Scheduling Calendar...what? who? when? where? why?
Happy New Year! Working with schools, I have found that a New Year brings different adventures. In high schools, Seniors have a full case of Senioritis, Juniors know they will soon be the head of the school, Sophomores are one step closer to graduating, and Freshman know they are only one semester away from picking on the new class of Frosh. As the snow days start and spring break looms on the horizon; it is a great time to start thinking about your scheduling calendar. "What?" you say…"scheduling calendar?" Let’s look at the what, who, when, where, and why on this crazy thing called the scheduling calendar (don’t forget to get out your magnifying glasses).
What: I think it is the most important aspect of the calendar and after all, I am the blogger. The scheduling calendar lists the dates when your school is in session with classes, when they are in session without classes, and when the students are out of session.
Who: With "what" out of the way, we can tackle the rest. It is a good idea to have your Registrar take a look at the scheduling calendar at the beginning of every semester and prior to any school holiday.
When: I've already covered that one with who; I’m a little tricky like that.
Where: The scheduling calendar is located in the session for every academic year. When you open the academic year in Configuration, open the session and select the Scheduling Calendar tab. Enter the dates that your school is not in session or is in an irregular session, such as a holiday break. If you would like to see the total academic year in calendar grid form, click the calendar icon to open a year calendar with important terms dates that are entered into the system.
Why: This is a big one! If term events are not entered into the system, your attendance will be affected. For example, if Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is not entered on the Scheduling Calendar and you have that day off; teachers will be able to enter attendance on this day.
If you have a rotating schedule, and your Monday classes are supposed to be shifted to Tuesday and all classes going forward are supposed to be shifted, the system will not know to do this unless the Martin Luther King, Jr. date is entered and "Skip?" is marked on the Scheduling Calendar tab. If "Skip?" is marked, this can affect attendance if you have Cycle Days named after the days of the week; before you know it, a Tuesday will be named Monday on your scheduling calendar.
For more information on this topic, check out:
How to select, readjust, or skip a specific cycle day: BB131632
Holiday calendar entry reflects school is in session: BB143889
How to define calendar events: BB131631
One last thing to leave you with: After future attendance has been entered, you can't update the scheduling calendar. This is because the attendance would have to be shifted to a different day, and the program won't know what attendance codes to enter for the future dates. In order to change the scheduling calendar for a day that attendance exists, the attendance from the day being changed and forward will have to be deleted and re-entered.
Good luck to all you crazy EE folks!