Building a Collaborative Team: Matrix Planning

Do you work with tons of specialists?  I know I do!  The best thing we can do for our student’s success is work with those people to build a team to support our students.

I work with some amazing specialists who’ve always been willing to collaborate with me.  I have set up biweekly meetings where we get together and have a chance to talk about our students.  It’s a great chance to talk about how we can address goals for students across the day and in many different settings.  I have found this process to be the most beneficial use of my time.

When we begin meeting in the beginning of the year, I always plan to work on an activity matrix.  This allows our team to brainstorm ways students can be working on goals throughout the day.  I love  these working documents that my staff and I use.  I keep them in a binder for myself and my staff to access throughout activities.

If it’s art time, we flip to the art matrix; at snack, we flip to the snack matrix; you get the idea.  This helps us think about what each child is able to do and where we are pushing them.  And the best part is that we are working on speech, OT, and academic skills at snack time and art time!  Even better, if my admin asks me why we’re doing art I can show them ALL of the goal areas we are addressing for students through art.

In this matrix that our team develops, we look at a particular activity on our daily schedule (i.e.: snack, recess, art, group work, etc.) and talk about how we can incorporate skills related to students speech and OT goals.  I document this on the matrix and print it out for access throughout activities.  I love how this document is a working document.  As we learn and grow we simply change the matrix and print out a new copy for the binder.  Check out the art matrixes we are currently using in the classroom!

Take a closer peek to see how we’re tackling speech goals through our daily art time!

Head over and grab these editable forms for use in your classroom too!