Common Planning Periods

Why Common Planning Periods Matter

Since starting ScheduleX earlier this year, I’ve learnt a lot from schools. I’ve also developed an appreciation for how nuanced running a school is and the competing priorities that admins deal with.

For example, take common planning periods. I had no idea what these were. But over and over again, schools told us “we want all departments to collaborate and plan together.” This requires blocking off an entire window of time (recurring everyday or every week) where no class from a department is scheduled. All teachers are free, and this gives them collaboration and planning time.

When the actual schedule gets built, it’s the first thing that gets sacrificed. Fitting it in feels impossible once everything else is placed.

How ScheduleX Approaches This

So we built this into ScheduleX as a feature: schools can generate a schedule with common planning periods, another schedule without and pick the option they like.

This does two things. First, schools can carve out common planning periods for all departments with a simple toggle. Implementing critical priorities becomes easier.

Second, schools can see the exact impact on their schedule and decide if they want to live with it. When you’re balancing competing priorities, you need to see the cost of picking one option over another.

Very often, administrators aren’t choosing between good and bad options. They’re choosing between two good options knowing something will always have to give. Once you see that up close, it’s hard not to respect the complexity behind every decision.