This lesson comprises part of master scheduling and covers the process of establishing (in the system) when teachers will be available to teach during the day and when their "prep periods" (A.K.A. planning periods, conference periods, etc.) should occur. The automatic master schedule builder will later use this information to determine which periods are available for each teacher, as well as how many prep periods should be set aside for each teacher. If you plan to let the computer build your master schedule for you, you have to first complete this step/lesson.
Before You Get Started
1. You must be logged in under the school year for which you are impacting scheduling, as well as a specific school site. Note (in the upper-right corner of your screen) that you are now logged in under the upcoming school year.
2. If you are not, use the Change Student Set / Site in the upper corner of your screen to log in under the upcoming school year.
Where to Start
- Click Scheduling
- Under Schedule Constraints, click Teacher-Time Availability.
Or use the Quick Nav option on the Draft Overview page to access Teacher-Time Availibility.
3. Make sure to select the appropriate draft you are setting up Teacher Timeblocks for in the Select a Draft menu. Once selected, the system will automatically refresh with the current draft schedule information. No need to select Load, just yet.
Once a draft is selected, the sub navigation menu will change, adding two additional ways to navigate throughout Scheduling tools available to you.
Draft Options
A quick Draft Options menu is available one a draft was selected. Tools include to Publish, Delete, and Duplicate the draft schedule.
For more information about these tools, visit Phase 6- Publish Schedule.
Quick Nav
The Quick Nav is a quick menu that contains all of the Scheduling tools available to you, without having to leave this screen and go to Scheduling.
TIP: Don't want to leave this screen but need to visit a page in the menu? Before you select Draft Overview, hold CTRL (PC Users) or CMD (Mac Users), then click the link. It will open in a new tab, keeping you in your current one.
Teacher Filter
By default, teacher names are featured at the bottom of the page. However, you may opt to use the Teacher Filter function to narrow down the list of teachers you are viewing below.
Add Filter Criteria
You can filter the teacher list by using departments. Departments are typically set up and assignments to teachers and courses. To add Teacher Filters:
- Merely select one or more Department filter options (if you only want teachers within those departments to appear on the list from which you select teachers to add to the group).
- Select Load to refresh the list. Notice how the list of teachers is reduced. Keep in mind that districts vary in terms of their use of department labels. If nothing happens, or if no teachers appear under an appropriate department, it could be that your district has not yet assigned department labels to its teachers or courses.
TIP: If you need to select more than one teacher, 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.
Remove Filter Criteria
If you later want to remove a filter, simply select all departments in the Department filter, and then click Load. Notice how the list of teachers has expanded to include all teachers.
To select more than one teacher, 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.
Establish Teacher Availability
This is where you select each teacher's availability by timeblock. You want to select all timeblocks that teachers are available to be assigned courses and sections.
- By Individual Teacher For each teacher, place a check mark in the box of every period he or she is available to teach.
- By Timeblock, All Teachers If you want to save time and automatically populate/check (filldown) every teacher's box for a particular period (knowing you can always uncheck boxes for particular teachers afterward), simply click the checkbox at the top of a column, and the system will automatically check all the boxes in that column. If you want to do the opposite and automatically empty/uncheck every teacher's box for a particular period (knowing you can always check boxes for particular teachers afterward), simply click the checkbox at the top of a column again, and the system will automatically uncheck all the boxes in that column.
- Auto Prep Assignment If you want the master schedule builder to automatically select prep periods for a teacher, simply enter the number of prep periods the teacher should have in the box in the right-hand Auto Prep Assignment column. Note that you should still check the availability boxes for the periods that can be used as prep periods. For example, if you enter '3' the system will automatically select 3 prep periods based on the timeblock availability selected.
- Assign a Specific Prep Assignment If you would rather force the schedule to give a teacher a prep period during a specific period, simply uncheck the teacher's availability box for that particular period and leave 0 in the Prep Periods column (unless the teacher has additional prep periods that you do want the master schedule builder to automatically select). For example, only 4a is unchecked/blank within the available timeblocks. '0' would tell the system, that 4a is the teacher's prep period.
When finished, select Save to confirm changes and confirm availability.
Next Steps
Additional and optional Schedule Constraints can be customized such as 3.3 Student Restrictions (Optional), 3.4 Teacher-Course Links (Optional), or 3.5 Student-Timeblock Exclusions (Optional).
Ready to Create a Draft Schedule? Visit Phase 4 - Create and Manage a 'Draft' Schedule to get started.
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