How I cut myself out of the scheduling loop

 Anyone else up to version 4.0 of your schedule this year? I'm not talking little tweaks, I'm talking rip it all down and build it again.  It's hard, it's draining, and most of all it's time consuming.  So with version 4.0, I came up with a new plan. I was going to automate it. Rather than asking parents what worked for them (though I do love me a good Google Form for this), chasing down those responses, and then building a schedule, I used technology to cut myself out as the middle man.  

We've gone from full remote, to the most significant kids being back in person, to two weeks of a hybrid version with a remote option, back to full remote. When we went from full remote to some kids back in person, I had to shift around students, then again when more students came back, and now I would've had to change some of the same kids for the 4th time.  Since I see preschoolers who often need supervision from an adult, shifting these kids around only to shift them back when we return in mid January seems unfair to families.  

I started this time by keeping my remote only kids (about 20% of my caseload) the same. I let parents know their time would remain the same unless they needed to change it (due to schedules shifting during other family members remote learning times).  For the rest of my families, I set up a Calendly. I know you can also use Sign Up Genius, but I found Calendly to be more user friendly, and as a Google district, I could use Calendly to generate an invite for me & the parent with a Meets link.  All I had to go do once it was set was to make it a recurring meeting on my calendar (which did the same for parent clanedars). Everything is in my calendar, I didn't have to make individual invites (though I did tweak invites to be the same link if they have more than 1 session per week). Game changer. Hopefully if we have to switch between in person and fully remote for the rest of the year, I should be able to use my v3.0 and v4.0 schedules with ease. 

This worked for me because I didn't have to set up groups right now. As more kids get added to my caseload, I will add them to my current schedule, and work with parents on an individual basis. But if I did need to make groups, I might send out different calendlys for different grade level.  Maybe 4 slots for my third graders to choose between or some slots for my artic kids in grades k-1 on a different (not overlapping) calendly than my artic 2-5 kids. I also know that my students will be doing their live learning from 9-11, so I don't have to work around live times by grade level. Some coworkers are just leaving their schedule the same as when kids were in person (if they were seen live at 10:30, they are now remote at 10:30).  I think that works for some kids, but our schedule went from 2 in person sessions a day (AM/PM) to only mornings, and between daycare, nap schedules and sibling schedules, it wouldn't work for me.

Stay tuned for how I doled out instructions to my parents in as user-friendly of a way as I could without using my nightmare of bcc or writing individual emails explaining to them how to do it and how many sessions to sign up for. 

What version of your schedule are you up to? How are you handling the changes?

Well. *blows off the cobwebs* *tidies up*

Hello all!

6 years is a long time. A lot can happen in six years, and a lot happened indeed.  Let's recap.

Six years ago I started working with my district's EC program.  Since then we've more than doubled the size of the program and added tuition-based peers. I very much enjoy this age group.  I spent my first few years delving into the world of Core Vocabulary. I finished a certification in Assistive Technology.

Then five years ago, my personal life took an unexpected turn. I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.  In the five years, I've been lucky to have very few relapses and the disease appears to be holding steady. My lasting symptoms impact my hands (constant feeling of pins & needles and some dexterity issues that slow my typing) and left leg. By no means do I recommend getting MS, but since my body did insist, this version is the best-case scenario.  

So I kept working and learning to adapt to my job and new life while trying to avoid stress (which exacerbates my symptoms).  Three years ago we welcomed a son into this world (he'll be 3 this week!) and in July 2019 my daughter decided to join us 6.5 weeks before her due date, resulting in a 2+ week NICU stay.  Don't worry, though. At her last doctor's check-up she was weighing in at the 75th percentile for both height and weight, and her doctor declared her caught up and meeting all milestones. Apparently, I wasn't crazy when I thought COVID snacking was hitting us all hard during shelter-in-place!

As much as I hate to admit it, I am high risk due to my autoimmune condition. So we spent a quiet summer at home. During the school year, my parents watch my kids during the day, which is wonderful and great for everyone. I love the relationships my kids have with their grandparents. But they are also older and in the high-risk category, so we're pretty cautious about our community engagements.  We took a few trips to the zoo this summer, but it was all outdoors and well distanced.

My district decided at the 11th hour to go remote due to cost concerns at the middle school and high school levels and new guidelines from the state department of health. So we are doing remote preschool using Google Meets and teletherapy around that. Of course 2 days into the year, my laptop died a horrible death and I lost everything since my last backup at the beginning of 2018 school year. But I've done more and more on Google in recent years, so rebuilding my clipart library will likely be the hardest part.  We are one week into the year with students, and I start seeing kids this week. In the spring, we did everything asynchronously with parent consults as requested.  So the world of teletherapy is relatively new to me. Last week I fell down the rabbit hole of using PowerPoint backgrounds with Zoom.  More to come on that soon, I hope. 

Reinventing my therapy services has reinvigorated my creative juices in a way that I haven't felt for a long time.  For a while after my diagnosis and with having 2 young kids at home, I made new materials, but I was really just getting the job done (or half done because I never had the time!). It feels good to be creating again.

Of course, this year will be full of challenges. We are already talking about bringing some of our kids back before the rest of the student population, which is an added level of stress.  Part of me worries that if I plan more than a week out, it will be all for naught. It's my last before I'm fully vested in my state's retirement system.  So I don't know what next year will bring.  I've dreamed of a switch in environments for a few reasons. But right now I have to take it day by day. And on this day, I dusted off this little blog and shared a lot out there that even people who work with me daily don't necessarily know about me.