YEARWORKS
FEATURE LIBRARY
Use this when you want a straight answer. Every feature below is in YearWorks today, and the names match what you will see on screen.
Build your year
Start a New Year
What it does: Opens course selection so you can begin a saved plan.
Why it matters: Each course gets its own year, so your plans stay separate.
How to use it: Choose Start a New Year. The page asks What are you teaching? Pick a course under Available now and press Continue.
Available courses
What it does: Shows the AP courses YearWorks can plan now, and which ones are still ahead.
Why it matters: You only start a plan YearWorks can actually build.
How to use it: Choose from Available now. Full year only: AP World History: Modern, AP U.S. History, AP European History, and AP African American Studies. Full year, first semester, or second semester: AP Human Geography, AP U.S. Government and Politics, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP Psychology, and AP Comparative Government and Politics.
Availability / limitations: Every course uses the same setup, calendar, and planning tools. Semester choices appear only for the six semester courses.
Build my year
What it does: Places the course onto your accepted teaching days and opens Calendar.
Why it matters: You get a practical first draft for the year ahead.
How to use it: Finish School calendar, Review dates, Start & Exam, and How you teach. Press Confirm this schedule. Optionally open the preview, then press Build my year.
How would you like to start your year?
What it does: Lets you choose how much of the planning YearWorks does after the first build.
Why it matters: Some teachers want YearWorks to keep the pacing current. Others want to arrange the calendar themselves.
How to use it: Choose Plan my year for me to have YearWorks build your pacing and recalculate the year ahead whenever your year changes. Choose Build a teacher-controlled calendar to have YearWorks lay out the whole course from Lesson 1 on Day 1, then rearrange it yourself. Extra capacity goes into your Flex Day Bank, and review stays anchored to the exam or the end of the semester.
When the calendar is too short
What it does: Stops a recommended plan that will not fit, instead of cutting lessons on its own.
Why it matters: Deciding what to shorten, combine, or skip is a teaching decision. It belongs to you.
How to use it: If your calendar cannot hold the recommended plan, YearWorks explains why and offers a teacher-controlled calendar as the way forward (A teacher-controlled calendar is a better fit for this calendar). Nothing is built until you choose.
Start & Exam lock
What it does: Locks Start & Exam once your year is built.
Why it matters: Changing the start date of a built plan would not move your placed lessons, so YearWorks does not let it look like it would.
How to use it: To plan from where your class is now, use Recalculate the year ahead or Rebuild the remaining year on Calendar.
Preview the proposed year
What it does: Shows the proposed plan before anything is saved as built.
Why it matters: You can see how the year fits together before you commit to it.
How to use it: On How you teach, press Preview my year. In some courses the button reads Preview my course.
Your real school calendar
Upload a calendar
What it does: Reads a district calendar file and lists the dates it found.
Why it matters: Your plan should follow the year your school actually runs.
How to use it: On Bring in your school calendar, choose Upload. Drop a PDF, screenshot, or photo (up to 12 MB).
Provide a calendar link
What it does: Reads a public district calendar page.
Why it matters: You can start from the calendar your school already publishes.
How to use it: Choose Link, paste the page address, and press Read this calendar. For a PDF link, download the file and use Upload.
Enter dates by hand
What it does: Lets you type first day, last day, and days off.
Why it matters: You can still build your year without a clean file or link.
How to use it: Choose By hand. Enter First day of school and Last day of school. Optionally paste days off. Press Use these dates.
Review dates
What it does: Lets you correct the calendar and mark which days students attend class.
Why it matters: A missed holiday or wrong last day can throw off the whole year.
How to use it: On Does this look like your year?, edit first and last day, answer Do students attend class on this date?, and use Add a date if something is missing. Press These dates are right.
Course pacing
How the class meets
What it does: Counts teaching time from your real meeting pattern.
Why it matters: A block day is not the same as a regular period, and your plan needs to account for that.
How to use it: On How you teach, choose Traditional Monday-Friday, A/B block schedule, Custom rotation, or Weekly period schedule (modified block). Then press Confirm this schedule.
Availability / limitations: YearWorks counts your real time in standard periods, so a long block counts as two periods. YearWorks will not place lessons until the schedule is confirmed.
Semester courses
What it does: Plans a semester course as a full year, first semester, or second semester.
Why it matters: Some schools finish these courses in one term. The plan should stop where the course stops.
