Block Fast Loader

This method of scheduling is used when a group or block of students has the same schedule throughout the day. This is not to be confused with blocking of courses.

Video

Block Fast Loader Overview video

Menu Location

Scheduling > Loaders > Block Fast Loader

Setup Options (For Teachers)

Setup Options (For Administrators Only)

Year - Defaults to the current year. A prior year may be accessed by clicking in the field and making the appropriate selection from the drop down list.

District - Default value is based on the user’s security settings. The user will be limited to their district only.

School - Default value is based on the user's security settings. If the user is assigned to a school, the school default value will be their school site code.

Gender - Gender of students whose records need to be edited. Leave blank or select all to include all genders. Otherwise, choose the desired gender.

Student Grade -Grade level of students whose records need to be edited. Leave blank or select all to include all grade levels. Otherwise, choose the desired grade level.

Block Grades - Select block grades to process.

Semester - Semester, Ex: 1st semester, 2nd semester.

Custom Codes - Select the custom codes created in the Custom Code Management to filter the student list.

Special Codes - Leave blank if all special codes are to be included into the report. Otherwise, choose the desired special code.

Exclude Special Codes - Exclude students having a selected special code.

As of Date - This choice will list only those students who are actively enrolled as of the date selected in the date field.

Sched Start Date - Select start date to use for schedule records

Click in the field to the right of Grade(s) to select the desired grade level(s) to be included.

Click the check box to Do not overwrite existing homerooms to allow the user to not enter a homeroom teacher to create and save a schedule in Block Fast Loader.

Click the check box to Save Schedules as Manually Scheduled to prevent an automatic scheduling process from overwriting schedules created through the Block Fast Loader.

Click OK to continue.

To find definitions for standard setup values, follow this link: Standard Setup Options.

Before using this program:

The user will need to roll the Sponsor Site to the new year. This is usually done by the district office.
The user will need to run the Create New Year Student Master.
The user will need to Create New Year Master Schedule Editor. Then it must be updated with the new year's changes BEFORE scheduling students in the Block Fast Loader.

Note: If you need any additional help use the following link: New Year Scheduling Preparatory Steps for the District Coordinator.

Now the User can:

Roll over the teacher blocks using the previous school year to the upcoming school year using Roll Current Year Blocks To New Year under Action. If there have been any blocks already added to the upcoming school year, then the roll over will not work. The blocks in the upcoming school year will need to be removed using Action>Remove School(s) Blocks From Selected Year before the roll over will work.
Edit the teacher blocks with all changes for the new year and also adding new teacher blocks if needed. Again, the Master Schedule Editor must have been previously updated for the new year. In the set up box of Master Schedule Editor, there is an option Update Block Scheduling System. If Yes is chosen, for Validate Changes, it will create a pop up asking to update the Block Fast Loader section when the section is changed in the Master Schedule Editor. But, this will only change the demographics of the section (period, course name, teacher name, etc.). It will not change the placement of the sections in the teacher's block schedules as a whole.
Blocks will contain section numbers from the Master Schedule Editor that can only be used once per teacher's block. This information can be entered into Comment field of the Master Schedule Editor to keep up with the section numbers being used per block. This will prevent students, in two different blocks, from all being scheduled into the same section of a teacher's class which would make it look like the teacher is instructing 60 students instead of two groups of 30.
Remember, this is not the teacher's schedule. It is the schedule for the group/block of students that will stay together throughout the school day. The user will need to know into which blocks each group of students will be scheduled and what homeroom teacher's class that they will meet in.
Self Contained means the students will keep the same teacher all day who will teach all needed courses.
Departmentalized means the students will have more one teachers throughout the day.
Once the Master Schedule and the teacher blocks are all updated, then (and only then) should the students be scheduled using an automatic process or a manual process.

Main

Column Headers

Name - Student's/employee's full name

Grade, Grd - grade level of the student and/or course

BLK - Block number

Homeroom - Student's homeroom

Sidno - Local ID of the student/Teacher/Substitute Teacher

Gender, Gen - Gender of the student/employee

District (Dist) - District in which the student is enrolled

School/Site - Site code of the school in which the student/employee is enrolled/works

Sped - Special Education students

Counselor - Name of the counselor to which the student has been assigned

Advisor - Name of the advisor to which the student has been assigned

Custom Codes - Select the custom codes created in the Custom Codes Management to filter the student list.

BLK - Block Number

GD - Grade level

LD - Load Count, when the user clicks on the number a roster screen will display.

Homeroom Teacher - Name of homeroom teacher

BLK Name - Block Name

Hm# - Homeroom number

Blk Desc - Block Description

Dist - District in which the student is enrolled

Sch - Site code of the school in which the student/employee is enrolled/works

Teaid - Staff ID/SID/ID--Identification number of the staff

SCap - Standard Capacity

Counselor - Name of the counselor to which the student has been assigned

Advisor - Name of the advisor to which the student has been assigned

To find definitions of commonly used column headers, follow this link: Common Column Headers.

Top

Action

Master Schedule - Displays the Master Schedule Editor Reschedule Blocks - Allows you to reschedule students already assigned to blocks. This is used if classes have been added to or removed from a block.

Reschedule Blocks - This will reschedule students to match the blocks. A table will display consisting of the block header records with a selection column. Check the blocks of which you want to reschedule the students. When finished, the block load counts will reset automatically.

Single Course - Allows the user to add a single class to all of the students in the same block. This does not change the block.

Clear Student Block Numbers - This just clears the block number. NO schedules will be changed. The user will NOT be able to auto-restore the assigned block numbers. Be certain this is what is needed before clicking the button labeled 'YES'.

Automatic Scheduling - Alternating Student Scheduling, Sequential Student Scheduling, and Capability Student Scheduling

Initialize Block Counts - Updates counts of students scheduled into the different blocks; it also updates counts in the Master Schedule Editor.

Realign Blocks to Master Schedule - Compares information related to each section number found in the Block Fast Loader to the section numbers in the Master Schedule Editor. If any information is different, the block information is updated. Note that the student schedules scheduled by this block program will NOT be updated using this procedure so they will probably need to be rescheduled after the alignment process is complete.

Roll Current Year Blocks to New Year - Creates a copy of the previous school year blocks for the upcoming school year. Specific grade levels can be chosen. The user can only roll over one year to the next consecutive year so would not be able to roll over 1314 to 1516. Also, if you have already built at least one new block in the upcoming school year, the copy process will not work.

Remove School(s) Blocks From Selected Year - Deletes all blocks for the selected year.

Bottom

Delete Block - Deletes currently selected block.

New Block - Creates a block of classes for a teacher not assigned a block. Teacher names will be pulled from the Master Schedule Editor, not Human Resource Master.

Change Block - Change header information about a teacher.

Schedule - Schedules all selected students to the selected teacher’s block.

Print - This will allow the user to print the report.

Setup - Click to go back to the Setup box.

Help - Click to view written instructions and/or videos.