Need classroom scheduling help? Use a zoning plan. Then, the unthinkable happens: you’re down a para without a sub. What do you do? You use your “man down” schedule! Let me show you have to use a zoning plan and a “man down” schedule!
What is a Zoning Plan?
You may be asking, what is a zoning plan? Think of it as a visual map of your daily classroom schedule. You’ll make a spreadsheet with each staff member’s name in the columns and the time blocks in the rows. Grab a FREE zoning plan template here!
What Goes in a Zoning Plan?
Your classroom daily schedule will go in your zoning plan, along with a play by play of what each student is doing, where they’re doing it, and which adult is working with them for each time block of the day. It sounds more complicated than it is. Run down your daily schedule, plug in your time blocks, then decide where you need the students each time block and where you need each staff member.
Where Do I Start?
I always start each year with a blank zoning plan and a pencil. The pencil is the important part. I pencil in our non-negotiables AKA student and staff lunches, inclusion time, specials, recess, etc. From there, I start to plug in the rest of our daily activities AKA centers, direct instruction, IEP progress monitoring time, etc. Then, I’ll send it to my related service providers so we can create therapy schedules for the students they have in my classroom. It typically takes me the first few days of school to pencil everything in. Once our entire day is mapped out, I’ll run that schedule for two weeks to ensure it runs smoothly. If after two weeks something isn’t working, I’ll tweak it. Once we get to a place where the schedule is running smoothly, I’ll type it all up. Save yourself the time and ink, wait to type and print until you have it working.
How Does a Zoning Plan Work?
How exactly do you use a zoning plan? This is where color coding and student initials come into play. In my classroom, I color code my tables and my schedule pieces. On my schedule, in each staff member’s time block, I will color code that block with what table they are at. For example, during ELA centers, I work at the purple table, so my ELA center time blocks are purple to indicate where I am. From there, I plug in student initials for which students I have working with us during each time block. So for 10:00-10:15 my time block is purple and I have students 1, 2, and 3. The student visual schedules also follow the zoning plan. So, on their schedule for my ELA center time they have a purple reading visual to indicate they need to go to the purple table for that center.
Who Gets a Copy?
I have tons of copies of my zoning plan ready to go whenever we need them. I also add the date in a header or footer of the last date it was updated. Let’s go over who all gets a copy and where I keep them:
- Teacher copy hanging on the whiteboard
- Paras each get a copy
- Staff copy hanging on the back filing cabinets
- Copy hanging at the classroom door
- Copy in my sub binder
- Copy in my emergency bag
- Copy in my shared Google Drive with my school and district’s special ed department
It may seem totally excessive, but it is great to have copies all around the room for quick grab and glance access. I also like having them easily accessible in the room in case I have my admin or district team come out and they need to see my schedule.
What About Being Short Staffed?
I have you covered! Being short staffed is extremely common in special ed classrooms, especially when working with several staff members. So, my solution for you is what I call a “man down” schedule. This is the exact same thing as a zoning plan, but you specifically plan for having a man down. You can do this a couple ways. You can plan a man down schedule that is dependent on which staff member is out, which will require making multiple versions. Or, you can take staff names out completely and just fill in the tasks that need to be completed by each person in each time block and decide who gets what column when you find out who is out that day.
I have also had to make an “extreme man down” schedule where I plan for having multiple paras out at the same time. In this type of man down zoning plan, our schedule will change drastically so I make it the bare bones just what has to get done. I’m really only including non-negotiables in this type of man down schedule.
Gone are the days of fretting over a classroom schedule and stressing over being short staffed! A zoning plan and a man down schedule are the key to having a classroom that runs like a well oiled machine. Read my blog post about why you should use a zoning plan for more ideas about classroom scheduling! Grab my FREE editable zoning plan template!
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