Before you begin, create a folder on the computer to where the data files and photos will be stored. If data files will be shared with other users, creating the folder on a shared network is recommended. Contact Discovery Support for the PDE file created for SchoolMaster, and place this file in your data folder.

1. In Schoolmaster, go to Utility > Import/Export > Principalm Extract
   The Principalm Extract dialogue window appears
   
2. “Sequence” the extract (default settings recommended)
3. Select the Principalm “Folder” button to choose the folder directory. Data files and photos will be extracted to this directory.
4. Click “Export” to start the data extracts
   When complete, close out of SchoolMaster.

To automate the extract, setup a scheduled task to run dmwin.exe -principalm

Photos will be exported in .bmp format. Principalm is only compatible with .jpg formated images. If you do not know how to convert your images to .jpg, please contact Discovery Support for a JPEG converter.

You are now ready to sync data over to the handheld by running Principalm Connect. Instructions to setup Connect can be found here.

Principalm Connect installation steps:

1. Download and install Principalm Connect Install Principalm Connect on the computer you will use to transfer SIS data to your handheld. This does not have to be the same computer as the one that holds your school’s SIS database or the output SIS data files for Principalm. If you do not install Principalm Connect on the same computer where the files are located, you must have access to a Shared Network to be able to upload them to Principalm.

2. Add School(s) Click “Add my first school now….” The Add School dialog is where you enter your license information for Principalm. Licenses are entered on a per-school basis. Enter the activation key provided to you and click “OK”. For instructions on entering your license see here

3. Configure your SIS Bridge Settings The SIS Bridge configuration tells Principalm Connect where to find data exported from your administration system. Click “Choose” to select the folder you extracted the data to. Click “OK”.
   School Number Is only required for some SIS bridges. Please consult your SIS Bridge documentation for instructions on this number.

4. Configure your Student Photo settings The Student Photos settings tell Principalm Connect where to find your student photo data. Follow these steps:

• Folder – Click “Choose” to select the folder where your photos are stored. Click “OK”.
  
• Identified By – Select the data element that is used to identify your photos. Choose from – Student Number, SSN, State ID and Photo ID.
  
• Index File – If your photos are mapped to the student number using an index file, click “Choose” to select the index file.
  
• Crop photos (optional).
  
• Staff Photos (Optional) follow steps in student photo settings.

You are now ready to update your device. See Update Device instructions specific to your device platform.

We have not been able to confirm that Verizon has removed the Google Android Market from their phones (and the HTC Droid Incredible appears to have the correct market http://www.htc.com/us/support/droid-incredible-verizon/help/applications).

If you cannot find the icon for the Google Market please contact Discovery Support with the model of your phone so we can help you determine how to download Principalm.

If Verizon has removed the Google Android Market from some their newer phones, and replaced it with their own App Store: V Cast Apps, you may need to follow the instructions below:

Principalm is not currently available from V Cast Apps as we chose only to submit our application from the Google approved Android Market. This means that if you do not have access to the Android Market you may not be able to install Principalm on Android.

You can install the Google Android Market onto your phone, but this process has not been tested and we can provide no support for this process: Droid Life new Market Install.

Our support department may be able to help you install the files directly, please contact us if you are having any issues: Discovery Support.

There is a wealth of school safety and security resources available on the Internet. Although prevention and crises management tactics are extensive, five common themes tend to frequently emerge:

1. Survey the Complex for Safety and Security Improvements: This can include everything from security fences and cameras to lighting and emergency power and even Principalm+, to provide your school staff anytime, anywhere access to your student information.

2. Form a Team: In an emergency, you need to respond quickly. Ensure that every member of your team knows what role they need to perform in an emergency.

3. Set up a Communication System: Communication is vital in any crisis situation. Equip your team with two-way radios and smartphones with Principalm+ for 24/7 access to your student data (including student/staff medical information and emergency contacts).

