Schedules! I’m might be getting a headache from thinking about it.
Scheduling your self-contained special education classroom requires a lot of planning, work, manipulation, flexibility, and creativity. You have to ensure all students receive their full day of services that are listed in their IEPs and all staff get a duty-free lunch, talk about management! I bet you didn’t realize you’d be a manager before a teacher?! Don’t worry, I’m here to help out!
This post will give you 4 steps to be a savvy scheduler at the beginning of the school year. I’ll also share 4 examples of different schedule types for your students! If you’re still needing support, join my mentorship to ask me questions and get free products and live behind the scenes!
What’s in the ARD? (IEP…if you’re not in Texas)
Read through the IEP and find out your students’ schedule of services. Make sure they are getting the 60 minutes of reading a day when you schedule it out.
Step 1a: Sticky Situation
I usually get a stack of stickies (enough to color-code each class a color). For example, blue is science, red is math, yellow is PE, etc.
I laid out the students’ names (as if making a grid) along the top.
Then you want to place in the NON-Negotiables. These would include lunch, specials (if they’re not flexible), therapies (also if not flexible), and staff lunches.
Then I place the I color-coded subject stickies vertically under the students’ names. I fiddle with this for a bit, until I have everyone receiving all subjects and have coverage throughout the whole day.
After I get the sticky notes nicely laid out, TAKE A PICTURE! Because before you know it, your child, dog, or cat will walk by and the wind will blow them around.
After I take a picture, I stack the stickies up and hold onto them (in case I need to go back to the drawing board).
Step 1b: Digitally Excel-ing
Transfer your photo into an excel spreadsheet. I make this my master schedule with all staff, students, periods, and rotations. Again with the color-coding, but now I add in the times and extras such as (toileting, transitioning time, feeding/snack time, nurse visits for meds, etc.).
Print it out and go over it with your staff, work out any kinks they may see too. Ask for their input!
Step 2: Blowin’ it up
If all’s well that end’s well, go ahead and put your master schedule up in your class. In the past, I’ve blown up the excel schedule and hung it. Last year, because COVID created chaos every week with scheduling, we made a big interactive one as you can see below.
Step 3: Savvy Self-Contained Schedule for everyone!
After I create the enlarged master schedule, I put out our class schedule. This is what the whole class follows and if there are any changes in the schedule, we go over them in the morning and update the schedule. The kids then reference the class schedule to change their schedules respectively.
Step 4: Staff Schedules & Zones
Next, make sure you give a printed copy of each person’s schedule to them. You wouldn’t like it if you didn’t have when your lunchtime was!?
If you already have your class zones set up, this is a good time to walk your staff through each area, and tell them the expectation of the area and let them be in charge of gathering and organizing all the materials and supplies. Have reading materials with the reading area, have teacher data sheets with the 1:1 areas, etc.
If they are new, take them through one step at a time and give them a list of things that will be needed and they can go through the class and storage and gather them up. They need to be comfortable and know where things are to access them in a hurry!
Step 5: ‘TOO’
TOO is an easy way I remember tactile, olfactory and object. Not all students need a picture / visual schedule.
Step 6: Visual
Step 7: Checklist
Step 8: Time
Need more ideas? or a cheat sheet later in the year?
Grab this 1-page list of schedule ideas to refresh your memory later (when you get that new kid)!
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Originally published July 15, 2015; Updated August 2021
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