How I Tackle Scheduling

Ahhh, scheduling…the bane of every school based SLP’s existence. Everyone has their own system, but I wanted to share mine. First, I create my schedule in Excel because then it’s easy to switch kids around when I need to. And we all know that happens 3.5 times a week sometimes. Since I’m doing the 3:1 model again (<– read my blog post on this) this coming year, I have eight 40 minute sessions in a day (plus a lunch).

1. I start by getting the master schedule because that will dictate everything!
2. I then plug in a lunch by looking at the master schedule and figuring out a time when most grades are unavailable.
3. Wednesdays for me are off limits for therapy, because it’s our meeting day so I usually will put consult kids or ones that I don’t see regularly on this day.
4. I try to pull kids during the language arts or possibly content block so they don’t miss math. I go grade by grade and plug kids into time slots. I will say that my teachers are incredible and generally let me pull whenever I deem necessary.
5. I try to block a little prep/testing time, but we all know that usually disappears at some point during the year.
6. As I need to, I can easily change around groups or add kids as the year progresses. This has been my system since I started in the schools 8 years ago, so why change it?
7. I do email all the teachers who have my kids the first draft of my schedule and change it as needed if they see an issue with a certain day or time.
8. Each week I print off a copy of my schedule and write in meetings for the week. It helps keep me organized and see what obligations I have for the week.

Other Tips:

-If you’re new to your school, you won’t know what kids to group so that might require some switching once you meet the kids. Since this will be my 6th year at my school, I pretty much know what kids to group.

-I do try to keep my groups at 3 or less unless they’re older and I know they can handle being in group of 4.

-Coordinate as needed with other professionals (OT, ESOL, reading specialists).

Hope this helps you!!