4. Define, Publicize and Practice your Plan: Write a policy that defines what behaviors are acceptable or not acceptable in your school. Train your faculty and staff how to defuse potentially violent situations. Promote parent participation. Outline procedures for crises management. Practice those procedures regularly.

5. Improve Student Relationships: Prevention is worth a pound of cure. The best way to prevent violence, drugs, teen pregnancy, bullying and more is to get to know your students and show that you care. When students feel invisible, they will go to any limit to get attention — even negative attention. Tools like Principalm+ and LearnFaces that help eliminate anonymity, also help eliminate student deceit, truancy and other undesirable behaviors. Watch what happens when you begin to improve your student connectedness. When your students feel that you know them and that you care about their success, they begin to shine … and other problems simply fade away.

One final comment to keep in mind. Improved school safety and security doesn’t have to cost huge amounts in capital improvements that make our schools more like jails. Sometimes simple improvements can go a long way. Start with the most economical means of reducing risks, such as trimming overgrown bushes and involving parent volunteers. Make strides towards getting to know your students, and ensure that your team always has access to student emergency contacts, medical information, disciplinary notes and more … with Principalm+.

Learn more about improving your schools safety and security measures. Investigate some of the following great resources.

Canada Safety Council

The Canada Safety Council is urging all schools to have an effective emergency plan in place, and to review it annually.

Learn More: http://safety-council.org/safety/public-safety/community-safety/if-disaster-strikes-is-your-school-ready/

National School Safety Week – October 17 – 23, 2011

At the beginning of a school year, students are commuting to school by foot, by bicycle, by bus and by family car. It is a strategic time to remind all parties involved that with awareness and education, children can get to school and back home again safely.

Learn More: http://safety-council.org/campaigns/national-school-safety-week-2011/

Safe Kids Canada

Safe Kids Canada’s mission is to lead and inspire a culture of safety across the country in order to reduce unintentional injuries, the leading cause of death among children and youth in Canada. As a national leader, Safe Kids Canada uses a collaborative and innovative approach to develop partnerships, conduct research, educate and advocate to prevent serious injuries among children, youth and their families.

Learn More: http://www.safekidscanada.ca/Professionals/About-Us/Index.aspx

Tools for Schools (Health Canada)

Health Canada has developed the Tools for Schools Action Kit for Canadian Schools to help school administrators, facility planners and educators create a safe and healthy learning environment.

Learn More: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/air/in/school-ecole/index-eng.php

School Safety Earthquake Guide (BC Ministry of Education)

The purpose of this guidebook is to assist school district staff, teachers, parents, and students to make their schools safer, and to know what to do before and after an earthquake occurs in their area.

Learn More: http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/capitalplanning/resources/schoolearthquakesafetyguidebook.pdf

Responding to Critical Incidents (BC Ministry of Education)

This resource guide is intended to assist schools in developing protocols for responding to critical incidents. It focuses on proactive plans to deal with the traumatic aftereffects of a critical incident which affect some or all members of a school community.

Learn More: http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/specialed/rci/

Emergency Management for Nova Scotia Schools (Nova Scotia Ministry of Education)

The Nove Scotia Ministry of Education provides a Quick Guide and other resources for school emergency planning.

Learn More: http://www.ednet.ns.ca/index.php?t=sub_pages&cat=944

Shaping Safer Schools: A Bullying Prevention Action Plan (Ontario Ministry of Education)

This report is an action plan for principals, teachers, and other educators, students, parents, and the broader community around bullying-related issues.

Learn More: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/healthysafeschools/actionTeam/shaping.pdf

Canadian Safe School Network (CSSN)

CSSN is a national, not-for-profit, registered charitable organization with a mandate to reduce youth violence and make our schools and communities safer.

