Managing Your Schedule

5/26/2017

One of the hardest things about a job as a school counselor is juggling many different types of duties at once. I get a lot of questions about how to set up an elementary school counselor's schedule. I believe that it is really important to set a schedule early in the year so that you don't get pulled into too many things and realize it's January before you've started any groups. Sound familiar? Of course, crises and unexpected visitors of the grown up and kid kind are part of the job too. So how do you do it?

Here's how I coordinate my schedule:

1. Set a yearlong calendar with the number of classroom lessons to teach in each grade level and a plan for topics to cover.
2. Create a weekly plan with groups to run, planned meetings, and other scheduled items.
3. Allow teachers to sign up for classroom lessons in a google doc . Because you've already scheduled your groups and put those in the google doc, you won't get double booked or realize that the one time a kid is available for a group, you have a class.
4. When your schedule is done, it will look something like this. You can fill in your individual counseling, parent meetings, teacher consults and all those other things you do in the empty slots.

This has worked pretty well for me over the years. I like to be organized and know ahead of time what I am doing. The problem I fall into is having too many things scheduled. If your schedule is too full, you can't fit in enough responsive services to meet the needs in your school.

How does scheduling work for you? I am lucky enough to not be on the specialist rotation at my school. If I were, I could likely do the same scheduling routine but it would be much harder to fit everything in. Good luck in the new school year!

To read more: Calendars for Productivity and 5 Steps to a Yearlong Counseling Program.

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This post was updated May 26th, 2017.

12 Comments

Rebecca Atkins

Welcome to my blog where I talk about all things school counselor and encourage others to Counselor Up!

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Jennifer

5/14/2015 08:45:06 pm

Will you send sample google doc that you use to schedule classroom visits? How do you complete a calendar for the entire year?

5/14/2015 09:44:24 pm

Hi Jennifer, the sample google docs and the yearlong calendar are hyperlinked in the blog post!

Russell Sabella link

6/6/2015 10:53:01 pm

Might be of interest. Article about managing time for school counselors. http://bit.ly/on-call-counselor

6/7/2015 11:13:37 am

Thank you for sharing a great resource!

Beth H.

9/15/2015 05:53:39 am

Hi! I'm interested in the yearlong calendar but I couldn't get the link to work! Love your blog and your TPT store! :)

Rebecca Atkins link

9/16/2015 09:06:13 am

Hi Beth- the link should be fixed now, thanks!

Gloria

6/30/2016 09:08:09 am

The yearlong calendar link is not working again. Thanks for posting all this wonderful material!

6/30/2016 09:20:05 am

Thanks Gloria- should be fixed now.

Chelsea link

7/31/2017 10:06:34 am

Hi Rebecca! Do you have any suggestions on how to create a calendar for middle school counselors that will constantly have interruptions due to students coming in upset, needing to talk, in crisis, etc. I find it very difficult to plan my day due to this.

7/31/2017 10:31:12 am

Hi Chelsea - this is an issue no matter what level you work in! A few questions: do you have more than one counselor and do you have any office staff in your suite? If you do, you might be able to triage or have counselors on call. Otherwise, I would suggest you do what elementary counselor singletons do - ask students to make an appointment.

Unless it's a true crisis (suicidal ideation, abuse, etc), I let students know that I am not available at the moment and that I will see them later that day or the next day. I usually ask them, does this need to be today or can it wait. Students are usually good about giving an honest answer to this. Then make sure you follow up!

I also ask that teachers never send students to my office without calling first because there may not be someone there to meet them.
In middle school, I know that students can drop by while changing classes, during their lunch etc. If that happens, think of a system where they could leave their information and you will follow up with them when your schedule allows.

Even in an emergency room, doctors don't keep dropping everything for the next person that walks in the door. Think about your schedule, the immediacy of the concern in front of you, and then make a choice about what will work best.

7/31/2017 10:36:54 am

Thank you Rebecca. It sounds like I'm doing everything I can so far to help facilitate a good system - it's just a matter of sticking to it and setting boundaries with the students that have their "drop-by's" in between classes.
I am the only counselor in my school. I do have wonderful office staff that help screen the needs that come in. I also came up with a "Request- To - Meet" half sheet that has specific questions on what they are coming in to see me for so I know the urgency of the need if I am busy at the moment w another situation. Is there a place I can upload this? Wanted to share the idea. Thank you so much for all you do! I love reading your blog!

7/31/2017 11:46:11 am

Sounds like you're doing great! It's a constant battle. If you'd like, you can upload to a google doc and then link the form in the comments here. Thanks :)