Thursday, September 6, 2012

Planning the Schedule

It takes more than a week to figure out exactly how many students are on my caseload, since some students move away and new students enter the county.  While I'm waiting for the caseload to settle, this is how I begin figuring out what days I'll--most likely--be at my schools and early childhood playgroup.
It's a little difficult to see but the sheet is divided horizontally into AM and PM.  Then, the school days of the week are written across the top in a row.
I figure out how much time I'll spend 1-1 with students at each school according to the students' OT services frequency--perhaps 2 students at 120 minutes per month, perhaps 3 more at 60 minutes per month and perhaps another 3 at 30 minutes per month.  This info is written for each school on a little "sticky note" and I juggle the notes between days when I learn when schools will have Child Study teams or other factors which affect scheduling. 
Since I primarily work in classrooms or other school environments there isn't a big concern about sharing a working space with other itinerant staff since I don't have to arrange a space to see students.  I also enjoy the luxury of having a desk and storage space in an administrative building, when working in a school library or computer lab isn't available or I need more materials than I usually carry around in my car.
Sure, I could use a MS Word document with moveable text boxes or some other type of digital planning but this scheduling system is fast and easy to carry with me in my teensy "Important Papers" folder.  Sure beats erasing over and over, too.

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