3 grades. 3 inclusion teachers. One self-contained classroom. Everyone has lunch and recess at different times and you can’t find a time where every student is in the room. Sound familiar?
Scheduling can be a pain. It can be hard to find time in the day to get every student everything they need while ensuring you and your staff get breaks. I have 5 tips below to help you create your schedule, as well as a simple PDF I use to keep track of my students when making my schedule.
Start with the Non-Negotiables
I have students who get some sort of academic inclusion at every grade level. For me, these times are non-negotiable. If my student is supposed to get 45 minutes of math inclusion and his 4th-grade inclusion teacher teaches math from 9:00-10:00, then that time becomes non-negotiable for me.
Use your Non-Negotiables to Plan Other Pieces
Using the example above, I will take that information to shape my schedule. I know that student is getting his math time in general education. I know he will be in that environment at 9:00 am every day. I will schedule my math class at the same time, that he isn’t missing anything in my room and I will be able to remember that every student gets math at 9.
Have Related Services Push In
Do you really want to lead a whole group reading lesson but don’t have enough support? Try inviting your speech therapist to join the lesson. Maybe you can have your Occupational Therapist help you during an art lesson. This was one of the best ways I found to maximize my time. Last year my speech therapist joined me for reading group once a week, my occupational therapist joined me for writer’s workshop once a week and they both pushed into an art lesson. This helped me maximize 4 hours a week in my schedule-which helped tremendously!
Decide What You Need, and Fight For It
Maybe you need a 20-minute lunch every day. Maybe a 30-minute planning once a week would be helpful. Maybe twice a week, you take 15 minutes to call parents and catch up on emails. Whatever it is you need, commit to it. Talk to your paraprofessionals. Talk to other special education teachers. Consult with your admin. If your contract dictates you should have time, then you deserve that time. Know that no one else is going to fight for it, so you need to. You will be thankful in the end.
Use A Tracking Sheet to Get It All In
Nothing is more frustrating than getting your entire schedule done and then realizing that you forgot to include Johnny in any of your reading groups. This might seem like a common sense thing, but trust me it is easy to lose track. I use a simple marker to track the service time. If a student gets the time in inclusion, I would highlight that box to remind myself. As I plug things into the schedule, I mark it on the grid. My schedule is not done until every student has a checkmark for every part of the day they need. Grab my checklist below!
But How Do I Teach Multiple Grades?
I utilized a curriculum map to make this part of my classroom work. Click this link to read a blog post that explains the concept of a curriculum map!
