Making the Most of Plan Time

 At this time next week, I'll be sitting in an in-service, wondering where the summer went and how it's even possible that another school year is about to start. There are a mixture of feelings - sadness, anxiety, anticipation, maybe even a teeny tiny bit of excitement about getting back into the normal routine. 

Something that I am awful about during the summer, but manage pretty well during the school year, is meeting deadlines. It isn't the same mindset in summer; I need to turns into I should, which turns into, maybe tomorrow. And then it's August. Something that made a bit of a difference this year was, believe it or not, giving myself plan time, because the way I schedule my plan times makes so much sense, and is so effective, at work. Instead of telling myself that I was going to do laundry 'this week,' I told myself I'm going to start laundry 'between 3 and 5 on Tuesday.' We want to do [this major household task]. Ok, it's going to take us 3-4 days, so on this day, we're going to do [this part] for [this many hours] in the [morning/afternoon/evening]. Summer is too unstructured for me, so doing this meant that we actually accomplished things. Now, granted, Tuesday at 3PM would roll around and I knew it was the start of the laundry window...but only the start. "I can put this off for another half an hour." And I did, which shortened the window, but as long as I was starting within that time frame, it still felt like an accomplishment. 

If there's such a thing as an organized procrastinator, that's me. And I have to say, I've gotten pretty decent at being organized while procrastinating at work. .

Our contract allows for 100 minutes of plan time per week, to be organized at our own discretion. We also are able to make our own schedules, and add our plan minutes whenever we'd like. I tend to attach mine to my lunch time, for a few reasons: 

• My boyfriend and I do lunch over the phone every workday. It's a chance for us to spend 30 minutes together in the midst of the chaos and enjoy. There are times when I'm running late for lunch, and if he's got the time, he'll flex a little later so we still get our 30 minutes. So not only do I get quality time, but I have someone who is making sure that I take my 30 minute lunch, even if it runs into my plan time. 
• When I lose my plan time to a delayed lunch or a meeting, I need to contractually add in whatever time I've missed somewhere else that week (or early in the next) so I've still had my 100 minutes. I can highlight the missed time on my schedule and figure out how to add it in later in the day, week, or month. 
• I'm typically able to avoid meetings that are scheduled over my lunch/plan. With a 30-minute lunch and 20-minute prep back to back, that's nearly an hour of [hypothetical] duty-free time each day. My lunch is at 12:30 and my plan time is from 1-1:20. If a meeting is scheduled at 12:30, I tell the person that that's my lunch, and I can make a 1:30 meeting. If we have an 11:30 meeting that's running into an hour, I will excuse myself. Administration knows they have to give employees a lunch daily, and will back me up when I state that a meeting interferes with my lunch. It's far easier to make up a therapy session than it is to make up a lunch, and with our schedules, a 30-minute lunch is difficult to make up. It's not like administration can just come in and watch our groups for 30 minutes while we eat, like they would for a classroom teacher. And they really don't want to hear about an HR complaint or grievance over a missed lunch. So ensuring that I get my lunch ensures that I get my plan nearly 100% of the time. 

During the week, I will also write blocks of time into my schedule for testing and screening, consults, and device work. These are separate from my plan times. Sure, these are activities that can fall under plan time, but our jobs have so many demands beyond direct service that, if you don't make time for it, it becomes more difficult to do. The amount of these 'bonus blocks' I have depends on my schedule; I make sure I have my sessions scheduled in my weekly master schedule, and then fill in the empty times with those activities. 

Do I always get to do these activities as planned? Nope. But as I'm planning what to do for the week, I can write in exactly when in my schedule I'm going to do these things. I am very visual, so I color code my schedule. This is a redacted example of my schedule from April 2024. I'll explain more below. 

My pretty schedule

The yellow all represents the times I have available to do any of the following: screenings, makeup sessions, testing, report writing, parent calls/emails, scheduling meetings, holding meetings. Seems like a lot of time, I know, but it isn't. If I have meetings scheduled at any time, the yellow gets used for makeup sessions whenever possible. When I have to test, sometimes a student isn't available when I have time, so I have to move sessions or make them up to get the testing done. I've mentioned before that Mondays twice per month are our team meeting days or IEP scheduling days, so any groups I have there have first shot at having a makeup session anywhere in the yellow that week, if I have time. [Note: the orange is for 2x/week groups, so as long as I get them on Wednesday that week, I'll usually hit their minimums without having to make up both sessions]. At the beginning of the week, I write in what I'll do in each of those time blocks, just so I can hold myself accountable and know what I have time for that week. 

The orange and purple represent all of my general education students (48 in total) who are seen minimum 1x/week for services. The color coding isn't exact, as I will add in some 1x/week students to the 2x/week groups. 

The gray represents my consult students, or students who are on a monthly/twice a month monitor. I only have 3 of these students, so those blocks are also for teachers who ask if they can 'ask me a quick question'. I will also use these times if I need to observe a student in a general education room (or, if they're being pushed in from the self-contained room). 

