(upbeat music) - Hey y'all, it's Ayo here. Let's talk about class and staff schedules. Cause no lie, this could be a major challenge. It's not easy to figure out how to meet the needs of your staff, the needs of your students, and the needs you have in terms of instructional minutes and still make your classroom flow.
So let's break this down. First up, you have to decide with your preferred mental mode. Do you like to write things down? Do you prefer to type?
Personally, I have always found a little post-it note to be my best friend, and slips of paper work too if you are just more of a hands-on person. There's a couple ways to approach schedule-making and which approach you take will really depend on you, your team, and your students. For some teachers starting with the days of the week and looking at each period of the day is the best way. So I would start by laying out those days of the week and then putting that information in terms of your periods so that you know what time everyone needs to be everywhere.
This is best when you have a few key things to remember and need a broader schedule. So with this format, you'll start with your days of the week and your times in a grid, and then look for items to start off that are set in stone. These are usually electives or times where your students have to be with other staff members, things like PE or maybe art class. It might be therapy sessions that just can't be moved.
You might have to consult with your related service providers to find out when exactly they're going to be coming. But once you have those items set in place, look for other times that are time-dependent. And these are things like bus schedules, pickups, and drop-offs. They're the things that you can't move and you might find that there are certain days of the week and certain times where you're obligated to do that.
You might find that it's trips to the nurse or delivery of medication that have to be given at a specific time and you wanna make sure that those times are honored. These usually happen, again, specific times of day, specific days of the week, and are not as flexible. Then you can finally look for some larger chunks of time to put some staff breaks. When we start to put in staff breaks, it's best not to think of them starting on the hour or on the start of a class period, but where there's gaps in your schedule.
So depending on where you teach, teachers and paraprofessionals may have lunch breaks as well as personal breaks. You'll wanna put that information in where those events are going to be happening. Put those times into your schedule but be prepared to move them around a little bit as you try your schedule out and fiddle with it a little bit. So the last thing to remember is that your lunches and your breaks may not happen at natural lunch times or may double over with duty depending on how your school or campus works.
Finally, the last thing that you're gonna do are other things that are done on a regular basis but are not anchored by time. You might find that these things are a little more flexible. Something like positioning, being put in a standard, or in a walker. Tasks like this are not locked in stone and because you have a little bit more flexibility in them, you can place them where it's best for you.
Sometimes these tasks only need to be done once or twice a week. So that flexibility is really there. Now, after all of this, you should start to see a schedule come together. It's gonna require a little bit of wiggling around and adjusting to make it work out.
But as you sit down and take in your masterpiece, think to when you might want to pencil in those things that you need to get done or that are easier to get done based on being on a schedule. These are the things you know you have to do, but sometimes sneak up on you, or interrupt your flow because you haven't scheduled it. You may have student who use restrooms twice a day and putting that into the schedule makes it more predictable for the student, staffed well for your team, and is never forgotten or left the last minute of the day. Now, for some others of you, this won't work.
It may work better if you have something that is more individualized based on the team members and details each person's independent schedule. When we talk about something like this, it works best when there are a lot of personal needs or schedule needs that have to be met within a busy classroom setting. The process starts the same way, except this time we're really looking at the individual responsibilities for people. The times might work for you as well if this is something that repeats for you on a regular basis.
But otherwise, the process starts the same. You're gonna take those activities that are set in stone and you might assign them to individual people. Those things that are non-negotiables might require getting assigned and designated. Then you're gonna go ahead and add those things in, breaks and lunches after you've put the things that are set in stone.
You'll place those where it's most convenient, where you see that there's the biggest opening for them and it really fits into the schedule. And then you can see we start to get going and we have the opportunity to add in those other non-negotiable pieces that we need to get done. So now when we start to assign those things to our staff members, we can see we have individuals assigned in specific places and at specific times. Be sure to look through your student's IEP and deliberations for any and all schedule information so that you don't miss anything as you set out to start this process.
There's nothing worse than getting to the end of everything and realizing you didn't know that somebody had an obligation that you needed to fulfill. So as you take a look at these, consider the options that you have in terms of making a quality schedule. And remember, everything that you make might need to be redone as you get yourself going and really work through the process. Pay special attention that students with individual or personal care needs and physical needs are getting their needs met.
And the long and short of it is that you need a schedule to form the foundation of your classroom experience. So choose the approach that works best for you, your students, and your team. Good luck creating your class schedule and a remember, a solid and predictable schedule helps everyone perform better. I'm Ayo Jones reminding you to stay strong and teach on.
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