Classroom Schedule Planning Page

Planning presents you with tools for adding blocks to your schedule as well as moving them around and checking validity.

Overview

• The Title area contains buttons to move back to the Master Schedule or to another grade level.
• The work area at the top contains the tools.
• Under the work area is the actual planning calendar with hours depicted down the left side and days/sections across the top.

Planning Tools

Undo

This should reverse whatever action you just took. The behavior here may not be perfectly reliable, but the software will do its best to undo whatever move you just applied to class assignments.

Valid?

This button runs the validator logic against your schedule and generates a summary report for problems that it finds.

There is a link to the full details, in case you have many errors detected.

Create Blocks

This tool enables you to add blocks to the schedule for this grade level for whatever purpose. You set the title, days, time, duration, color, and whether it’s for the entire grade or just one section. This is useful for core classes, pull-outs, recess, etc.

Edit Entry

This tool asks you to click on a block to edit. It then will permit you to change the color, date, start time, and duration to whatever custom value you wish.

You cannot edit lunches and specials on this screen, because they affect the master schedule.

Delete Block

This tool asks you to click on a block to delete. It then will show you the details for the block you selected and present a button to actually delete the block.

If the block is a main block created by the setup process, you will not be allowed to delete it. Only custom blocks may be deleted. The logic there is that if you told setup that you need that block, ESSMaker wants to guarantee you schedule everything you said you need.

Shift Times

This tool will shift a designated time window of your master schedule a certain number of minutes, either earlier or later.

Exchange

This tool permits you to switch parts of your master schedule. You can switch:

• one day with another
• one class with another

Moving Class Assignments around on the Calendar

When you click on a class assignment to drag it, the shape will change such that the top left corner becomes a pointer. That’s the corner you should observe as you move it to a place to position it.

When the assignment is over a legitimate place, that box on the planning calendar will turn dark. Note that you can only drop 3A classes into an 3A column, for instance.

Adjust Class Assignments by a Few Minutes

You don’t need to drop the class exactly where it goes. You can move an assignment up and down in small increments very easily. Just click on a class assignment on the planning calendar. It will be highlighted with a dashed border. Now you can move it up and down with your arrow keys in one minute increments.

Warnings for Overlapping Classes

From time to time you may drop a class assignment on top of another one on your planning calendar. If you do this within a particular margin of error, ESSMaker will pop up a warning to let you know that this is what you have done. It doesn’t change anything, it just warns you.