YearWorks
Founding Access
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YEARWORKS

QUICK START GUIDE

MAKE YOUR YEAR WORK.

1. Welcome to YearWorks

YearWorks helps you plan the school year you actually have. It uses your real calendar, teaching days, course, and starting point to build a realistic path toward the AP Exam.

When your year changes, YearWorks can plan the rest of the year from where you are. You stay in control. Nothing changes until you approve it.

2. Build your year

Sign in. Then choose Start a New Year. The first screen asks What are you teaching?

  1. Choose your course. Under Available now, pick one course and press Continue. You can add another later from My Years.
  2. Bring in your school calendar. Use Upload for a PDF or photo, Link for a district calendar page, or By hand to enter the first and last day of school and paste days off. YearWorks shows you what it found before placing any lessons.
  3. Does this look like your year? Check the first and last day. For each date, answer Do students attend class on this date? Add anything that is missing. When it looks right, press These dates are right.
  4. Where does the course really begin? Confirm when content starts and the AP Exam date. If class is already underway, choose Join a year already in progress, then Choose the next lesson you need to teach and the day you take the class over. Semester courses also ask for Full year, First semester, or Second semester. Once your year is built, Start & Exam is locked so your placed lessons stay put.
  5. A little about how you teach. Choose Traditional Monday-Friday, A/B block schedule, Custom rotation, or Weekly period schedule (modified block), then press Confirm this schedule. YearWorks counts your real time in standard periods, so a long block counts as two periods. Open Preview my year (some courses read Preview my course) to see the proposal, then press Build my year.
  6. How would you like to start your year? Choose Plan my year for me or Build a teacher-controlled calendar. See section 4.

3. Review time before the exam

Review is placed on eligible class dates before the AP Exam, or on or before the last day of a semester course. YearWorks shows it 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.

AP World History, AP U.S. History, and AP European History let you adjust review with Review time before the exam, within the range the course allows. The other courses use a fixed review allocation.

4. Two ways to start

Plan my year for me. YearWorks builds your pacing from your calendar and schedule, and can recalculate the year ahead whenever your year changes.

Build a teacher-controlled calendar. YearWorks still lays out the whole course for you, starting with Lesson 1 on Day 1. From there, you 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. If your calendar cannot hold the recommended plan, YearWorks does not build it and does not quietly cut lessons to make it fit. It tells you, and offers a teacher-controlled calendar as the way forward (A teacher-controlled calendar is a better fit for this calendar). You then decide what to shorten, combine, or skip.

5. Your YearWorks calendar

After you build, YearWorks opens Calendar. Each teaching day shows the lesson, its date, and what that day is for. Open a lesson to edit it, move it, mark it taught, or share it.

Flex Day Bank. Open days the course does not need become Flex Bank Days. Choose Add the flex day to use one, or Return it to the bank to give it back. When your bank is empty, return a flex day before you add one somewhere else.

Removing a lesson. A removed lesson goes to your Lesson Library. It is not deleted. If that was the only thing on the 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.

Mark taught. When you finish a lesson, press Mark taught. Only you mark lessons taught. Mark taught is not reversed by Undo.

Come back anytime from My Years. Everything saves as you go. Unfinished setup shows Resume setup. A finished year shows Open.

6. When your year changes

If you chose Plan my year for me: 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 choose Accept and update my calendar, Keep my current calendar, or Try another recalculation.

If you chose a teacher-controlled 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.

Both keep taught lessons, locked days, lessons you created, moved, or stacked, Flex Bank Days you placed, your Lesson Library, and AP Review where they are. Afterward, Undo recalculation or Undo rebuild puts the whole change back in one step.

7. A few things to know

  • YearWorks plans 10 AP courses. 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. Every course works the same way.
  • YearWorks follows each course's own lesson order. It does not rearrange your curriculum for you.
  • Adding a lesson does not change the plan until you choose Save lesson.

8. Founding Access

Founding Access is free from October 1 at 12:01 AM through October 7 at 11:59 PM Central. Please tell us what works and what does not.

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.

9. Need help?

Open Help in YearWorks, or write through Contact YearWorks at yearworks.app/contact. You can also email hello@yearworks.app. A person reads every message.

YearWorks Quick Start Guide · Founding Access · Plan the year you actually have.

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