I recently had some changes that meant I needed to create a new instructional schedule. And my brain hurts. It feels like the hardest Tetris game ever.

I start with the amount and subject area of specialized academic instruction required ofr each student. Then, I block out all unavailable times by grade level. These include lunch, recess, specials, and other related services. Next, I consider the grade level composition of each group. If there is a group with 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades then there are only certain times during the day when those grade levels are all available at the same time. Applying each one of these parameters means there less available instructional time to provide specialized academic instruction. Ideally, there is also consideration of what is happening in the classroom as well.

The last few days, I have been playing this never-ending game of Tetris using post-its, various scraps of paper, color-coding, and spreadsheets. Sharing my process here in case there is a better way.

I can imagine an app where you plug in the different variables and it automatically creates different available schedules for consideration. Student Information Systems (SIS) do this for creating master schedules. It seems like something similar should be available on a smaller scale.