The red is my lunch and plan block, as discussed above in far too much detail. Those 20 minutes of plan time are when I will make my copies, organize materials for groups, and do tasks that are directly related to my sessions (organizing baseline activities, getting materials ready, progress monitoring). If needed, I will do a screening or pull a student for individual baselines, but this time usually flies and I do what needs to be done quickly in this block. 

The teal is my scheduled time in the self-contained classroom. There are a maximum of 8 students in this room, and they all receive 1:1 services for the most part. If I'm absent one of those days, or if students are absent, I may pair them up. Their sessions are a bit longer since they are seen within the room and I don't have to travel between my office and rooms for sessions. 

The green is for our building pre-K room. This is another "self-contained" room, but only because they're preschoolers and don't leave the room to eat lunch or have specials with the 'big kids.' Our pre-K program is a full-day program. In the past, I'd have to have morning and afternoon times, but now, since they're there all day and they nap from 12:30-2 (lucky kids), I keep to the morning because no one wants to bother a 4 year old after a 2 hour nap. 

The darker blue is my time to work on AAC. I will admit that I have been terrible with device maintenance, as well as creating picture cards for core boards. The self-contained room is at lunch/recess during the times I have these blocks, so devices and core boards are usually free, since the paraprofessionals have dedicated lunch/recess core boards that travel with the students to those locations. 

The lighter orange shades represent when I'm at a nonpublic building (any of my 3). When I schedule with them at the beginning of the year, I don't give much wiggle room at all. This may have to change if I have a student in the PreK at one of the sites who is only in their MWF pre-K class, but that gets scheduled somewhere when I have time on one of those days if the parents won't bring the child for speech on Thursday. [Note: I tend to push for walk-in services for those students since I'm commandeering a space that's used by multiple people in each nonpublic building. They are kind enough to include me in the schedule rotation and I try to stick to that as much as possible so as not to interfere with anyone else's time. This is what I tell parents who are reluctant to do walk-in, but I do what I have to do. There are MWF and TR pre-K classes, and most of the time, the kids who receive Speech are in the TR class, so scheduling on a Wednesday doesn't help me, either]. The buildings all eat lunch at the same times, so that is my paperwork block on Thursdays. This past year, I had 18 students between my nonpublic buildings. I anticipate about the same number this year, but may need to incorporate another day if that MWF pre-K foils my plans again. 

Finally, the light blue is my Medicaid billing time. This is scheduled at the end of the day so I can do all of my daily billing for the sessions or meetings I've had that day, and finish monthly notes on the last day of the month those students are seen. 

This is what works for me. It may not work for you, but I have advised CFs in the past to avoid writing 'paperwork' or 'plan time' in schedules. Actually planning out your week using that Eisenhower matrix of what is urgent for the week makes things a lot less complicated, and also helps me to ensure that my work stays at work and doesn't come home. 

Starting the Year Off Strong

 If you're not back already, you're preparing yourself for it. Or, you're trying to prepare for it. It's fun to think about how my start of the year preparation has changed over the past few decades (ew). 

In my first 5 years, I'd be in the building as soon as we were allowed in August. Cleaning, dusting, sorting and re-sorting materials, printing data logs, printing worksheets, whatever I needed to do for 2-4 hours every day for 2 weeks, I was doing. It was kind of funny, though, because at that time, I had one half of a half-classroom for myself, so it's not like there was a lot I could do. We also had a brick school, without air conditioning, so it was very sauna-like in August. 

In 2012, I met my boyfriend in August, and the start of the year routine changed because I had a different infatuation. I did go in a few days before, but it wasn't my sole source of August entertainment anymore, so preparation didn't seem like such a big importance. The following summer, we talked about going in early to set up and he asked how much I had to do. "Very little," I realized, since I don't work with kids the first week. "So why not treat yourself to some fun you time instead of setting up where you're spending the next nine months?" I had to admit, a week to pamper myself sounded fun, and I honestly didn't feel rushed or stressed out getting things set up during the first week instead of in the weeks before. 

That was the pattern for the next 3 years until we started spending summers with his family in Michigan, and driving back to Pennsylvania the day before I had to be in work for opening in-service. We did that for several years until moving to Michigan in early 2020. The 2020-2021 school year was virtual, so my beginning of the year preparation included moving my things from one room of the house to another. :) When I finally went back in Fall 2021, it was my first time in that room, so I had a lot of setting up to do. Thankfully, we were given a week-long inservice/set up time under contract hours, and we were living 30 minutes away from the school, so I didn't have to do any advanced setup. And now, I'm at the point where I organize most of what I need during the last week of school and spend the in-service week just dusting and setting up the room with as little stress as possible. 

