Lesson Three - Basics
When you log into MINTclass you will see a screen similar to the one below. This screen may be pre-populated with students but this is dependent on how much setup has been done by the person responsible for MINTclass in your school.
Note: If you see a blue box when you log in, please either select a template by clicking on Change Template to the left of the screen or create a new template. Please see Creating Templates for further instruction.
Getting Familiar with the MINTclass Screen
We will start by looking and the menus and tabs on the left of the screen.
Populating a Seating Plan
Select the lesson that you wish to populate from the timetable view. Click on the Automatically Sort Students button.
Manually Adding Students to a Seating Plan
Click on the Manually Add Students button on the left of the screen. Now drag and drop each student to the desk that you wish them to be allocated to.
How to Drag and Drop
Click on the student that you wish to move, hold the mouse button down and drag the pupil to the desk that you wish to move them to and let go of the mouse button.
Once a student has been added to the seating plan they will be greyed out on the left of the screen so you cannot add them twice.
Note: If you see a blue box when you log in, please either select a template by clicking on Change Template to the left of the screen or create a new template. Please see Creating Templates for further instruction.
Getting Familiar with the MINTclass Screen
We will start by looking and the menus and tabs on the left of the screen.
Class Card
As most of you know if you click on the class code in the ‘class in view’ area (top left) you can see detailed information about that class.
We have, after receiving many requests, added the ability to print that screen. Simply open the class card and then click on the Print button in the top right-hand corner. You can still download the entire class card to Excel.
This will open the Print screen in a new window allowing you to continue using MINTclass. When you are ready to print, click on the PRINT button in the top right-hand corner of the print screen.
Populating a Seating Plan
Select the lesson that you wish to populate from the timetable view. Click on the Automatically Sort Students button.
In the Sorting Options section, you get the usual four basic types of sorting, which includes Completely Random, Random Boy/Girl, Alphabetical, and Alphabetical Boy/Girl. Underneath Alphabetical and Alphabetical Boy/Girl, you get the option to sort Front to Back and also sort Back to Front.
Under My Sorting, you can customise your sorting options. To create your own, click on the 'create new custom sort' option.
Within the first part of this section, you get to choose how you sort your students based on the data icons your school has chosen to display on the seating plan. For example, you might want to sort them first by their Current Grade and then secondly by their Behaviour Points. Sort weighting is applied in order of selection, so your first option carries twice as much weight as your second option. You can choose as many as you like, but bear in mind the more you choose the less effective the sorting seems as with so many variables it becomes more and more random.
Applying 'Alternate Boy / Girl' tells the system to create two separate sorted lists, one for each gender and then merge them after sorting to alternate.
Section two allows you to choose how they are sorted, click on one of the three options that you wish. Mix them up will attempt to separate students rather than sort them. E.g, put your high achievers next to low achievers.
Under My Sorting, you can customise your sorting options. To create your own, click on the 'create new custom sort' option.
Within the first part of this section, you get to choose how you sort your students based on the data icons your school has chosen to display on the seating plan. For example, you might want to sort them first by their Current Grade and then secondly by their Behaviour Points. Sort weighting is applied in order of selection, so your first option carries twice as much weight as your second option. You can choose as many as you like, but bear in mind the more you choose the less effective the sorting seems as with so many variables it becomes more and more random.
Applying 'Alternate Boy / Girl' tells the system to create two separate sorted lists, one for each gender and then merge them after sorting to alternate.
Section two allows you to choose how they are sorted, click on one of the three options that you wish. Mix them up will attempt to separate students rather than sort them. E.g, put your high achievers next to low achievers.
You should now see the seating plan populated with all the students in your class.
Note: the students in your class are dependant on your school's MIS. If you have missing students or additional students then the class/teaching set needs to be updated in your school MIS.
Note: the students in your class are dependant on your school's MIS. If you have missing students or additional students then the class/teaching set needs to be updated in your school MIS.
Manually Adding Students to a Seating Plan
Click on the Manually Add Students button on the left of the screen. Now drag and drop each student to the desk that you wish them to be allocated to.
How to Drag and Drop
Click on the student that you wish to move, hold the mouse button down and drag the pupil to the desk that you wish to move them to and let go of the mouse button.
Once a student has been added to the seating plan they will be greyed out on the left of the screen so you cannot add them twice.
Moving Students Around
It is very simple to move students from one desk to another by drag and drop. Click on the student that you wish to move, hold the mouse button down and drag the pupil to the desk that you wish to move them to and then let go of the mouse button.
Zooming and Panning
You can zoom in and out of MINTclass by selecting the zoom buttons or the panning screen in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
It is very simple to move students from one desk to another by drag and drop. Click on the student that you wish to move, hold the mouse button down and drag the pupil to the desk that you wish to move them to and then let go of the mouse button.
Zooming and Panning
You can zoom in and out of MINTclass by selecting the zoom buttons or the panning screen in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
Once you have zoomed in you may not be able to see all of the class. To move around the class select the panning window and move the mouse around within that box to move around the class. There is also the feature of scrolling the seating plan as shown here.
