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Do you have some great scheduling tips that you think would benefit your colleagues? If so, please email Jason Vance to get them added! |
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These tips were shared by Amanda Chamberlain, former assistant principal at West HS and Sara Howell, former assistant principal at Northland HS. |
Manage The Process
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Identify your scheduling team members
Primary Master Scheduler & at least 1 backup/partner
Department Chairs, Counselors, ESL lead, Special Ed lead, other administrators
Have several “Alignment Meetings”
Beginning in early January through May/June
Suggest every 2 or 3 weeks
Identify who is responsible for what
Establish deadlines
Examine current schedule, what works, what doesn’t
What are your goals for next year?
Distribute “Wish List” to teachers (collect input from teachers regarding what they would like to teach)
Determine how course requests will be gathered
Meet with the counselors to determine a timeline.
EstablishEstablish when they want to be in classes to assist students in course selection process.
Gather requests on paper?
Example option 1: Large group setting, by cohort
Example option 2: Small group setting, by English class
Allow students/parents to enter requests via the portal?
Combination of both?
Adjust course offerings based on course requests
This is decision making time
(using numbers to justify decisions
)Course requests should drive course offerings – just because it is on the course offering sheet doesn’t mean it will be offered
Look for conflicts in the schedule and even dispersion of classes throughout the master schedule
General rule of thumb: try to offer core courses for each grade level, each period of the day
Look at trends:
For example, offering CALCULUS and AP ENGLISH 12 at the same time is probably not a good idea
Singletons (only 1 section offered
once a day) must be
looked atreviewed
do these have to occur in a specific period/room/teacher?
what is the best period to offer them in?
Review Common Planning Periods
Coaching periods
Career Center considerations
How to structure lunches?
What Special Programs do you have –
CSCCCCP / ESL / Special Ed / Inclusion / VCAP
Rooms/Space
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IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO AVOID ALL CONFLICTS!!!!!!!
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Special Ed Inclusion
Work with department chair to identify who is taking what currently and who needs what next year. (shared spreadsheet work wonderfully for managing this) Case managers must be contributing to this as well.
Avoid conflicts with inclusion sections offered and resource sections offered.
ESL Schedule
Shared spreadsheets where ESL core content teachers list who is taking what currently and what they need next year is essential.
Avoid conflicts with sections offered.
Communication with Staff
Establish
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a communication method with ALL STAFF concerning their individual schedules for the next school year
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- You CAN NOT have 60 or so
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Work with department chairs concerning the department’s schedule.
Staff should communicate their wishes/ideas to the department chair. Announce this face to face to the staff!
DO NOT have 50 individual conversations, multiple times with your
staff about their individual schedules
; this will result in chaos!
Be flexible where you can, and ask your staff to do the same - this is a collaborative effort
Ultimately, the master schedule is developed based on student need, not staff need. Announce this face to face to the staff!
!- You need to work with department chairs concerning the department schedule. They can communicate their wishes/ideas to the department chair. Announce this face to face to the staff!!
Keep an eye out for the “back door” deal making that some will try. These typically do not have the students' best interest in mind.
You can do this!!
Sure, first time through is busy and sometimes a headache.
Stay positive and communicate with
othersyour peers across the district who master
schedule…this is keyschedule…it is OK to ask for help!
Make life easy and have the master schedule set and emailed to staff before the last day of school.
Be proactive and don’t procrastinate … the end of the school year is full of activities that require your immediate attention - plan ahead and build the steps of this process into your daily/weekly schedule and STICK TO IT!