How to use it: On Start & Exam, choose Full year, First semester, or Second semester.
Availability / limitations: This choice appears for AP Human Geography, AP U.S. Government and Politics, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP Psychology, and AP Comparative Government and Politics. A first-semester course ends on the last day that course meets. The May exam stays recorded, but nothing is planned after that last day. Full-year and second-semester plans still work backward from the exam.
Extra time for units
What it does: Gives named units first claim on flexible days already in the calendar.
Why it matters: Some units need more room. You decide which ones.
How to use it: On How you teach, under Where would you like to invest your flexible days?, press Add extra time on a unit.
Availability / limitations: Extra time comes from the Flex Day Bank. Protected exam review is not taken for this.
Review time before the exam
What it does: Protects review time on eligible class dates before the AP Exam, or on or before the last day of a semester course.
Why it matters: The last days of the course should stay open for review, not leftover content.
How to use it: On How you teach, see Review time before the exam. YearWorks shows review two ways: the number of class days you will spend reviewing, and the number of standard periods those days hold. On a block schedule, one review class day can hold two standard periods.
Availability / limitations: AP World History, AP U.S. History, and AP European History let you adjust review within the range the course allows. The other courses use a fixed review allocation.
Your YearWorks calendar
Calendar
What it does: Shows the built year by day: lessons, reviews, assessments, and flex days. Each teaching day can hold one or more lessons, with the date and what that day is for.
Why it matters: This is the plan you will actually teach from.
How to use it: After you build, YearWorks opens Calendar. You can also open it from the menu once a year is built.
Mark taught
What it does: Records that a lesson has been taught.
Why it matters: YearWorks needs to know what you have already taught before it recalculates.
How to use it: Open the day or lesson and press Mark taught. Only you mark lessons taught. YearWorks never does it for you.
Availability / limitations: Mark taught is not reversed by Undo.
Flex Day Bank
What it does: Holds the open days your course does not need.
Why it matters: Spare days are yours to spend: catch up, go deeper, or win back lost time.
How to use it: On Calendar, choose Add the flex day to use one, or Return it to the bank to give it back.
Availability / limitations: When your bank is empty, return a flex day before you add one somewhere else.
Lock this day in place
What it does: Keeps a day exactly where it is.
Why it matters: Some days cannot move: a lab, a field trip, a common assessment.
How to use it: Open the lesson and choose Lock this day in place. Choose Unlock this day to release it. Locked days stay put through recalculation and rebuild.
Lessons and scheduling
Edit a lesson
What it does: Lets you change the lesson for this plan, including learning objectives and success criteria.
Why it matters: The official course is the starting point. You know what your class needs.
How to use it: Open a lesson on Calendar. You will see the lesson, its date, and what that day is for. Your changes apply to this plan only. They do not change the course for other years.
Add a lesson
What it does: Creates a new lesson only after you save it.
Why it matters: Simply opening the editor should not change your year.
How to use it: Choose Add a lesson on a day. Nothing is created until you press Save lesson.
Move or stack a lesson
What it does: Asks how a lesson should fit when a day already has one.
Why it matters: Two lessons can share a day, or the sequence can move forward. You decide which works best.
How to use it: Move a lesson onto an occupied day. Choose Stack on this day to keep both, in the order you set, or Shift to slide the sequence to the next open teaching day. Nothing moves until you choose.
Lesson Library
What it does: Holds lessons that do not have a date yet, including lessons moved off the calendar.
Why it matters: Work you still want should not disappear just because it no longer has a date.
How to use it: Open Lesson Library from the menu, or use Save a copy to Lesson Library from a lesson. Library lessons do not count toward days left to teach.
Remove from plan
What it does: Takes a lesson off the calendar and moves it to the Lesson Library. Other days do not move.
Why it matters: You can take a lesson off the year without losing the work you put into it.
How to use it: Open the lesson and choose Remove from plan.
Availability / limitations: A lesson already marked taught stays on the plan. If the removed lesson was the only thing on that day, the day becomes a Flex Bank Day. On a longer block, removing one lesson can open one period while other lessons stay scheduled that day. YearWorks tells you exactly what is now open. Nothing else moves.
When the year changes
Recalculate the year ahead
What it does: On a plan built with Plan my year for me, proposes a revised path from where you are now through the rest of the course.
Why it matters: Lost days, snow, assemblies, and getting behind should not force you to rebuild the year by hand.