Learn More: http://www.canadiansafeschools.com/about/overview.htm

Learn More: http://www.schoolsafety.us/

Safety and Security Resources

Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools (US Department of Education)

This guide offers research-based practices designed to assist school communities in identifying warning signs early and developing prevention, intervention and crisis response plans. The guide includes sections on:

• Characteristics of a School that is Safe and Responsive to All Children
• Early Warning Signs
• Getting Help for Troubled Children
• Developing a Prevention and Response Plan
• Responding to Crisis
• Resources
• Methodology, Contributors, and Research Support

Learn More: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/gtss.html

Safeguarding Our Children: An Action Guide (US Department of Education)

The Department of Education and the Department of Justice have joined forces to create a 68-page “how-to” guidebook to help schools and communities prevent school violence. Safeguarding Our Children offers practical tips for designing and implementing school safety plans to reduce violence and help children get the services they need. Some of the main recommendations include (1) focus on improving student-teacher relationships; and (2) employ the three-stage model of prevention, early intervention, and intensive services.

Learn More: http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/actguide/index.html

Crisis Planning Guide for Schools and Communities (US Department of Education)

Both a brochure and a guide are available on this government webpage. Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Recovery are the key themes in this information booklet.

Learn More: http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/crisisplanning.html

Here are some additional websites:

• www.ed.gov/emergencyplan
• www.ready.gov/
• www.fema.gov/kids/
• www.redcross.org/services/disaster/
• www.nasponline.org

To receive information on Principalm+ please fill out our information request form.

1. Open the Market app
2. Click Search icon
3. Find CatLog (CatLog is a third party application and is not covered by Discovery Support; feel free to use another Log program if you prefer)
4. Click Free, then OK to install
5. Open your App Drawer
6. Run CatLog, click OK on message
7. In Search type Principalm
8. Click Menu button, then Save
9. Click OK to save log.
10. Assuming you have email setup on your device:
    • Click the Menu button, then Send.
    • Click “As Attachment” and then click your email program.
    • Please send the log to support@discoverysoftware.com.
11. If you do not have email:
    • Connect your device to your computer, using its USB cable.
    • Pull down Notifications, then select “USB Connected”, and finally “Turn on USB storage”. (Alternatively, some devices use these steps: A “Connect to PC” screen should be displayed on your device. Select “Disk Drive” from the list. Then click Done.)
    • On your computer, open the drive showing the contents of your card.
    • Open the “catlog_saved_logs” folder.
    • Email the latest log file to support@discoverysoftware.com.

For this to be effective, you will also want to schedule your bridge (ie, Acorn data extractor) to export data automatically. For more information please see the Automatically extract school data section here.

Then follow these steps to schedule Principalm Connect to run automatically:

1. Configure a Scheduled Task to run Principalm Connect (paths will vary based on Windows OS and Windows user account): ConnectCmd.exe -t"iPhone Update Service" -p1234 -o"C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Principalm Connect\" For details on the command line options and/or how to run the command on Mac, please click here.

2. Lastly each iPhone, iPod touch user will need to sync the new data from the computer running Connect to their device. For more information, follow the steps for transferring data here.

These logs do not contain any sensitive information. They provide a linear look at how Acorn is running and may indicate where there was a problem.

These logs can be found on the machine running Discovery’s Acorn, and are only generated after you have run Discovery’s Acorn. The logs keep a continuous record of each time Acorn is run, and will keep up to 7 days worth of logs.

Windows XP

C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\My Documents\Discovery Software\Logs\

• where [user] is the user with which you are logged on to the Windows machine.

Windows Vista and 7:

C:\Users\[user]My Documents\Discovery Software\Logs\

where [user] is the user with which you are logged on to the Windows machine.

File Naming

Acorn-YYYY-MM-DD.log

Where:
YYYY is the 4-digit year
MM is the 2-digit month
DD is the 2-digit day

File Format

This file is a text file and can be opened in Notepad.

The format of this file is as follows:

The first portion contains the header, this contains information helpful in determining when the product was built, when it was run, and indicates the start of each run instance of Acorn.

The last run will begin with the last occurrence of this header.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acorn Log File
Discovery Software Inc. (c) 2002-2011

http://www.discoverysoftware.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Built on       : Nov 12 2010 15:03:43
Generated on   : Jan 11 2011 12:20:16 PM
Version        : 1.0.5.0
               : Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 (operating system version 6.0)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the header you can see one line for each log entry:

Acorn:12:20:16: Debug         MainWindow::MainWindow: Starting App...

