Place sections automatically (using The Draft Board)
This lesson comprises an optional part of master scheduling and covers how to view the current state of the master schedule, as well as how to place sections into the master schedule. The Board displays the entire master schedule with teacher names, as well as the sections for each teacher (a display that you may filter by department or timeblock/period). If you are using the automatic master schedule builder, you may start it on this page (see the next lesson/step for details).
Where to Start
1. You must be logged in under the school year and site for which you are impacting scheduling. 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.
Click the Scheduling tab near the top of your screen (1), then under Draft Schedule Management click The Draft Board (2).
You will be prompted to select a draft that you want to work with.
View the Board
Notice that teacher names are featured at the bottom of the page. However, you may opt to use the Filter function to narrow down the list of teachers you are viewing below.
Option: Use the Filter- These filters can be used individually or in conjunction with each other to narrow down list results.
- Department filter - if you only want teachers within that departments to appear on the list below.
- Period filter- (All Periods vs. Primary Periods, as in an earlier step/lesson you selected "Is Primary" for periods that are part of the "main" bell schedule, as opposed to things like 0 period or after-school periods that are not part of the main bell schedule)
- Course filter- if you only want to see a specific course to show up on the list below.
- Teacher filter- if you only want to see specific teachers on the list below.
Click Filter. 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.
Option: Remove Filter Criteria
If you later want to remove a filter, simply select Reset and then click Filter. Notice how the list of teachers has expanded to include all teachers.
If your Board is empty, it merely means no sections have yet been scheduled. Otherwise:
1. All Teachers scheduled to teach for the upcoming school year are listed in alphabetical order (by last name), with the sections they are teaching arranged by period after their names.
2. Section information- Course ID, Name
3. House- if the course is associated with a House it will state that here.
4. Periods/Timeblocks- Each section that is already scheduled appears on the Board to the right of the teacher who is scheduled to teach it, a green checkmark in a period denotes that the course is scheduled during that period. Click the section number to view section details, such as students scheduled to take it, these students' gender counts, and an edit icon that allows you to edit section information. If you previously designated that a section takes up more than one period, it will span more than one period column on the Board.
5. Terms- counts for each term/semester broken down by grade level, total, and seats left.
Notice the line between terms for each teacher. If the teacher was slated to teach a different course/section for each term, you would see this line continue to the right (as indicated by the red arrow, above), and a different course/section would appear above and below the line. Because you do not see this above, it indicates that all teachers shown are scheduled to follow the same schedule for both terms.
If you previously designated (during a previous step/lesson) a teacher as unavailable to teach during a particular period, that period will show up grey for the teacher.
Toggle Board
Toggle Board allows you to view the board in a different manner. The image on top is the default view which gives course information in its own column at left. The image on bottom is the toggled view, which shows a compressed list of teachers with course information in the period columns.
Highlight
Highlight allows you to highlight your already placed Singletons (Red), Doubletons (Yellow), and Tripletons (Tripletons).
Assign Sections
1. To assign a section (i.e., place it on the Board), click on Place Sections.
2. Click on Singletons, Doubletons, Tripletons or Everything Else in this order to place these types of courses.
3. To manually place sections, simply select it from the Sections to be placed drop-down menu and
4. Click Create a section if you aren't automatically moved to the next screen/step.
When placing singletons, doubletons, tripletons or everything else (multi-tons) you will be taken to this Run Master Scheduler page. Input how long you would like to run the scheduler for, or if you would like to 'Start Fresh'. Then click submit.
You will receive this confirmation once you click Submit to start the master scheduler.
Sections to be placed
1. To manually place sections, simply select it from the Sections to be placed drop-down menu and
2. Click Create a section if you aren't automatically moved to the next screen/step (See next step).
3. Select a teacher for which you would like to assign the section.
4 Select a room for which you would like to assign the section.
5. Select the periods you want this section to take place.
6. Click Save.
Create a Section
If you did not select a section to be placed from the dropdown menu, and clicked Create a section instead, you will get this pop up. We recommend if you are creating multiple sections, do not do it from this page, this is typically for a small number of additions. See the document 'Create, Edit, Merge and Delete a Section' for more information on creating multiple sections.
Input:
1. Select a room for which you would like to assign the section.
2. Course(s) to be linked to this section.
3. Select a teacher for which you would like to assign the section.
5. Select the period(s) you want this section to take place.
6. Click Save.
*House is optional.
Once save is clicked, you will be asked if you would like to Reload the board? This can take a few minutes, so if you are placing more sections you may want to wait and place a few more before reloading. Otherwise, click Yes.
Edit Schedule
There are many ways to make changes to your schedule. One is to click on the section number (as circled above) of a section you want to move, view its section details (such as students scheduled to take it and these students' gender counts), and then...
...click Edit Section and make any necessary changes to the section (e.g., period requirement).
You wil be taken to the Section Information page to make any edits necessary to the section. Click Save when finished.
Download
Next Steps
Proceed to the next lesson in this manual for support with the next step.