Having a Schedule

Working at home is not as easy as people think it is. It is easy to be distracted and hard to separate work responsibilities from home responsibilities. During this stressful time, many teachers have their own children at home at the same time they are teaching from home. Having a schedule helps balance work/home responsibilities. If both parents are home, it is easier to share responsibilities but sometimes teachers are single parents.

Separate the day into morning, afternoon, and evening blocks. You might want to meet as a family to work out a work/home schedule for everyone to see.

List the home responsibilities for each block such as breakfast for the family, lunch for the family, dinner for the family, helping children with schoolwork, cleaning the house, and bath time. If you have older children, consider having the older children helping at mealtimes either cooking or cleaning. Consider having older children help younger children with schoolwork when needed.

List the work responsibilities for each block of the day. It would be good to do a daily video for your students each day which will help them feel connected and not abandoned. This video can just be a “hello” and an overview of what you hope they get accomplished today. There may be work that needs to be graded and lesson plans that need to be done. You might plan a time that you can video conference with others in your department or school each day as a check-in to see how everyone is doing. This will help you feel less isolated.

Then create some kind of spreadsheet with the three blocks of time for each day of the week. Put your responsibilities into the blocks that they need to be in. By spreading these out into a visual, it will help be less overwhelming. You can print this out for your family to see. You might also want to come up with a family schedule. Having a routine will help everyone feel grounded and get used to the “new normal.”

Do you plan your routine at home? How do you work it out? Please share.

Photo by Eric Rothermel on Unsplash

Visual Schedules

Sometimes visual schedules can help students see how their day is organized. Depending on the age of the student, visual schedules can be made in many different formats. This helps the student and I stay organized. As activities get accomplished, the student can even designate that the activity is complete.

For younger students, pictures of the activity can be listed so the student knows what to do first and then what to do next. If possible, even use a picture of that student doing the activity so the student can personalize the task even more.

As the student gets older, pictures and words can be used to help them connect the words with the activity.

Some older students may not need pictures but numbers can be added to the activities.  I would caution using time though because some students may want to follow this schedule to the exact minute. I like to use designations such as “first activity” or just list them in order and number them.

If I want to give choices. I try not to give more than three choices and depending on the student, I may even limit it to only two.

These visual schedules help many students stay on track and I notice that time is used more wisely. Students don’t feel overwhelmed by all that they must do in one day. As the student follows a routine, they even might feel the need for this schedule less and less but if they need it, it is there for them.

Visual schedules also lessen anxiety for the student and I saw a decrease in behavior problems. The student knew what was expected of them and could transition easier from one activity to the next.

The hardest thing with visual schedules was that it required a lot of organization on the part of the teacher. All activities need to be planned and materials needed to be available beforehand. I found it easy to plan the week before so that I was ready for the whole week. I didn’t have to worry about the copier breaking or unexpected situations keeping me from being prepared.

Do you use visual schedules? How does it help your students? Please share.