• First we have the Application name: Acorn
• Next the time of this log, this is useful in determining which portions are taking too long to complete.
• Next we have the log level of this log entry: Debug
• Next we have the Method reporting the log, this is internal information useful for our developers to find an issue: MainWindow::MainWindow
• Lastly We have the actual log message, this can occupy multiple lines, and may be scrambled for security purposes: Starting App…

The rest of the log contains information useful in diagnosing problems with running Discovery’s Acorn. Please contact our support department for help in diagnosing problems: Email Support

On first startup of Principalm Connect the program starts and enters either the welcome screen (first time it is run), or the Update Device screen, and the user is unable to click on any buttons switch tabs, close or minimize the program. The user still has mouse control, and can access any of their other active programs, and/or start new ones.

Users affected: Windows XP (possibly Vista and Windows 7 as well, but no confirmed users), running Sophos EndPoint ( http://www.sophos.com/ )

Possible Causes:

1. Sophos users: Sophos appears to block some execution of Principalm once it begins, this causes Principalm to stop responding.

Solution:

We are working with Sophos on a full solution to this issue, in the interim we have a workaround, but this is only for advanced users, please contact our support department for help with this problem ( Discovery Support ):
1. Start Task Manager: hit Cntrl-Shift-ESC or Start Menu->Run (or search in Vista/7)); type “taskmgr” ENTER
2. Click on process tab, sort by name
3. find Connect.exe, click on it, and click End Process
4. Close the Task Manager

WARNING: modifying the windows registry is for advanced users. Please refer to this Microsoft article detailing information and warnings about how to edit the registry: Windows Registry Information

1. Once you have read the above, and are comfortable, please continue
2. Start Regedit: Start->Run/Search; Type “regedit”
3. Find this Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\AppInit_DLLs
4. Remove this text from the key: C:\PROGRA~1\Sophos\SOPHOS~1\SOPHOS~1.DLL
5. You may need to Restart your Windows Machine, but you can try running principalm Connect without doing so
6. Close Regedit.
7. Principalm Connect should now work fine

As mentioned above this is only a workaround, provided to us by Sophos.  If you have contacted our support department we can provide you with a full solution once it is available.

Included in this release:

• Support for Contacts, Classes and Conduct for Android
• Contacts module for iPhone OS devices (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad)
• Attendance and Scheduling for iPhone OS devices (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad)
• User profiles in Principalm+ Connect
• BlackBerry users will now see a map when an address is clicked
• Additional command line functionality for more flexibility with automated scheduling.

Who Should Upgrade to Principalm+ v7.6?

Users in schools and districts that wish to use compatible Android or iPhone OS devices should download and install this release.

If your school or district does not use Android or iPhone OS devices, you may elect not to install Principalm+ v7.6.

Features of the Android OS release

Contacts

• Contact maps, find a student, staff member, or contact’s location and directions easily
• Demographics and school details
• Contacts and emergency contacts (view, dial, send an email)
• Medical and legal notes
• Locker numbers and combinations
• License plates

Classes

• Students Schedules, with classes listed by Term and Day
• Class lists: See class details and lists of students registered in a class
• Student Grades

Conduct

• View conduct incidents including all pertinent details
• View outcomes of a given incident

Features of the iPhone OS Contacts module

• District Search, find students and staff across your entire district in an instant
• Contact maps, find a student, staff member, or contact’s location and directions easily
• Demographics and school details
• Contacts and emergency contacts (view, dial, send an email)
• Medical and legal notes
• Locker numbers and combinations
• License plates

Note: Conduct and Classes modules for iPhone are in development for a Spring 2011 release.

Principalm+ continues to support Palm Classic, Windows Mobile devices, and BlackBerry devices running OS 4.3 or newer.

Learn more

• Screenshots and overview
• Full feature list
• Knowledge base
• Principalm FAQ