Voice Setup is the short one-off flow that teaches the TeachScribe iPad app to recognise each teacher's voice when they record classroom observations. You run it once the first time a teacher is added to your school, so that on every future observation the app knows who is speaking into the mic. The whole flow takes a few minutes minutes per teacher.
When Voice Setup appears
Voice Setup appears automatically whenever a teacher in your school still needs a voice profile. As soon as a new teacher is added, a button labelled Set up a teacher's voice shows in the top bar of the main classroom screen in the iPad app, with a red number badge showing how many teachers still need their voice recorded. The button stays there until every teacher has a completed voice profile, then it goes away.
What you need before you start
Before running Voice Setup, have these ready:
The TeachScribe external mic.
The teacher whose voice you are setting up. They need to speak the prompts themselves.
A quiet room. Voice setup captures a clean sample of the teacher's voice, so anything loud in the background lowers quality.
The teacher assigned to at least one classroom. If they are not assigned yet, the app will walk you through assigning them before voice setup can start (see Step 2 below).
Step 1: Open Voice Setup from the main classroom screen
You start Voice Setup from the main classroom screen in the TeachScribe iPad app. To open it, follow these steps:
Open the TeachScribe app.
On the main classroom screen, look at the top bar. You will see a button labelled Set up a teacher's voice with a red number badge showing how many teachers still need their voice recorded.
Tap Set up a teacher's voice. The Voice Setup list opens as a full-screen panel.
If you do not see the Set up a teacher's voice button, it means every teacher in your school already has a completed voice profile, and there is nothing to do. The button comes back automatically when your next new teacher is added.
Step 2: Pick the teacher and make sure they have a classroom
The Voice Setup list shows every teacher who still needs a voice profile, under the heading Teachers who need voice setup. To pick one, follow these steps:
Find the teacher you want to set up.
Check the small status line under their name:
Ready for setup (green tick) means they are assigned to at least one classroom and you can tap their row to start.
No classrooms assigned (orange warning) means they are not in any classroom yet, and voice setup cannot start until that is fixed.
If the status is No classrooms assigned, tap the row, pick a classroom for the teacher, then come back to the Voice Setup list. Their status updates to Ready for setup on its own.
Tap the row of a teacher whose status is Ready for setup. The app moves to the Mic Detection screen.
Once a classroom has been assigned:
Step 3: Pair the TeachScribe mic
After you tap a teacher, the app opens the Mic Detection screen and waits for the TeachScribe external mic to check in over Bluetooth. To pair the mic, follow these steps:
Hand the mic to the teacher. The screen shows "Hand the mic to Name".
Ask the teacher to press the button on the mic twice in quick succession.
Wait a moment. When the mic checks in, the screen changes to "Mic Detected!" with a green tick, the mic name, and the current battery level.
The app then moves to the Confirm Mic screen automatically.
Step 4: Record the five observation prompts
The recording screen shows five short observation prompts for the teacher to read aloud into the mic. These recordings are what TeachScribe uses to learn the teacher's voice. To complete them, follow these steps:
For each of the five prompts: press and hold the button on the TeachScribe mic, read the prompt out loud in a natural speaking voice, then release the button.
Keep going until the counter reads Recordings processed: 5/5 - there may be a slight lag between when you've recorded and when the recordings process - once you'd done all 5 and waited for 15 seconds and they should all have processed.
Tap Done.
A countdown appears at the bottom of the screen (for example, "4:45 remaining"). You have about five minutes from when you tap Start to finish all five prompts.
Tips for good recordings
To keep the recordings useful, follow these tips:
Read at a normal classroom speaking volume.
Hold the mic a few inches from the mouth, not pressed against it.
Finish each prompt in one go rather than pausing halfway through.
Stay in the same quiet room for all five recordings. Moving between rooms mid-session affects the audio.
If the you trip over a word, you can carry on. The app can handle small mistakes and a redo is not needed.
Once this is done - please go back to the how to record an observation step