3 Tips For Making Your School Counselor Schedule
School counselors are BUSY, and doing all the things can be exhausting and overwhelming. These 3 tips for making your school counselor schedule will help you streamline the thousands of things on your to-do list so you feel more focused and productive!
Tip #1 Use Batch Scheduling
Batch scheduling has been a life saver for me in pretty much every part of my life, but it can also be really helpful when making your school counselor schedule. If you’re not familiar with batch scheduling, it’s the idea of doing similar tasks for a larger block of time instead of switching back and forth from different activities.
Batch scheduling can be so helpful because it allows you to concentrate on one thing instead of constantly having to switch your focus. Counselors have enough to manage in their brains, but I’ve found this strategy to be really helpful in simplifying my schedule. There are a few ways to use batching in your school counseling schedule.
The first type of batch scheduling is batching by type of lesson. For example, doing all of your small groups on one day, classroom lessons over two back-to-back days, one day for individual meetings… etc. By doing this, you will be able to focus just on one thing at a time. Doing this has not only helped me feel less scattered, but has improved the quality of my lessons. Instead of being worried about what comes next, I have found myself better able to stay in the moment.
Another way to do batch scheduling is by topic. An example of this would be to have a monthly topic. For example, September may be focused on friendship. For the month, your classroom lessons, school initiatives, etc. would be focused on this topic. Batching in this way allows you (and your students) to take a deep dive into a particular topic. This allows students the time to have in depth conversations, and develop habits before moving on to another topic. If you are interested in doing this at your school, grab these free planning sheets to help you get started!
These two types of batching can also be combined - you could do a topic of the month while also batching your lessons by type. Again, school counselors have enough other things going on, without having to spend countless hours on scheduling. That’s why I think batch scheduling is a great way to keep things as focused and consistent as possible.
Tip #2: Keep Fridays As A Catch Up Day
I know what you are thinking after reading about batch scheduling. That sounds great, but what about the 500 disruptions that come up daily?? Don’t worry. I’ve got you covered. It’s no secret that a school counselor’s day NEVER goes as planned. Perfect batch scheduling doesn’t prevent a crisis, an impromptu parent meeting, or a cancelled classroom lesson. You have to be flexible.
Enter my next planning tip - keeping Fridays open. When I make my schedule, I have always tried to front load it. This means that I try to put the bulk of my work in the first 3-4 days of the week. I try to plan as little as possible for Friday.
Then, when Friday rolls around, I try to do any lessons that were missed, catch up on paperwork and start preparing for the next week. Not only does this help me stay on top of my tasks, it also has helped my mindset. Going into Friday knowing that it is a catch up day has been a great way to mentally prepare me for the weekend. It has also helped me to better cope with disruptions or changes to my schedule, since I know I have a day to catch up!
Tip #3 Make Your Schedule Known
Whatever your schedule looks like, I have found that transparency is key. Letting administration and classroom teachers know what to expect can help things go much more smoothly. Depending on the staff at your school, it also may decrease your likelihood of being asked to do non-counseling duties.
If you are using Fridays as a catch-up day, it can be helpful to let teachers (and students) know what to expect if a lesson is missed. It can also be helpful to let teachers and students know as soon as you can about any disruptions to the normal schedule, like an IEP meeting.
I have found that things go most smoothly when teachers, staff and students know what to expect. Keeping the communication lines open is a great way to show that you are willing to work together to come up with the best plan.
You can let the teachers know what your schedule is by sending an e-mail, or if you use Google Classroom, you can post it there. If you block off certain days for certain types of lessons, you can even add that to the bottom of your e-mail signature.
Although things never go exactly as planned, my hope is that these 3 tips will help you when making your school counselor schedule.