How to use it: On Calendar, press Recalculate the year ahead. Answer Where are you today? by choosing the lesson you are teaching today. Earlier lessons you have not marked taught are set aside: they stay in your plan, are not deleted, and are not marked taught. Check Review this recalculation, then press Accept and update my calendar, Keep my current calendar, or Try another recalculation.
Availability / limitations: Recalculation keeps taught lessons, locked days, lessons you created, moved, or stacked, Flex Bank Days you placed, your Lesson Library, and AP Review where they are. If there is not enough room, YearWorks asks you to choose how to make room instead of forcing a plan that will not fit.
Rebuild the remaining year
What it does: On a teacher-controlled calendar, lays out the rest of the course again from the lesson you are teaching today.
Why it matters: You can get a fresh layout for the rest of the year without losing the choices you already made.
How to use it: On Calendar, press Rebuild the remaining year. Answer Where are you today? Earlier lessons keep their dates and are not marked taught. Check Preview this rebuild, then press Confirm rebuild.
Availability / limitations: Rebuild keeps the same protected work as recalculation: taught lessons, locked days, lessons you created, moved, or stacked, Flex Bank Days you placed, your Lesson Library, and AP Review.
Undo
What it does: Reverses your most recent undoable change in one step.
Why it matters: You can try a change without losing the year you had.
How to use it: When there is something to undo, Undo appears on Calendar. After a recalculation or rebuild it reads Undo recalculation or Undo rebuild and puts the whole change back at once. After a calendar move or stack, Undo reverses that change. It still works after you reload.
Availability / limitations: Mark taught is not reversed by Undo.
Starting midyear
Join a year already in progress
What it does: Starts the plan at the next lesson you need to teach, on the day you take the class over.
Why it matters: You should not have to recreate a year you already taught.
How to use it: On Start & Exam, under Where are you starting?, choose Join a year already in progress. Set First lesson YearWorks should plan and The day you take the class over.
Teacher control
Nothing changes until you approve it
What it does: Keeps calendar intake, the first build, and recalculation as proposals until you accept them.
Why it matters: YearWorks can suggest a path. You decide whether that path becomes the year.
How to use it: Look for the approval step: These dates are right, Build my year, Accept and update my calendar, or Confirm rebuild.
Save, resume, print or export
Save and resume
What it does: Keeps your work as you go and lets you pick it up later.
Why it matters: Setup and teaching happen over time, not in one sitting.
How to use it: Open My Years. Unfinished plans show Resume setup. Built years show Open. You can also return to School Calendar, Review Dates, Start & Exam, or How You Teach from the menu.
Print calendar
What it does: Prints the year calendar or saves it as a PDF.
Why it matters: Sometimes you need the year on paper or in a file you can share.
How to use it: On Calendar, press Print calendar, then Print / save as PDF.
Share or export a lesson
What it does: Copies, prints, or exports one lesson, and can send it to Google Classroom.
Why it matters: Your plan lives in YearWorks, but the lesson still needs to reach the place you teach from.
How to use it: Open a lesson and choose Share or export. You can Copy lesson to clipboard, Print / save as PDF, Export lesson file, or Send to Google Classroom.
Availability / limitations: Google Classroom is the school system YearWorks connects to today.
Founding Access
Founding Access dates
What it does: Gives Founding teachers free access from October 1 at 12:01 AM through October 7 at 11:59 PM Central.
Why it matters: You can build and use a real plan, and tell us what works and what does not.
How to use it: Sign in with the email you used to join the Founding list.
Availability / limitations: After October 7, you can still open and read your plans and calendars. Editing after that requires a subscription you choose. You are not automatically enrolled in a paid subscription or charged after the trial. Planned pricing: $0.99 for the first month, then $5.99 per month or $39 per year. Monthly is the default choice.
Help and support
Help
What it does: Answers how YearWorks behaves today: midyear start, recalculation, adding lessons, undo, and the Lesson Library.
Why it matters: You can check how something works without guessing.
How to use it: Open Help in the menu, or go to yearworks.app/help.
Contact YearWorks
What it does: Sends a question, a calendar problem, a bug, feedback, or a privacy request to a person.
Why it matters: When Help is not enough, a person reads what you send.
How to use it: Open Contact YearWorks at yearworks.app/contact, or email hello@yearworks.app.
YearWorks Feature Library · Founding Access · Your real days shape the plan.