Attaching Seating Chart to Room Layout

Seating charts provide a quick way to see which students are present and absent when taking attendance. The seating chart is an optional feature that enables you to see a bird's-eye view of your classroom. Your seating chart shows where each desk is located and which student is assigned to each desk, which is helpful when you are learning student names at the beginning of the year. Seating charts are user-specific, so teachers who team teach will both have to create their own. For example, if Mr. Jones and Mrs. Smith teach kindergarten together in the same room, each teacher would need to create a seating chart for the room layout in order to take attendance by seating chart. You can also clone seating charts if necessary.

Before you begin

  • A room layout must exist.

Audio Transcript

As a teacher, keeping track of which student is in what class and where they sit can make attendance quite the hassle. Luckily, there’s a simple solution! The seating chart feature lets us create and customize multiple seating arrangements for a classroom and the many classes that are taught, which makes attendance quick, easy, and hassle-free. The seating chart tool can be found in the Attendance module. From here, we will highlight the room layout that we’d like to add a seating chart for and select Add Seating Chart. The Description will define our seating chart. Since we are assigning students by class, we’ll name this appropriately. We’ll leave the Seating Chart Grouping as By Class. We’ll notice the rest of the information defaults in based on the class we are attached to. We could update these fields if needed. Let’s save and assign seats now. Since it’s the beginning of the year and we don’t know how students will interact, we will auto assign seats. We can always update the seats as needed in the future. We’d like to assign students to seats at random, so we’ll select that radio button. Let’s Save. Now that your seating chart is configured, you can easily take attendance by seating chart.

Procedure

As a teacher, keeping track of which student is in what class and where they sit can make attendance quite the hassle. Luckily, there’s a simple solution! The seating chart feature lets us create and customize multiple seating arrangements for a classroom and the many classes that are taught, which makes attendance quick, easy, and hassle-free. The seating chart tool can be found in the Attendance module. From here, we will highlight the room layout that we’d like to add a seating chart for and select Add Seating Chart. The Description will define our seating chart. Since we are assigning students by class, we’ll name this appropriately. We’ll leave the Seating Chart Grouping as By Class. We’ll notice the rest of the information defaults in based on the class we are attached to. We could update these fields if needed. Let’s save and assign seats now. Since it’s the beginning of the year and we don’t know how students will interact, we will auto assign seats. We can always update the seats as needed in the future. We’d like to assign students to seats at random, so we’ll select that radio button. Let’s Save. Now that your seating chart is configured, you can easily take attendance by seating chart.





  1. Select Menu > Teacher Access > Attendance.
  2. Select Seating Chart under Features.

    You see the Seating Chart List, which displays the room layouts and seating charts associated with the selected room layout.

  3. Verify you are in the correct school year by checking the information at the top left of the screen.
  4. Under the Room Layouts heading, highlight the room layout you wish to add a seating chart to.

    Alternatively, you can click the Open icon to the left of the room layout and then select the Room Layout Details tab at the left of the Room Layout Details screen.

  5. Under the Seating Charts heading, click Add Seating Chart near the right of the screen.

    You see the Add Seating Chart screen.

  6. Complete the appropriate fields.
    1. Enter a Description to identify the seating chart.

      For example, you could enter English 01 if the seating chart is for section 1 of your English class.

    2. Choose the appropriate radio button for the Seating Chart Grouping.

      This defaults to the option you have selected for the Group By: field on the Attendance Class List.

    3. Verify the values in the Section Lengths Filter field or enter the correct section lengths if necessary.

      If you selected By Class for the Seating Chart Grouping, skip to sub-step f.

      If you selected By Period for the Seating Chart Grouping, continue to the next sub-step.

    4. Enter the Period Filter or click the Down Arrow icon to choose from the drop-down list.
    5. Verify the Day Rotations in the Days Filter field or enter the correct day rotations if necessary.

      Skip to sub-step g.

    6. Verify the class in the Class Filter field or enter the correct class if necessary.
    7. Verify the course and section in the Class Meets field or enter the correct class and section if necessary.
    8. Verify the Student Count.

      This number defaults based on the number of students enrolled in the class. You can click on the hyperlinked number to see a list of student names.

    9. Click Save & Assign Seats near the top left of the screen.

      You should only click Save if you plan to assign seats at a later time.

      You see the General tab of the Seating Chart Details screen, which displays the layout of the desks in the room.

    10. Click Auto Assign Seats near the top right of the screen. 

      Alternatively, you can click and drag individual student icons to the desks where you would like them to sit. Additionally, left clicking your mouse on a seat will assign the next student in the list to the seat, and right clicking your mouse on a seat assigned to a student will unassign the student from the seat.

      You see the Auto Assign Seats window.

    11. Select the appropriate radio button to Assign Students By:.
    12. Select the appropriate radio button for the Start: field to indicate where the seats should begin being assigned.
  7. Click Save near the bottom right of the window.

    You return to the General tab of the Seating Chart Details screen, which displays the student names on their corresponding desks, as well as their profile pictures and indicators, if available. If you wish to remove a student from a desk, click and drag their icon to a new desk or back to the Unassigned Students tab at the left of the screen.

    Students with a future enrollment date display on the seating chart with a Start date.

    The size of the desks depends on the student with the largest number of indicators. For example, if a student with three rows of indicators is added to the seating chart and all of the other students in the class only have one row of indicators, the other desks resize to match the size of the desk of the student with the most indicators.



    The seating chart provides a bird's-eye view of a 3x5 seating chart with one student unassigned.


Results

You have successfully attached a seating chart to a room layout.