The nightmare called scheduling

So, I would venture to guess that I have done somewhere around 50 drafts of my schedule. I would like to say I'm exageratting, but that is simply not the case.

Drafts #1-3. I started the whole thing with all sorts of lovely color-coded Post-It notes (purple=speech and language goals, red=speech only, and yellow=language only). I worked really hard grouping these guys together by grade and by type of therapy that I would be doing. After that everything should be easy, right?

Drafts #4-10. Well then I started realizing, that I had the kids so split up that I could potentially be grabbing kids out of 1 teacher's classroom 3 times a day! That's no good so I reorganized.

Drafts #11-30. Then, I finally got the SPED schedules (we SLPs are at the very, very bottom of the totem pole as far as scheduling goes....) and started realizing that I kids that could literally only come during 1 time during the day because they receive so many other services. There are just some non-negotiables. It is at this point, that I unfortunately threw the regular-education teacher's schedules in the trash-can (I had hoped to butter them up by avoiding their reading and math schedules, but alas I am not a magician!).

Drafts #30-37. After that, I realized that the 2nd grade had decided to change their recess time, and no one told me! There are just certain times that I cannot/will not take kids out of class for speech and they include: lunch (seems to go without saying, but you would be surprised), specials, recess, and of course their additional SPED segments.

Drafts #38-39. And then finally, there's the one. There's always the one (according to some of my SLP mentors). The teacher that demands "No, you cannot have my students during reading, math, social studies, science, or language arts" ummmm ok. To a point, I understand these feelings from teachers, they are held responsible for the education that their students receive. But, I have a job to do, and services to provide (services I think are pretty darn important for academic success). So how did I get around that one? Well, I smile and say "I will see what I can do," realize there is in fact nothing I can do, and pick up the kids during their Science and Writing anyway. I get around this by making very little eye contact when I come in the room, and jetting out of there. When I return the kids, I do not even get close to the room in order to avoid confrontation. Hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. I'm pretty sure she hates my guts and I have decided to respond by establishing a personal goal: Clinician will elicit 1 cracked smile from said teacher by the end of the school year.

Drafts #40-50. So you think that should be it right? Wrong! I finally decide that really the only way to determine if my schedule is going to work out is just to try it out. So, I start seeing kids, and inevitably run into situations where "Joey is in resource right now." Groan.....at this rate I might be done by December!