Having trouble getting your schedule to work?
It’s inevitable, the school speech language pathologist will have difficulty putting together a workable schedule. Some years it’s just more difficulty than others. We all know the obstacles we face (15 scheduling obstacles). I have a simple tip for those of you who feel completely overwhelmed. Ask for help.
One year I was working in 2 buildings and wasn’t very familiar with the overall school culture. We were packing 20 kids into 19.5 hours (I realize that is a luxury to some of you). The schedules were extremely different but most core classes were taught in the morning. It didn’t take me long to realize I didn’t want to waste extreme amounts of time and energy needed to create, recreate and then revamp a schedule that probably couldn’t work. In the mean time students were losing precious services.
I asked the program mangers in both buildings to sit down with me and help work out a schedule. I explained the issues I was dealing with and that I was not able to solve the problem on my own. When they arrived I was prepared with copies of schedules and templates in case they showed up empty handed.
We sat down for what they thought was going to be about a half hour and it took almost two hours to work then rework my schedule. In the end I had a schedule I could implement the next morning. One set of eyes wasn’t enough and I couldn’t identify all the conflicts not knowing the schools various routines and culture.
Did I feel like I couldn’t do my job on my own? No I also realized I was given almost impossible and unknown parameters to work with. Did it speed the process along? Sure did. Did it save grief and strife? Yes again. Did my program managers gain insight and understanding of the challenges I was facing? Not sure about that but I like to think I at least planted a seed.
If you feel like you are facing significant difficulty putting a schedule together either because of your numbers, severity of caseload or too many schedules to combine, ask for and if necessary insist on help. It’s the right thing to do. An extra set of eyes can never hurt. Your stress level will thank you.
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