Houses are an optional feature, designed to allow you to divide your students, sections, and/or teachers into smaller communities. Houses are also sometimes referred to as small learning communities.Houses are in essence schools or programs within a school.
A few notes about Houses:
1. Course Requests are required for a student to be placed in a House.
2. Students within a House (e.g. Gryffindor) will be scheduled with teachers/sections that belong to that same house. For example, if student Harry is in Gryffindor House and you build sections linked to Gryffindor, then Harry will get classes linked to Gryffindor when you run the mass student scheduler.
3. Once a student has been assigned to a House, the scheduler will not schedule them into sections (or with teachers) from other houses.
4. Some sections (e.g., electives) may be "house-less" (not affiliated with a house); these are open to all students, regardless of the student's house.
5. The master scheduler (the tool that builds sections) does not support Houses. So you will have to build your sections tied to a house. Once sections are tied to a house and students are in houses, the mass student scheduler as mentioned above will place students in the appropriate sections.
6. You may opt to let Illuminate mass assign students to a particular house. Look for the option to "Use automated student houses" when running the mass student scheduler.
7. Students do not remain in a house from year to year by default. If your district keeps students in a house for their entire student career and you would like Illuminate to copy students' house assignments from the previous year send in a request to help@illuminateed.com.
Where to Start
1. You must be logged in under the school year for which you are impacting scheduling, as well as a specific school site. Confirm in the Control Panel that you are now logged in under the upcoming school year.
2. If you are not, use the Change Student Set / Site in the Control Panel to log in under the upcoming school year.
3. Click the Scheduling tab.
4.Under Draft Schedule Management, click Draft Houses.
If the Draft Schedules page prompts you to select a draft first, simply select the Current Schedule Version for which you are adding the house.
Create a House
Click Create New House.
1. Enter a House Name for the house.
2. Click Submit.
Add Students to House
Note that you may opt to let Illuminate's automated scheduler assign students to houses (that you set up ahead of time with this lesson) for you. See the "Use automated student houses" description in the "STEP 20 (Site): Manage Student Schedules via Mass Scheduling (Student Loader)" lesson if you are interested in how that works.
Notice that you may select student names at the bottom of the page. However, you may opt to use the Filter Students function to narrow down the list of students you are viewing below.
Option: Use the Filter
Merely select one or more Grade Levels (if you only want students in those grades to appear on the list from which you select students to add to the house), and/or select one or more Student Programs (if you only want students in those programs to appear), and then click Filter Students. Notice how the list of students is reduced.
If you need to select more than one grade level and/or more than one program, simply hold down the Ctrl key on your PC keyboard (or Command key on your Mac keyboard) to click multiple selections, or hold down the Shift key on your PC or Mac keyboard to select all options listed between (and including) the 2 options you click.
Option: Remove Filter Criteria
If you later want to remove a filter, simply select all Grade Levels and/or all Student Programs, then click Filter Students. Notice how the list of students has expanded to include all students.
To select more than one grade level and/or more than one program, simply hold down the Ctrl key on your PC keyboard (or Command key on your Mac keyboard) to click multiple selections, or hold down the Shift key on your PC or Mac keyboard to select all options listed between (and including) the 2 options you click.
1. Click on the name of any student you want to add to the house. If you want to select/add more than one name at once, simply hold down the Ctrl key on your PC keyboard (or Command key on your Mac keyboard) to click multiple selections, or hold down the Shift key on your PC or Mac keyboard to select all options listed between (and including) the 2 options you click. Note that you may return to this step at a later time to add more students.
Add/Remove Students from a House
2. Click Add to add students from the Available Students list. In the top box, click on the name of any student you want to add to the house. To add/select more than one name at once, simply hold down the Ctrl key on your PC keyboard (or Command key on your Mac keyboard) to click multiple selections, or hold down the Shift key on your PC or Mac keyboard to select all options listed between (and including) the 2 options you click.
3. Click Remove to remove students from the Linked students list. In the bottom box, click on the name of any student you want to remove from the house. If you want to select/remove more than one name at once, simply hold down the Ctrl key on your PC keyboard (or Command key on your Mac keyboard) to click multiple selections, or hold down the Shift key on your PC or Mac keyboard to select all options listed between (and including) the 2 options you click.
When you are finished selecting students, click Submit.
Add Teachers to House
Only add a teacher to a house if all of his or her sections should be tied to a house (meaning that only a particular house's students may take any of the teacher's sections).
If the house is not open already, click its name to open it.
Click Manage House Teachers.
1. Click on the name of any teacher you want to add to the house. If you want to select/add more than one name at once, simply hold down the Ctrl key on your PC keyboard (or Command key on your Mac keyboard) to click multiple selections, or hold down the Shift key on your PC or Mac keyboard to select all options listed between (and including) the 2 options you click. Note that you may return to this step at a later time to add more teachers.
2. Click the green Add arrow button.
Notice how the name(s) you selected moved to the bottom box. Any names in this box have been added to the house.
Remove Teachers from House
1. In the bottom box, click on the name of any teacher you want to remove from the house. If you want to select/remove more than one name at once, simply hold down the Ctrl key on your PC keyboard (or Command key on your Mac keyboard) to click multiple selections, or hold down the Shift key on your PC or Mac keyboard to select all options listed between (and including) the 2 options you click.
2. Click the red remove arrow button.
Notice how the name(s) you selected have been removed from the bottom box. Only names remaining in this box are being added to the house.
When you are finished selecting teachers, click Submit.
Remember: If a teacher is added to a house, all the sections that he or she teaches will become part of that same house. If you need to assign only a few of a teacher’s sections to a house, follow the steps in the "Add Sections to House" section, below.
Add Sections to House
Adding sections to houses allows you to pick and choose sections for multiple teachers that should be affiliated with the selected house.
If the house is not open already, click its name to open it.
Click Manage House Sections.
1. Click on the name of any section you want to add to the house. If you want to select/add more than one section at once, simply hold down the Ctrl key on your PC keyboard (or Command key on your Mac keyboard) to click multiple selections, or hold down the Shift key on your PC or Mac keyboard to select all options listed between (and including) the 2 options you click. Note that you may return to this step at a later time to add more sections.
2. Click the green add arrow button.
Notice how the section(s) you selected moved to the bottom box. Any sections in this box have been added to the house.
Remove Sections from House
1. In the bottom box, click on the name of any section you want to remove from the house. If you want to select/remove more than one section at once, simply hold down the Ctrl key on your PC keyboard (or Command key on your Mac keyboard) to click multiple selections, or hold down the Shift key on your PC or Mac keyboard to select all options listed between (and including) the 2 options you click.
2. Click the red remove arrow button.
Notice how the section(s) you selected have been removed from the bottom box. Only sections remaining in this box are being added to the house.
When you are finished selecting sections, click Submit.
Next Steps
Proceed to the next lesson in this manual for support with the next step.