Scheduling for Schools

Tutorial videos

Scheduling for district administrators

See our other school scheduling tutorial videos

DMSchedules web address is https://dmschedules.com  

Table of Contents

SETTING UP THE DISTRICT INFORMATION
    Setting the default period allocation
    Setting the teacher contract

MANAGING SCHEDULES

CREATING A SCHOOL SCHEDULE
 

Setting up the district information

Setting the default period allocation

• Go to District Setup > Period Allocation to set the default period allocation guidelines district-wide.

This page is typically filled after central office and district leaders have met with DMGroup and established guidelines. By setting the district default values, each school schedule will start with a copy of the guidelines. Schools will then be able to modify these guidelines based on their specific needs.

• Click Add a period to create a period. The period dialog will appear.

Period Type	Select from a period type corresponding to the period you’d like to add. For example, Reading, Writing, Math, etc.
Period Name	The period name that will appear in the schedule. This will be filled automatically based on the period type, but you may change it to match your district's terminology or a specific program (e.g. Read 180)
Short name	When the period block is too small to display the period name, the short name will be used instead. For example, use Math instead of Mathematics, or ELA instead of English Language Arts.
Default Duration	The default number of daily minutes you would like to set for the period. You will be able to specify different duration by grade, but this saves time when all grades should be assigned the same number of minutes.
Grades for which this period is offered.	Select the grades for which this period will be offered.

• Click Save to create the period.
• Enter the number of daily minutes the period will be offered for each grade level if different from the default.
• Repeat until all the periods have been created.

To edit a period, go to District Setup > Period Allocation, select a period name, make the necessary changes and click Save.

To delete a period, click the x icon.

Some guidelines for creating periods:

• It is preferable to have separate Reading and Writing periods rather than one larger ELA block.
• Science and Social Studies are often combined in one period. Teachers can decide how to split that time. For example, science and social studies could be taught on alternating days, quarters, or semesters.
• It is preferable to create an intervention/enrichment period.
• Specials define the common planning time for homeroom teachers. It should be at least as long as required by contract.
• Lunch and Recess can be created as one single period but splitting them provides more scheduling flexibility and precision (e.g.: mix recess before/after lunch).

Setting the teacher contract

Go to District Setup > Teacher Contract

Teacher’s planning period	Enter the teacher’s contractual planning minutes per day.
Teacher’s lunch duration	Enter the teacher’s contractual lunch minutes per day.

These are used for reference only.

• Make sure the specials period is at least as long as the planning period.
• When scheduling, make sure specials teachers and interventionists have corresponding time free within each schedule by referring to the specials and I/E columns next to the teacher’s schedule.

Manager User Accounts

Manage access to the application using the Users page.

To add a new user account:

1. Go to District Setup > Users

2. Click New User

Email	The district email address of the user
First Name	The user's first name
Last Name	The user's last name
Role	Select School Admin for users who need access to a specific school such as principal or assistant principal. Select District Admin for users who need access to all schedules such as central office personnel.
School	When selecting School Admin for role, specify the school assigned to the user.

3. Click Save

4. Select the checkbox next to the user's name and click Send invite to selected users

5. Click Send - This will send an email to the user with log in information.

To edit a user account:

1. Go to District Setup > Users

2. Click the user's name

3. Make the necessary changes and click Update User

To remove a user:

1. Go to District Setup > Users

2. Click the x next to the user's name.

Managing Schedules

Clicking Manage Schedules on the home page or Schedules in the navigation bar takes you to a list of school schedules.

The status of each schedule is indicated to the right of the schedule.

• Not started - A schedule was not started yet.
• In Progress - A schedule was started but not yet finalized
• Finalized - A schedule is completed and was confirmed as finalized.

Click a schedule name to access it.

Note that if you have used the application for more than one year, you will be able to switch academic year using the year drop down at the top right of the page.

Creating or updating a School Schedule

See our tutorial video series