Have you heard of 'sabotaging your class schedule?'
I know, it sounds barbaric, but bear with me.
Schedules are part of everyone's life. As special education teachers, our job is to prepare kids for the unexpected. One of those 'unexpected' things could be schedule changes.
Once November hits, I tried to change something each week.
That may look like changing our traditional reading, and doing the recipe and a review together as group work. And then I'll change the math, we'll play an Uno game and slowly increase that as well.
For the November and December holidays, I introduce and explain they're going to be off for a whole week.Then December is crazy because it seems every day we're learning a new holiday and a new culture. And we're doing different things for each of those cultures. Then the school is doing things for all of the fine arts recitals and stuff and so it's just busy. The kids need to know that's life. They do their best to go with the flow.
We prepare by putting it on the board/class schedule. We have a group schedule then each individual schedule gets changed as well. Some students have a written schedule then I have like a template and just fill in the activities. When things get crazy, the ones that can handle a written schedule, we'll fill it in that way and the kids can help with that. If they're able to write, then have a dry-erase version for them. Others include a picture version.
Then when the day is over, we'll switch it all back to the normal schedule. I constantly change the schedule. When we get towards the end of the year, and there's testing three or four days in a row, yes, it's hard and yes, it's exhausting, but I know my kids can handle it because we've been doing it all year long. We've been doing it for different reasons and for different activities. We've been doing it for different lengths of time. And so all those things add up and really make a difference. And before you know it, they're able to go with the flow.
I always praise them and I specifically tell them, "Wow, you're so flexible!" That really sticks with them. If they ask what it means, I tell them:
Going with the flow is being able to change when the schedule changes or change when events happen.
Being flexible means you can follow along with something that's different. We'll even practice, let's do some yoga and see how you can bend this way and then we change. If you do assignments as you've done it this way, and now we're going to bend and do it that way. Being flexible is knowing when something changes you can follow along. Let's go over big strategy to be to help you sabotage your student's schedule. Social narratives.
There is a four-step formula for social narratives in case you need it
1. There are four question types that you can use and they're super easy to plug in. I can give you an example for that than schedule icons like we have our group schedule and then each student has an individual schedule, and that helps tremendously and you may want to have a few extras on hand. Especially for like the visuals. I have one that says like surprise, and then I have one that had like recess rainy day assembly recipe game. Picture Day is what do you think that might get thrown in there? Because sometimes, maybe you can use surprise for everything because the surprise could be good. It could be bad. And that's something that they can learn as well. And don't forget that. Lots and lots of praise, lots and lots of reinforcement. Trying to keep it as positive as possible. And praise them specifically like yes, I love that you're being flexible. You're doing a great job managing this change in the school day and I'm so proud of you. I know it's scary and I know you can do it. And it's gonna be over soon. And timers are great. Like, hey, let's try this new thing for five minutes and then we can have a quick little break. Or hey, I want you to come try this with me for five minutes. We'll set a timer and then we can come back and you can get some m&ms, whatever works. Timers are great and I can even use a timer and token combination. So say that the assembly is 20 minutes long. Well you give them one token for walking over there. And then each five minutes, they get another token and they get a total of five tokens. So they don't really realize that it's a five minute increment, but they love seeing how many tokens they're gonna get before it's over and then when it's over, we leave a few minutes early before all like the craziness of dismissal from wherever we're going happens. And then last tip would be take pictures while you're there. And then you can come back and you can show or share that with them. Show that to them. And you can say hey, we look like we had so much fun. Thank you so much for coming with me. How did you like handling something new? Was this scary? Was it fun? Were you nervous? Were you sad? Were you happy? Were you did you feel lonely? Were you prepared? All those are great questions to ask them for follow up, build that rapport so that way you can debrief and see kind of how they handle those new situations. And you can use that feedback to prepare them for the next change that you have. And if your kids are nonverbal, get the emotions visual chart and offer them choices. And I do have students that have some difficulties with new situations and may have behavior show up. You may want to use contingency charts that show like in this new situation, these are the behaviors I'm going to do so I can get this preferred activity or reward. And then if you don't do these behaviors and you engage in these other things, you're not going to get this activity or a reward. So a great example would be when I go to the field trip trap. I am going to stay with my class and I'm going to use my words. So that way I can have fun and participate on all the rides when I go on and then the other option would be when I go on the field trip and I run away from my class and I refuse to communicate or run away from my class. And I sit down on the ground and I won't use my words that I won't get to participate on the rides. So something like that could help them see okay, this is what you need me to do. Instead of this and that's a great way to tie that in together. So that's how I sabotage my students schedule. And it's worked so well my main babies which I call my babies, which are my students in May they are phenomenal with the schedule changes, things that happen, emergencies people being out another great. One more event that could you could sabotage is like on Fridays. Instead of going to the cafeteria to eat for lunch. We stay in and we do like a movie day. And that's something that they obviously look forward to and that they enjoy. And it's a great way to be like oh yeah, we're messing up your schedule today. And what happens is since we're inside it takes them a little bit longer to eat, how to do movie, like treat it like you would at home sit there and talk with them because I don't get to eat lunch with my kids every week or every day because I take my lunch they take their lunch on Fridays I actually get to eat with them and so it's fun to sit and talk to them like you would kind of family style and enjoy each other's company and another conversation activity and, and they can look forward to that on Fridays. That's more of a meaningful schedule change. So since that takes a little bit longer on Fridays, or recess time, it's actually different. So we see a different class outside on Fridays, and we get to socialize at different kids once a week. So trying to find those little switcher rules that you can do to make it easier for your kids to adjust to something that's a change. And I've heard so many amazing things from parents talking about their students and their kids and how they notice after being in my class, how different and how much less anxiety they have when things change or when different things happen. They used to be worried or they used to be anxious about things happening and because of the changes, they can handle it. And lastly, at the end of the year, I teach the SEC so at the end of the year my sixth graders go on to junior high because we're split I'm an intermediate school and I get them ready for this. Another big change because they're going to new school, new teachers, they're gonna have new staff. It's a new time of day that they're going and I get that ready by creating a transition. And I have their new teachers pictures, their classrooms, the locations of their specials, and then I have like the time so they're going to be going where the buses the parents can take them up and drop them off. And then I give them a calendar so that way over summer, they can cross off how many days until they start their next school and the parents can set up a transition meeting or tour with that next campus. And so I try to facilitate that too, with my upcoming students. And I invite them for a private campus tours so they can see everything with the parents and me and the child. And I give them that the booklet but for our campus with me and my staff and our locations, and everything that we do on our campus and a calendar so they can look forward to coming in and being on our campus so that it gives them a great way to prepare for a very, very, very big change. Every school year that happens on May 5 and sixth. So I hope you guys found something useful to advertise your students schedules and is stressful, but it is doable and it is worth it. So find one little thing that you can change this week that can help your students be more flexible and be more receptive to change. Thanks for reading guys are listening. If I turn this into an audio thing, we're going to try it and see how it goes.
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