attrition.

  • According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) the population of school-aged students will increase by about 3 million students in the next decade.
  • Districts are trying to lower student-teacher ratios.
  • Teacher attrition is responsible for the largest share of annual demand.

Teacher Supply Trends

The supply is uncharacteristically low and has been decreasing.

  • Projections that incorporate historical data on the teacher pipeline and teacher re-entrants indicate a declining trend in the teacher supply.

Implication of Attrition

Reducing teacher attrition is just as important as attracting more teachers to the profession. According to the Learning Policy Institute, teacher attrition accounts for up to 90% of annual teacher demand. Decreasing annual attrition by just 50-percent could all but eliminate teacher shortages. High turnover rates result in high costs of recruiting for the same position, which is estimated to be over $15,000 per teacher.

Understanding the reasons for teachers leaving the profession is key to reducing teacher attrition.

  • According to the Learning Policy Institute, less than one-third of teachers leaving their profession each year is due to retirement. Most teachers leaving their profession voluntarily cite dissatisfaction as a key reason.
  • Teachers in high-poverty and high-minority schools have higher attrition rates.
  • For most regions, teacher attrition is higher in cities than in suburban areas.
  • Teachers are twice as likely to leave the profession when there is a lack of support from administrators.
  • Other factors associated with high attrition include the quality of school leadership, opportunities for professional learning, instructional leadership and time for planning and collaboration.

How to Relieve Teacher Shortages

In trying to solve teacher supply shortages, a long-term solution focuses on recruitment and retention.

  1. Competitive and equitable compensation to offer teachers a reasonable wage across all communities. Offer incentives to make living as a teacher more affordable, including housing and childcare support.
  2. Targeted training subsidies to enhance the supply of qualified teachers. Offer loan forgiveness and scholarships to retain teachers in high-need fields and locations in exchange for commitments of 3 to 5 years of service. In areas of high housing costs, provide relief to teachers with capital grants and loans to develop non-market housing and/or offer housing allowances.
  3. Improve mentoring, working conditions and career development to reduce teacher attrition. Offer mentoring and induction programs to increase retention, confidence and problem solving capacities, and decrease isolation. Create supportive working conditions. Create principal training to ensure productive teaching and learning environments are fostered.
  4. Enable teacher mobility by eliminating interstate barriers (e.g. licensing barriers and pension rules) so surpluses in one state can satisfy shortages in another.
  5. Shorten the salary grid (removing the lowest three or four steps on the grid) to make starting wages more competitive.

Sutcher, L., Darling-Hammond, L., and Carver-Thomas, D. (2016). A Coming Crisis in Teaching? Teacher Supply, Demand, and Shortages in the U.S. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.

Darling-Hammond, Linda. (2017, May 9). We Can Solve Teacher Shortages. Here’s How. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/we-can-solve-teacher-shortages-heres-how_b_59114ac7e4b056aa2363d899

British Columbia Teachers’ Federation. (2018). Education Funding [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/Publications/Briefs/BCTFEducationFundingBrief2018.pdf

TESS Health records and reports on student health-related data for 6 critical health categories:

  • Alert situations
  • Medical Contacts
  • Medical Conditions
  • Medical/Dental Screenings
  • Treatments administered
  • Vaccinations

Health System enables your school to track important student health data and generate timely and informative reports, including individual student health summary reports. Health records are protected from unauthorized users through TESS Security.

Health System works with TESS LetterWriter, CallOut and eMailOut to inform parents of upcoming screenings and vaccinations.