When I first started counseling, I was a little overwhelmed with scheduling classroom lessons. After all, this was one of the very first things I had to tackle! I am in a district with 20 classrooms and around 450 kids. Over the years I have tried it many different ways and finally came up with a solution that works for me and seems to keep everyone happy.

Scheduling Classroom Lessons

To get started I created a Google Form Questionnaire for the teachers to fill out. It has them list their top three days and times that would be good for me to come into their classroom to do counseling. I absolutely love using Google Forms! See more of my forms here.

It took a few days to get everyone’s responses back. Once they were all in, I started plugging them in on a blank paper calendar. I tried to allow around three lessons per day. This way I can still get individual students and have time to run my groups. I like to leave Friday’s open and do not schedule classroom lessons on that day (I explain more below).

I see Kindergarten-2nd Grade for 30 minutes and 3rd Grade-4th Grade for 45 minutes.

When teachers send their times back, you will start noticing a pattern. Each grade has the same schedule and those teachers seemed to want the same time. For example, in 3rd Grade, they come in from recess at 1:15 and all four teachers wanted me to come in at that transition time (lucky me). So, for my first week, I scheduled all four 3rd Grade classes in a row. This way I get all of 3rd Grade done in the first week. I also did this for the second week with my 4th Graders.

See the picture below of what it looks like on my calendar.

How often do I go into classrooms?

I go into each classroom twice a month, usually. On months where there is a vacation and the weeks are shortened, I only do one. For example, during December we are off for Christmas Break. I only schedule one round of lessons for that month.

For the months that have 5 weeks, I use that extra week to get caught up on paperwork, see kids, transition groups or do a fun week, such as Career Cafe.

What about Friday?

I like to leave Fridays open and not schedule any classroom lessons. I do this for several reasons. First of all, the mindset is just different on Fridays and I only get to teach these kids twice a month… I want it to count and I want them to learn. Second, it makes a great group day! I can usually get all my groups done on Fridays. For example, I am running four groups right now and I have them staggered throughout the day on Fridays. It seems to be working pretty well staying in the same routine.

Another reason why Fridays are so great to leave open is that if something happens in the week, Friday can be overflow. We had Monday off because of a holiday… I was able to move all three classrooms over to Friday and still get my groups finished. Was it a busy day… heck yea… but no one had to miss out! 🙂

Why Use a Calendar?

Calendars can be your best friend! They can do so many things to advocate for what you do. Have you ever heard anyone say that counselors just “play all day” or “sit in their office”? Still, to this day, I don’t understand how anyone can possibly think that! Because that is FAR from the truth. But, it’s our job to educate them on what we do and how we are serving kids throughout the day.

This way, the stigma associated with what they THINK we do, gets changed to what we ACTUALLY do.

I create a calendar every month with just about everything on it I can think of. I do not put individual student names on it or anything like that. But, I do put Responsive Services or Curriculum Planning so that everyone knows I am working on those things in between classroom lessons. Now, does it always work out perfectly? Am I always doing what the calendar says? NO WAY! But it does give me something to shoot for and advocate for what I’m intended to do.

How do I share my Calendar?

Another thing I put on my calendar is the standards and objectives we are working on that month. I have a few teachers who like to incorporate social-emotional learning in their regular classroom lessons and through the books they read. Also, I want parents to know so they can reinforce skills at home.

They get passed out to everyone and put in teachers mailboxes! I also give them to my building secretaries and principals and link them to the school website so parents can see. I also post it on my office door! This way anyone can look at the schedule if they are needing to see their time.

There will always be times that require me to change my schedule. My schedule will never be perfect each month. But, it gives me a plan and something to strive for each day.

I end up writing my actual day in my Simply Perfect Planner, this way I can compare what I need to be doing next to what I actually did.

Freebies

If anyone is interested in doing a calendar for their school counseling program. I have a freebie for you! Just plug in what you need to fit your lessons! Download the google link below and open in PPT to edit.

Also, a little bonus… I have a link to the Teacher Questionnaire for Counseling! Just make a copy for your Google Drive, edit how you want it, and send it out to your teachers.

I hope this helps! Let me know how you schedule your lessons… and how these resources helped! I would love to hear from you!

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