Ode to Summer

Oh summer, how do I love thee! I know many schools have already started and I am one of the lucky few in my remaining week of summer. Don't worry, I'll be jealous of you all in June when we are still in school. This summer, I did not have a paying job, however, I will share with you ode to summer.

I'm learning. CEUs yes, but also I'm learning about blogging, instagram, twitter, and teachers pay teachers. There is an amazing digital support system for SLPS, teachers, and other professionals that I'm just starting to learn about.

Lack of social interaction makes me talk to my cat and myself. No lie, I was in target and I started talking to myself OUT LOUD.

Over the summer, I tried to be a wonderful wife for my husband. At first, he was sad that he no longer has summer breaks and I was worried he would begin to resent me. However, once I began cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry on a more regular basis, we both saw the advantage of having me home.

Summers off is a misnomer. As professionals in schools, we may have 3 months where we are not required to go to work, but our work never ends there. First, we cram a full year of work into 9 months. Second, I think about my students, dream about them and come up with ideas to use throughout the  summer.

Most importantly, dear summer, I'm going to miss my naps.

Love,
Caroline

Today I Learned: classroom website creation

Every night at the dinner table my dad would ask each of us kids what we learned that day at school. Well, this weekend I learned how to make a website for my speech-language classroom. Our district has moved to a 1:1 iPad initiative for our 7th and 8th grades, and nearly all communications with parents have become digital. Each class from 5th grade and up at my building has a website where they post assignments and news. Seeing as this summer I am all about learning new things, I decided to create my own website for better communication with parents.

Weebly for education has a great site for teachers to create their own classroom websites. The basic service is free and intuitive. Adding text, titles, and pictures is simple with an easy drag and drop editor. Some extra features include password protecting student pages, a place to upload assignments, and the capabilities to add your own photos and videos.

I started off by picking a basic layout and within 30 minutes I had a home page that linked to 3 additional pages. Here's a peek at the website I created!

Because I work with 9 different grades, I split up my website to include an area for the younger grades and the older grades. I focus very heavily on vocabulary as it's a great way to improve generalization and so I created a K-4 page and a 5-8 page that includes the vocabulary word of the week and other things we'll be working on. If you provide theme-based therapy, this is also a great way to share the vocabulary and skills you are working on with students.

Overall, I would recommend creating a Weebly classroom site and I'll keep you posted on how it goes this year!

What's in Your Cart? BTS 2015 Linky Party

On Monday and Tuesday TPT is having a back to school love SALE! Yesterday we hit August and the countdown began. TPT is counting down with their back to school site-wide sale and my little store is participating. If you use the promo code (BTS15) you can get even more savings. Now is the time to dust off your wishlist and move things into your cart. I've decided to join up with Jenna Rayburn's "What's in Your Cart: Linky Party" over at Speech Room News to highlight a few coveted items.

Take a peek below to snatch some goodies from my TPT store!

Get the ball rolling with your social skills group through the game Guess the Feeling, a taboo-like game all about feelings.

If you are looking for a way to build curricular vocabulary comprehension, check out my Building Vocabulary through Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes. This a product that I am super excited about!

Another favorite is In a Pickle for L. This articulation game builds language and flexible thinking as well and who doesn't want to target everything at once!

And now, for the main event - what's in my cart! If I had an unlimited budget, this list would go on and on...

1. Prompts on a Stick from the Peachie Speachie. These look fantastic and I am looking forward to resting my voice or using these cues in a push-in session.

2. Social Group Curriculum for Middle and High School Students from Nicole Allison. I have materials for social skills for all my younger students, but almost NOTHING for my middle schoolers. This looks too fantastic to not have.

3. No Print Articulation Trivia: Bundle from Sublime Speech. So many of my students are working on carry-over of their articulation. I can't wait to use this on my new smart board.

Happy dance! The sale starts tomorrow, so fill up your cart!

Back To School Countdown

The countdown to the first day of school has begun... Ashley at Lattes, Lesson Plans, and IEPs organized a back to school link up with a countdown of lists for the year. I'm a little late to the party, but I wanted to post my countdown because it's such a great idea!

I visited my classroom yesterday and began the first few steps of my classroom makeover. I think it's going to take longer than I anticipated. This year I get to move out of a closet and into a much bigger room. I am the first SLP in 5 years to stay more than one school year due to various reasons. When my principal asked me to be honest about the position and what I needed, I told her space. Sometimes as we are in a service profession, we find ways to "make do" with what we have, but I have learned it is always important to advocate, even if you are new to a position. Stay tuned for a post about my classroom make-over!

I send out a monthly e-newsletter to parents and some faculty. This monthly newsletter includes information about my 3:1 indirect service delivery weeks, upcoming school events, articulation practice and general information all parents need know.

Wishes are almost like goals, as they can be attained. Because no SLP has stayed more than a year, some parents were understandably hesitant to build a solid relationship. When it was confirmed that I would be returning, many of the parents seemed pleased (I hope I can live up to their expectations).

Because my sessions are scheduled back-to-back, taking time to retrieve each student can put me off schedule or cause students to lose a couple minutes of their time with me. For many of my students, a school wide PBIS ticket can do the trick, or even a sticker. I'm going to try using a timer and making my students responsible to turn on the timer for each session - we'll see how it goes.

Sunshine coming through my windows should help me keep this promise, but it's always important to smile. Smiling releases endorphins which actually can change your mood.

Thanks for reading my back to school countdown! It'll be here before we know it.

Data and Attendance

Data data data BATMAN!

No matter where you work, collecting data is a big part of the work of an SLP. In my 2 years of working in the public schools, I have changed my data collection method 3 times before I found something I can actually stick with and not utterly despise. I have tried individual folders with goal sheets for kiddos - these were great in theory, but not so great when I had a group of 3 students all around a very tiny table; there was no room for folders. My next attempt was Google Docs. I LOVED this method for articulation because it showed a great progress graph, however, again within a group setting, this method was not always achievable. I found that if I switched forms on my iPad, the other form would delete what I added. Method number 3 was the winner: Labels!

The idea of using labels for daily logs came from Pamela over at Public School SLP. You can find the data labels she created HERE. At first I thought that purchasing labels would be super expensive. But, Amazon sells a generic brand set of 1,000 labels for around $10 and they work just fine with my laser printer. The best thing about labels for me was that at the end of the work day, sticking them onto the pages in my binder was a very mindless task that allowed me to unwind a little before facing traffic.

Even though I write the date on each label, I like to keep a separate page for attendance. I have 1 page for each month. I can track attendance on the computer or print off a sheet for each month. This allows me to see at a glance when students missed sessions, if they have been absent frequently, or if there are any scheduling problems. I created a form in Microsoft Excel to help me easily track the attendance of each student.

Each month has Monday through Friday with the date included. I mark student attendance after I print out the page and can easily see if they were seen one-on-one, in a group, or any other circumstances. I use a one letter key to mark the services students receive each month. Having the document in Excel also allows me to edit the student list. I like to list them in grade order.

I have found that this helps me document attendance very quickly and easily and can make 3rd party billing much simpler. Apparently our district is going to start using codes to document therapy this year, so I hope that this attendance method helps me to more easily completed 3rd party billing - time will tell!

You can find my 2015-2016 attendance calendar in an editable format HERE. Make sure when you go to print off the sheet that you highlight the area you want and select "print selection."