Course Scheduling starts on Tue (Seniors are first!) See the Master Schedule

[prin...@sethigh.org]

Dear Students, Parents, and Guardians,

• 12th graders schedule classes on Tue, 11th on Wed, 10th on Thu, and 9th on Fri
• Reminder about Exhibition on Thursday.  5:30!

12th graders schedule classes on Tue, 11th on Wed, 10th on Thu, and 9th on Fri

One of the best features of SET is the student-choice with class scheduling.  We'll be starting the Spring Term with new classes (except for your year-long Math classes), so it's time to get everyone scheduled before we go on winter break.  Giving students choice and agency with their schedule is something that we will always do, but please know that it is a tremendous amount of work to make it happen.  In addition to making sure that we have the right number of classes in the right periods for all of our students, we also strive to support the students who have special requests due to falling behind or wanting to get ahead.  Ultimately our biggest priority is to make sure that our Seniors will graduate and that everyone else is on track to graduate.  In the event that you get frustrated trying to work through what is a fair and systematic scheduling process, please pause for a moment and recognize that we're the only school that gives you the chance to take the classes that you want with the friends you want to be with.  If you don't get the schedule you want this time, know that when you are older and get higher priority scheduling, you'll be thankful that we do it this way!  My best advice to you is to pay attention to your scheduling time, be one of the first ones to sign up for your classes in your scheduling window, pay attention to which classes are filling up through-out the week, and have a plan B and a plan C in case your desired classes are not available.  The students who are diligent and on it always get the classes they want, so be diligent!

Students have registration windows based on seniority.  Our 12th Graders will have one day to sign up for courses starting on Tuesday at 1:00 PM.  11th Graders start on Wednesday, 10th Graders on Thursday, and 9th Graders on Friday.  All windows will start after lunch on the assigned day.  We did a lot of work this semester to have Core Competency pre-schedule students to make sure that we knew ahead of time if there were any conflicts.  For some of the mandatory classes where there isn't a choice of period, we left the class pre-scheduled and locked.  But when there is a choice, we undid all the scheduling work that we did so that students can make their own decisions about what classes they take when it's their turn to schedule.  Please pay attention to the errors that you see in the scheduler before and after you choose your classes because you do not want to fall behind.  Note, though, that if you need to re-take a class because you did not pass it the first time through, you will have to wait until everyone who is taking the class for the first time has had an opportunity to take it.  You'll see an error message to that effect.  It's not fair to have other students get behind because you didn't take care of business the first time!

It is likely that you may not be able to get into the right Spanish class this term.  If you are able to take Spanish, though, please sign up for it so that we can make sure that there is space in future years for those students who need it. If you are unable to sign up for Spanish, know that you'll be fine and will have no trouble getting caught up later.  We have the system start issuing warnings about Spanish early so that we don't have students intentionally waiting until it is too late.  In case you want assurance that you'll get Spanish completed before you graduate, there is only one Senior who currently needs Spanish 2, and that student can fit it in their schedule without any trouble next term.

There are some classes that you will be prevented from taking because you have either already taken the class or you are not yet eligible to take it (either because there are pre-requisites or there are grade-level restrictions).  If you feel like the system is preventing you from taking a class in error, you'll see that there is a way to request an override. Make sure that you make that request well before your scheduling window so that we have time to process it and hopefully allow the override.

You have a personalized Schedule Options  view (based on what you are allowed to take and what you should take) on the View Options link on the CoreCompetency dashboard.  You will sign up for classes by clicking on the Enroll button on the dashboard (when it is your scheduling window, but go ahead an try it now so that you can familiarize yourself with the screen) .  Both of these links are in the Scheduled Courses panel on the dashboard.

Instructions for how to use the scheduling system can be found in text form here or in video form here.  Ignore the scheduling dates that are mentioned in the video.  It's an older video that I should have made generic so it works for each subsequent year, but there's good information in there for new students, so I'm still going to share it.

Please do not leave periods blank if you plan to TA , work on a Passion Project, or take a Mesa College class.  Those options all need to be pre-approved by your teachers so you should be choosing Pre-Approved Other for each of the relevant periods.  You'll notice that Pre-Approved Other isn't an option until you get pre-approved, so request pre-approval!  Just click on the request button next to the class. 

In case you want to see the full master schedule (the one that is not personalized for you), you can find it here.  Or click on Master Schedule in the Reports menu on Core.

 

Reminder about Exhibition on Thursday (5:30 PM)

In case you missed the earlier email, this is what Exhibition is about:

Exhibition is a must-attend event at SET and is an opportunity for our students to showcase their work.  The evening is mandatory for students and highly recommend for families and extended families.  I love to see the pride with which our students showcase their learning.  All of our parents should see this for themselves!

More details about parking, etc. will be shared when I send out the reminder for the event next month.  For now, just know that you should plan on spending about 30 minutes at school sometime between the hours of 5:30 and 7:00.  Parking can be a pain so probably best to not try to show up at 6:30 because you might miss the whole event!

 

We look forward to seeing everyone at Exhibition!  Thanks, everyone!

Dr. McCurdy