Surviving the First Week-My Sticky Note Scheduling Strategy!

The Frenzied SLPs are back and we are going to talk about our hints and tips for surviving your first week.   I’m going to talk about my sticky note strategy for scheduling in middle to high school.

Scheduling.  Just when you think you have it figured out, one student needs to change and the whole schedule falls apart.  It’s involves paper and a lot of sticky notes.  I am reverse techie when it comes to scheduling, calendars and To Do lists.  I tried switching to an online calendar with my phone-which seems like it should be amazing.  Except I never got my information into the correct spot-or I’d forget to write it down-so I’d miss appointments or lunch dates with friends.  Now I’m back with a regular calendar-which works fabulously for me.

Scheduling can become a little bit tricky when schools use alternate block scheduling.  For instance, one day students may have 7-8 classes that are 50 minutes long.  The next day, they have 4-5 90 minute classes.  I didn’t really do the math with those examples, but I think you get the idea.  Here’s my process:

STEP ONE:  Create blocks of treatment time

Looking at the school’s schedule, I create blocks of treatment time for each day.  For instance, if I am working from 8-4-I give myself 10-15 minutes of prep in the AM and then I start making up blocks on my schedule.  I try to keep my treatment times within the class periods so I’m not keeping kids between two classes.  The hallway breaks give me a chance to prep for the next group of students.  

So I may have 3 available blocks within first period, 2 blocks within 2nd period.  I generally have more blocks over the lunch hour.

STEP TWO:  Student Schedules

Next, I get each student’s schedule.  This is where I use the sticky notes.  I use colored notes based on what type of therapy we are doing.  So usually I have 5 colors-one for language, fluency, articulation, pragmatics and mixed.

Most schools I have been at have certain classes where you can’t see students-Math, reading and sometimes specials.  As I am reviewing schedules I write the following information down on each student:

• Name
• Grade
• Therapy type and frequency
• Available class times for therapy
• Lunch times if known
• Study Halls

STEP THREE:  Scheduling

I usually put my sticky notes out on the table-if you have a white board in your room-I’d set up columns for each day and each period.

I start by scheduling the students that I think will be the most difficult.

Now I can move the sticky notes around to set up my groups.  I make sure to put in time for lunch and prep each day.  If I am doing evaluations at a larger school, I may try to add a block for evaluations.

Once my schedule is almost done, I write it out so I can see the groups I set up and make any last minute changes.

STEP FOUR:  Inform Teachers

Then I send an email to the teachers to let them know what students have speech and what time I will be taking them.  Jessica from Figuratively Speeching helped me with my email.  I usually write something like this,

“Hi, I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself, I am Kelly and I am the school speech language pathologist.  I am writing to you because several of your students are mandated to receive speech and language services through their IEP.  I have scheduled the following students:  (list students + day of the week and time period).”

I may include what the student is working on in speech therapy and an offer to pre-teach curriculum vocabulary if they wanted to send me a list.

STEP FIVE: Revise

I keep the sticky notes for a few weeks because I usually need to revise some groups or I may have a teacher who would like me to switch a student’s time.

Do you have some tips for surviving the first week?  The Frenzied SLPs want to hear your ideas!  Just follow these simple steps:

1. Write a post about your tips for surviving the first week.  Post it on your blog or as a Facebook note.
2. Link up to any host blog.  Your link will show up on all of the host blogs!
3. Please visit and comment on the two blogs before you and after you on the linky.