I would be lying to you if I told you I love having a huge schedule stuck on my wall somewhere in my classroom. It works for some people, but I have some issues with it personally.
I have had to move classrooms every single year I have been teaching (sometimes twice in one year). So I have developed a great dislike for setting up a physical classroom schedule.
It's very time-consuming and not every space has a great setup for schedules. My other issue is that
most visual schedules you find online aren't designed for high schoolers. Also if you have been teaching for any period of time you know that the classroom schedule has the potential to change every single day. It's really easy to forget to update something that you have to go physically change. Honestly, a velcro or dry-erase classroom schedule doesn't work for me, my students, or my teacher's assistants.
Schedules are so important for us all. Students, teachers, related service providers, everyone. I personally use a planner and a Google Calendar to keep track of all of the things. Schedules also ease anxiety and can help deter problem behaviors while making transitions smoother.
I also want to be clear that I do use moveable piece visual schedules for my students who need them, but as far as a whole classroom schedule one stuck on a wall doesn't work for me.
So I have found an option that works better for me and also increases my students' engagement in using the daily schedule.
Most classrooms have a projector set up in the room or an interactive touch board. We have a SMARTboard in ours. That is on at all times and we use it all the time. So I made an interactive weekly schedule where I can link in our lessons and keep everyone staff included on track and from asking the dreaded "what's next?".
We put in our schedule for the day and designate a student schedule checker for the day. As we finish activities students cross off the activity and get everyone ready to move on to the next task.
Example of what our daily schedule looks like. I add links to timers for small group rotations and links to Unique Learning System or N2Y if we will be using it.
I cannot stress how much more smoothly this has made my classroom run. My students do not ask me what is next or what are we doing today. Instead we have conversations about the things we are going to do that day. I hear "Oh we have science today, awesome!" instead of "What's next?" constantly. Classroom staff also benefit from an accurate schedule being up.
My staff know that if I get pulled out of the room for a meeting or to deal with a crisis they can keep the day running without me having to pull up everything. They don't have to hunt in my Google Drive for a lesson or activity. So the learning doesn't stop just because I get pulled sometimes.
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