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!