Hi, I'm Learning fet. Thank you for this great tool.
I wanted to ask about how to schedule breaks at different times in different parts of a k-12 school, but now I realize that perhaps I've misunderstood the basic set up.
Here's what I did:
* I added days of the week (5) and hours in the day (start times) for the primary and upper schools -- abut 12 periods including breaks, lunch, etc.
* Added subjects k-12.
* Added teachers.
* I added years ("forms, classes") --
Question 1: Here I just listed the years. But if I have different break times and lunches for the kg, primary and upper schools, should those (kg, primary and upper) be the "classes" and the year-grade groups be the groups within them?
Question 2: If I include every "start" time in the "Hours per day" config., then I will have ... 23 start times! Is this the way to go?
Question 3: Different levels in a k-12 school have break and lunch at different times.
For example, break times are:
pk-k: 10:20 AM - 10:50 AM
1-5: 9:20 AM - 9:40 AM
6-12: 10:00 AM - 10:20 AM
*"Break" is half the duration of a normal period.
I guess I need to use time constraints. Can you give me a rough idea of how to do it?
Sorry to be so basic. I hope you can just get me started in the right direction.
Thank you,
David
I think - I'm also just a beginner to be honest - but I think if you can break down your day into the smallest unit, it looks like yours may be 10 minutes, then you may be able to lock your break times into the time zone you require.
eg. pk-k Make break a tripple period of 10 minutes each and lock it in at starting time 10:20, 1-5 make break a double period of 10 minutes each and lock it in at 09:20 and 6-12 make break a double of 10 minutes each and lock it in at 10:00.
Then you must also remember to allocate double or tripple or whatever periods for all the other activities depending on your requirements for that subject, remembering that a single period is actually only 10 minutes long.
Excellent, Bobby. This carries me forward a long way up the learning path. Thank you. I will give it a try. I saw the line in the manual saying that a period cannot be a fraction of a period, but it didn't get through my skull till you wrote about the smallest unit. So, I must have _many_ periods, right?
Thanks again,
David
Following up my own question, I think the manual is correct when it says
"Years, groups and subgroups
It's very important to understand the difference between years, groups, subgroups, classes, courses, divisions and categories."
Getting there.
Still figuring out how to "lock in" times for a particular group, such as my primary or secondary.
QuoteHi, I'm Learning fet. Thank you for this great tool.
I wanted to ask about how to schedule breaks at different times in different parts of a k-12 school, but now I realize that perhaps I've misunderstood the basic set up.
Here's what I did:
* I added days of the week (5) and hours in the day (start times) for the primary and upper schools -- abut 12 periods including breaks, lunch, etc.
* Added subjects k-12.
* Added teachers.
* I added years ("forms, classes") --
Question 1: Here I just listed the years. But if I have different break times and lunches for the kg, primary and upper schools, should those (kg, primary and upper) be the "classes" and the year-grade groups be the groups within them?
Don't care about breaks/lunches. Just choose the best three level structure you can do (years/groups/subgroups). If you intend to use the division of years according to categories, you should consider this: you can only divide a whole year. So, if you have in year 5 -> 3 categories: series (a, b, c, d, e, f), language (EN/FR/DE), and optional3 (CH/PH/BI), then you should define year 5 as a FET year.
Quote
Question 2: If I include every "start" time in the "Hours per day" config., then I will have ... 23 start times! Is this the way to go?
You must consider a FET hour=longest period which is contained in each real period.
Example: if you have lessons: 9:20-9:50 or from 9:00 to 9:20, then a FET hour=10 real minutes (greatest common divisor of 30 and 20). Then, consider everything in FET hours. Add as many FET hours as needed to cover the working day. Add FET starting hours=the number of FET hours.
Quote
Question 3: Different levels in a k-12 school have break and lunch at different times.
For example, break times are:
pk-k: 10:20 AM - 10:50 AM
1-5: 9:20 AM - 9:40 AM
6-12: 10:00 AM - 10:20 AM
*"Break" is half the duration of a normal period.
I guess I need to use time constraints. Can you give me a rough idea of how to do it?
If break is half the duration of a normal period, you should consider break = 1 FET hour and 1 real hour=2 FET hours. But I think your data is more complicated and you must consider a FET hour=10 real minutes (as noted above).
For different breaks for students sets, add constraint students set not available.
But take care of teachers' gaps - if a teacher has no activities during a students set not available hours, then this is counted as a gap for a teacher. Only breaks are not counted as gaps for both students and teachers. If you constrain gaps for teachers, then you must consider these possible gaps that can be counted.
QuoteFollowing up my own question, I think the manual is correct when it says
"Years, groups and subgroups
It's very important to understand the difference between years, groups, subgroups, classes, courses, divisions and categories."
Getting there.
Still figuring out how to "lock in" times for a particular group, such as my primary or secondary.
I think you need to use constraint students set not available.
Ok, I successfully added constraints for the breaks. Thank you!
Now, I need to do the same thing (I think I do, anyway) for lunch, but fet tells me I cannot add "the same type" of constraint for the same set of students. Is there another way to say students aren't available that won't conflict with the constraints I set for breaks?
Thanks in advance,
David
Perhaps you need to *Modify* the break constraint for add lunch period, not to add new constraints for same groups.
Yes, of course, like tevi says, modify the constraints (I think you use constraints students set not available). Just add more X (not available) slots (the final table of each constraint contains X in breaks and in lunches).
Thank you! Yes, modifying the existing restraint worked. I _thought_ I'd been doing that before, but, obviously, I wasn't. So, far so good. I'm still putting in activities now; will report back on progress.
Many thanks for the great help from this group.
David
Well, activities are going in well. In the meantime, I'm thinking about a requested constraint. I see that there is a way to constrain a set of activities to have a common starting time. However, I don't see how to group the activities into a "set" -- can someone suggest the best way? I tried activity tag and subgroup, but couldn't see how to make use of either.
FYI, the specific request was to have Art, Drama, PE and Dance in grades 1-5 start at the same time every day in order to create a planning time for the homeroom teachers.
I think it would look something like this:
11:00:00 AM
Mon: Tues: Wed: Thurs: Fri:
Art 1 Drama 1 PE 1 Dance 1 Art 2
Drama 2 PE 2 Dance 2 Art 3 Drama 3
PE 3 Dance 3 Art 4 Drama 4 PE 4
Dance 4 Art 5 Drama 5 PE 5
Thank you again,
David
QuoteWell, activities are going in well. In the meantime, I'm thinking about a requested constraint. I see that there is a way to constrain a set of activities to have a common starting time. However, I don't see how to group the activities into a "set" -- can someone suggest the best way? I tried activity tag and subgroup, but couldn't see how to make use of either.
FYI, the specific request was to have Art, Drama, PE and Dance in grades 1-5 start at the same time every day in order to create a planning time for the homeroom teachers.
I think it would look something like this:
11:00:00 AM
Mon: Tues: Wed: Thurs: Fri:
Art 1 Drama 1 PE 1 Dance 1 Art 2
Drama 2 PE 2 Dance 2 Art 3 Drama 3
PE 3 Dance 3 Art 4 Drama 4 PE 4
Dance 4 Art 5 Drama 5 PE 5
Thank you again,
David
From the diagram, I cannot see that the Art, Drama, PE and Dance activities start at the same time each day (or better said, same hour).
Maybe you could to use constraint activities same starting hour (hour, not time).