Elementary schools usually don't use periods, so you need only one generic Bell Schedule. It's harmless to keep the default 7-period schedule, or you may simplify it to one period all day long — it doesn't really matter since you won't be using the periods.

For each period you may specify the start and end time. This allows it to calculate attendance more accurately, since it knows how many minutes each class is. But this is optional, so you may leave the times blank. If you use timeslots instead of period numbers, just name each period like "8:30-9:30". It is okay if you have different periods overlapping during the day. (You cannot have two bell schedules on the same day, so you must fit all periods into one bell schedule.)

If students meet for Advisory or Tutorial, define those as periods too. You may optionaly add Lunch, Brunch, Recess, etc., to your bell schedules. Students can see the bell schedules when they login, so this is for their benefit.


School Days

The page is a calendar where you specify which days use which Bell Schedule. By default it assigns the first bell schedule every Monday through Friday, but you can remove dates add weekends. Click the "Bulk Edit" button to set a bell schedule for a day of the week — e.g., to set the same bell schedule every Friday.

For holidays and staff days select "No classes". (Note that staff days are treated the same as holidays and vacations. You do no need to define any sort of bell schedule for that. Instead, use the page to label holidays and staff days for students and parents to see.)


Scheduling Classes

On the page, admins select which period each class meets. Teachers may optionally do the same on the page (admins may restrict this).


Block Schedules

Different classes may meet on different days. There are several ways to do this, depending how your school does it's scheduling.

For example, if your English class meets 3rd and 4th period everyday, you would simply select "Multiple..." periods for that class and check 3rd and 4th. It's also possible for a class to meet in two non-consecutive periods, like 3rd and 7th. (Note: Unlike some other SIS's, you do not need to define separate sections for each period. In SnapGrades a single section can meet for multiple periods in the same day.)

The above example assumes you have the same bell schedule everyday. But let's say you have different periods meeting on different days, like odd periods on Tuesdays, even periods on Wednesdays, and all periods on all other days. That requires three bell schedules like this:

In the above example, a 1st period class meets everyday except Tuesday, a 2nd period class meets everyday except Wednesday, etc. This assumes each class has only one period. But some schools approach it differently, where the same periods are offered every day, but the classes meet on different periods on different days. That requires a different type of bell schedule. For example, let's say your Science class meets during 3rd period on Monday and Wednesday, 3rd and 4th block period on Tuesday and Thursday, and no class on Fridays. The easiest way to do this is to make a separate bell schedule for each day of the week like this:

Then you would select multiple periods for your Science class, like: 3M-3Tu-4Tu-3W-3Th-4Th. Note for this type of scheduling, each period must have a unique name, like "4M", "4Tu", "4W", etc. If all bell schedules used the same periods, like "4", there would be no way to distinguish 4th period on which day.


Attendance

Bell schedules are very important if your school takes Period Attendance. If you do not set your periods correctly, it will create conflicts in your attendance data. Otherwise, if you're not using SnapGrades for attendance or automatic scheduling, the bell schedules are not critical.


If you're unsure how to enter your Bell Schedules into SnapGrades, please feel free to contact us for help. Be sure to include a link to your web page that shows the bell schedules for you school, so we can help you.