Flexible Scheduling is the practice of using time to provide additional benefits to students outside of their traditional class schedules. Many schools are creating this kind of time, whether it be before, during or after the school day, to increase academic achievement and student engagement.
There are many benefits to being able to have flexible time:
- Increase time on learning
- Reduce class interruptions
- Provide additional engagement opportunities for students
- Provide additional academic support for students
However, when implementing these kinds of flexible times, many schools struggle to manage the logistics of students moving to different places, communicating where everyone should be, and taking attendance. The SIS tools that are in place for the master schedule classes, such as rosters, times, location and attendance capabilities, are not possible for flexible events.
While your school may already offer many of these flexible groupings, you might be asking yourself whether they are being managed easily and efficiently. If you are looking for a way to have less hands-on management, you should consider a flexible scheduling tool.
A flexible scheduling tool is software that is equipped to handle dynamic meeting times, customized schedules, flexible rostering, computer and mobile messaging and student attendance. These tools have built-in features to assist teachers and students, regardless of what the topic of the gathering is or how frequently it meets.
Before and After School
Many teachers are using time before and after school to extend the school day. While these tend to be optional offerings, many students do sign up for them. Whether they be for extra help, club meetings, 1/1 teacher appointments or even detention, students come early or stay late for these critical offerings.
- Zero Hour
- Club Meetings
- Make-up Tests
- Teacher Office Hours
- Detention
- Sports Rosters
During School
There are many different situations where students will need to follow an alternate schedule during the school day or go somewhere else instead of their scheduled class. MyFlexLearning can help manage those cases so that everyone knows where they are going and attendance can be taken.
- Flex Block
- Standardized Tests
- Standardized Test Makeups
- AP Tests
- Course Exams
- Guidance and Teacher Appointments
- College Visits
- Junior ROTC
- High Impact or Title I Tutoring
- Peer Tutoring
Whole Day
Finally, there are a few situations where the entire day would be run on an alternate schedule. This could be for a full day of school that is used for a different purpose, or a half day, such as the day before Thanksgiving or an early release day.
- Field Day
- Field Trips
- Full Day Events
- Wellness Day
- Career Day
- DEI Day
- SEL Day
- Pep Rally
- Whole Grade Assemblies
In summary, schools have many scenarios where an alternative schedule would facilitate meeting their needs. There are flexible scheduling tools to support however you create learning environments.
Features to look for in a flexible scheduling tool include:
- Create a Schedule – Schools need to be able to set a time during which flex offerings will take place. This could be before school, after school, during a flex block, or occasionally for an entire school day.
- Create Offerings – Teachers and Administrators need to be able to create offerings. An offering could be an extra help session, a club meeting, a wellness day, a standardized test taking day, or a sports team practice. Offerings should be able to meet on any type of schedule, such as daily, once or twice a week, biweekly or bimonthly, or specific dates throughout the year.
- Set Class Size – Set the maximum number of students for an offering
- Keep Students Accountable – Clearly see where students are supposed to be on a given day. Also be able to view how students have spent their flexible time in the past.
- Take Attendance – Teachers can take attendance and measure engagement for activities
- Measure Engagement – Teachers can assess and record a student’s engagement during activities
- View the students entire day – Seeing the entire bell schedule, including any flex sessions, shows how students are actually using their time.
- Assess how time is being spent – View flexible time activities, rosters and attendance to see where the time is being spent.