"As little stress as possible" is a great mantra to start the school year - especially since you know you're going to be stressed a lot for the next 9 months. Here's what I do to get myself started: 

The week before in-services start, I shop. I usually get a few new outfits or a new tote bag or something, and start getting myself back on a more typical sleep-wake cycle (so, wake up at 8 and go to bed at 11, rather than wake up at 11 and go to bed at 3, lol). 

During in-service week, we are required to do some online trainings. These are usually website-based trainings that you can't skip, and take about 3 hours. They are the same every year, so I will do these at home while watching TV or something to get them out of the way. 

We have a lot of down time during in-service week for room preparation, so that's what I focus on. I'll print out data logs and IEP summaries for teachers and get those in mailboxes, hang up our super power badges, and fill up the treasure box. I'll also prepare for the deluge of first-week screening requests - you know, they've barely had time to hear a child but they 'must' be seen. [Note: always make sure the student in question doesn't already have an IEP; you'd probably not be surprised by how often that happens!] To do that, I make sure I have copies of my screening referral form and results pages ready in a binder so I can grab and go with those. I also make sure I'm prepared for baselines or reevaluation requests for any students who have IEPs due in September. Once my room is set up, and my forms are ready, I'm ready to start the year. 

The first week of school is chaos. Whether it's year 1 or year 21, it feels like you're trapped in a whirling tornado that sucks the energy out of you as time simultaneously flies and stands still. I nap every day during the first week when I get home, for at least 20-30 minutes, because I'm that tired. I don't work with kids unless we have an evaluation that needs to be done ASAP. I work on scheduling, usually because the end of this week is when administration finalizes the master schedule, so it seems fruitless to try to make a schedule when it'll change 7 times anyway. I've read a lot of great posts and articles about allowing teachers to select their own times with post-its on a schedule board outside of the speech room - but I'm too much of a control freak for that. I draft a schedule that I share with our special ed teacher and literacy interventionists so we don't have overlap, and then share with the teachers using a fun little page. Typically, we start the week before Labor Day, which means I'll already be behind on my Monday students. Mondays are also a day when we usually have a building substitute for team meetings and IEP days. To help combat missed sessions or not meeting minimums, I rarely schedule kids who are seen 1x/week on Mondays. Mondays are reserved for 2x/week kids or monitor-level students (1-2x/month). I have a self-contained room with 8 students, and it's tough to get all 8 sessions in one day, so I'll usually split them into 2 mornings a week. One full morning (usually Thursday) is reserved for my nonpublic sites; this usually carries into the afternoon. There will always be more students who pop up at nonpublics, and one of my sites has crazy class schedules. That means, when I pick Thursday as my day there, I will inevitably be given a student who is only there Monday/Wednesday/Friday for their preK program. This is when I either offer walk-in on the day I'm there or get bonus mileage money because I have to travel there on another day. 

Once I have my schedule set, I organize my data logs by days/groups. I have 5 brightly-colored folders that are labeled with the days of the week. My self-contained rooms and nonpublics all have their own folders separate from the days of the week folders. I'll keep any papers I need for that day in the folders - data logs, permission to evaluate forms to send home, worksheets, 100s pages, etc. Each student has a folder that I keep in a file cabinet for additional papers/IEP copies, so I will usually keep student papers in the daily folders until I have time to file. 

Another time-consuming, yet beneficial-later, task I complete the first week is my Medicaid billing schedule. Our district uses a program that allows us to create a schedule in anticipation of Medicaid billing. I'll use my master schedule and just schedule the Medicaid students on a day for the entire school year, without worrying about the time of their session. So, for example, on a Monday, I'll highlight all of my Medicaid students that I expect to see on Mondays and paste them in one large 3PM session on Mondays. I repeat that for every day of the week, and then at the end of each month, I create a monthly summary placeholder at 3:30 for each student on the last session of that month. When it comes time to bill, I simply have to go into that student and adjust the time, minutes, and write my note. It's a pain when students are dismissed, or their schedule changes, but, overall, this really helps me to keep updated with, and keep track of, my Medicaid billing. 

Week 2 is when sessions start. My first sessions include reviewing expectations and my rewards system, and getting some baseline data. I make sure I've got baselines on all goals and objectives by the third week (sooner if an IEP is due in September or October), and that's usually when I've gotten used to who works on what, so my session planning is easier. Being 20 years in, I don't actually plan my lessons anymore; when I get to school in the morning, I go through my data logs for the day's sessions and grab materials. I'll lesson plan if I need to create a core board page for students centered around an activity, or if I need to get baselines on new skills. I also love to do 100s sheets for articulation. We do 100s weeks in Speech, usually every third week. I usually wait to make those copies until teachers have brought their students into the room after morning bell so that the copy machine is free. 

Organization is the word that I use the most when I'm mentoring a CF. It truly feels less chaotic when you have organized materials to work with. Starting the year off organized means you're prepared for the turmoil of the rest of the year, too!