teacherhelper 1.0.0

Useful abstractions and CLI to make teaching more scriptable.

Overview

This is a library of stuff that I have, used to automate my work as a teacher. For the most part, it's been the primary means for me learning object oriented programming, and has had a history of massive revision as I continue to learn and fix my mistakes. Most recently, in late summer 2021, I deleted most of the project except the parts I actually use, and I plan to continue adding to it throughout this school year; hopefully adding some things that are actually useful!

Installation

You can install this package via pip:

pip install teacherhelper

Of course, there is some additional work involved in importing your school data. See CORE.md.

Usage

Once installed, the th command provides the following CLI utility:

usage: th [-h] [--student STUDENT] [--parent PARENT] [--new]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --student STUDENT, -s STUDENT
                        Lookup a student and print the result
  --parent PARENT, -p PARENT
                        Lookup a parent and print the result
  --new                 Regenerate the database by parsing student.csv and parent.csv in the $HELPER_DATA directory.

API

The Helper object provides an object oriented interface for accessing the imported data as well as sending emails if the optional EMAIL_USERNAME and EMAIL_PASSWORD environment variables are set. This makes any kind of scripting involving school information much more accessible.

from teacherhelper import Helper

name = 'tommey'  # Timmy needs a typing lesson, but this library is great for
                 # data bunging!

# **************************************************
# ==== Student Information System inside Python ====
# **************************************************

# after following the setup steps in ./docs/CORE.md, this "just works," making
# it super easy to interact with student information from any python script
helper = Helper.read_cache()

result = helper.find_nearest_match(name)  # -> Union[Student, None]
if result:
    print(result)
else:
    print(f'{name} not found')

# there is also an `exhaustive_search` method which allows you to search within
# subgroups of students at a lower confidence level, allowing dirtier data to
# be more usable if you know that you are looking at a particular homeroom,
# for example
name = 'toezmmy'  # come on Tommy
tommy_homeroom = helper.homerooms["Tommy's Teacher"].students
result = helper.exhaustive_search(name, tommy_homeroom, threshold=40)
if result:
    print(result)
else:
    print(f'{name} not found')

# the find_parent method, returns a *student* searched for by parent name
parent = 'Lisa Tommymom'
result = helper.find_parent(name)
if result:
    # you can still refer back to the parent from the student, if needed
    parent_name = result.primary_contact.name
    parent_email = result.primary_contact.email


# **************************************************
# ==== Send Emails Easily ====
# **************************************************

from teacherhelper import Email

# don't forget our variables defined above
tommy = result

with Email(username="[e-mail]", password="supersecret") as eml:
    eml.send(
        to=tommy.primary_conteact.email,
        subject="Tommy Needs Spelling Help",

        # the emailer supports markdown input, and will inject the resulting
        # html into a default template, or a template that you can create!
        message=f"""Hello Ms. {tommy.primary_contact.name},

I noticed that {tommy.first_name} spelled his name like "tommey" on an
assignment recently. Here are some spelling tools I would recommend:

## List of Spelling Tools

| Name                      | Website                          |
| ------------------------- | -------------------------------- |
| Khan Academy              | https://www.khanacademy.org/     |
| Grammarly                 | https://www.grammarly.com/       |
| Webster Dictionary Online | https://www.merriam-webster.com/ |
"""
        cc=result.email
    )

Setup and Additional Docs

See ./docs