1. The Puzzlement of Scheduling

2. This afternoon’s goals: To review the purpose of your schedule To help you identify the unique factors at your school that impact your schedule To help you set priorities so that you can achieve the purpose of your schedule To explore options that will help you achieve this To start building your schedule and involve your teachers in schedule building

3. Intended Benefits of Today Introduce one thought process that can be used for scheduling. Get feedback and ideas from colleagues in similar situations Begin to practice the process by building a schedule.

4. The Main Thing is Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing: Master schedules should primarily benefit kids Teacher friendly schedules certainly can have beneficial impact on kids Ideally, we can meet both needs(but not always)

5. The Big Picture Factors Priorities Options

6. Each School Has Unique Factors: “What are the cards I’ve been dealt?”

7. Size of student population, Number of teaching staff. Required (core) classes Flexibility of teachers to teach multiple subjects Shared ES/HS/MS teachers Additional programs/subjects outside of class (assembly, advisory) Grade configuration Shared facilities for instruction Facility capacity (lunchroom, shared classrooms) Extension/support abilities/options

8. It’s all about Priorities “What are my non-negotiables?”

9. Possible Priorities Common planning time for departments or teams Kids mixing in classes Heterogeneous groupings Shared blocks for cross grade subjects (choir, band, languages, math) Teacher preps balanced Teacher assignments (vertical and horizontal articulation)

10. Some Framing Options/ Considerations Block Schedule? Mon- Friday Schedule? Length and number of periods per day? Rotation? Trimesters/Semesters? Length of day cycle? (4 day, 6 day etc.)

11. Time to start building For this exercise, there are two choices: Start with what you have Or Go for what you want

12. Groups Block Monday-Friday Other

13. How to Begin: Step 1:Outline the grid on your table to resemble your schedule’s structure Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6 Period 7 Period 8 6A 6B 7A 7B 8A 8B

14. MonTuesWedThursFri 6A 6B 7A 7B 8A 8B

15. Step 2:Color code your subjects Math Sci LA SS PE Art Music Drama Health Elec

16. Step 3: Label your tiles with teacher initials (note: the number of tiles per teacher= his/her maximum teaching load) PS ET MW Pam Smith teaches 5 periods of math over a 2 day cycle Earl Turko teaches 5 periods of math over a 2 day cycle Mark Walsh teaches 5 periods of math over a 2 day cycle

17. How to Begin: Step 1:Outline the grid on your table to resemble your schedule’s structure Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6 Period 7 Period 8 PSMWElec 6A 6B 7A 7B 8A 8B

18. Until it looks something like this:

19. Begin with your priority list. Look at your factors. (what can I change, what can’t I change) Decide which option will meet your priorities and work with your factors.

20. Recapping Intended Benefits Introducing one thought process that can be used for scheduling. Get feedback and ideas from colleagues in similar situations Begin to practice the process by building a schedule.