New School Year, New Personal Professional Goals!

I cannot believe the summer is over and we are back to a new school year.  Each year, I like to make goals for myself.  Although I have been in the field and in my building/district for years, I recognize that there is always room to learn and grow!

In the past, I have set these goals for myself:

• Learn more about and incorporate classroom curriculum into my speech lessons
• Take better data and form a better system for collecting and storing
• Creating and using a data binder
• Find better ways to motivate my students
• Find a better way to store my TpT lesson materials in my speech room
• Hold professional development for teachers in my buildings to better understand my role and how they can incorporate speech & language strategies into their classrooms

This school year, I have set these following goals for myself:

• Find new ways to encourage expressive language for my low functioning students.  I plan to use Speech Room New's AAC communication boards like this one.
• Keep teachers informed more frequently on what is going on in the speech room, how their students are doing, and what they can do to see the same progress.
• Keep learning.  I hope to attend workshops on Apraxia, stuttering, and working with ASD students.  I also plan on attending workshops held in my district/building for classroom teachers so I am more informed and educated on the techniques they are using.

Wondering what your other favorite SLP bloggers/TpT sellers have as their goals!?

• "Some of my main goals this year are to be more organized and maintain a good work/life balance. I would also like to find more ways to incorporate classroom topics into my therapy, as well as helping more teachers understand that what I do in the therapy room can have a direct and positive impact on my students' language skills in the classroom." ~Natalie Snyders
• "One of my goals is to have more contact with parents. Too often is the case when I only see parents once a year at IEP meetings, personally I feel like I should be having more contact with them since their child has deficits and is receiving specialized support. Being able to tell them good things about their student through out the year would be better than once a year."~The Speech Bubble
• "My goal this year is to find ways to incorporate the general education curriculum in my therapy sessions and/or push into the classroom as appropriate. I also have a goal to make sure I am taking progress monitoring data for my language students more consistently. It was really tough last year with a caseload of 80 to make sure I had enough data for updating goals. I want to be able to plan ahead with informal assessments instead of scrambling around....thanks Natalie Snyders for your language progress monitoring tool. I am on track for meeting this goal."~The Dabbling Speechie
• "My personal goal this year is to set aside at least an hour or two in the evening being "unplugged." My work goal is to really focus on critical thinking skills. I don't just want to "give" students answers. I want to guide them to figure it out."~ Speech Peeps
• "My goal is to (be brave enough to) step out of my comfort zone more often. This year I have taken on clients with feeding disorders and clients with cochlear implants that need AVT. I was so nervous at first but now I am really loving the change!"~Simply Speech
• " My goal is to incorporate vocab and stories from the curriculum into therapy for both artic and language kiddos. Grade levels are emailing me their lesson plans every week!"~Let's Talk Speech Therapy
• "My goals are to work smarter, not harder when it comes to planning (I'd like to do less at home) and do my best to focus on curriculum vocabulary/concepts whenever possible."~TeachSpeech365
• "My goal is to build relationships with all staff members. I recently moved to a new Early Childhood Education Building. I'm trying to make the most of teamwork and build meaningful relationships with everyone I can!"~Speech Room News

What are your goals?!!?

Crayon Attributes Sorting Fun!

I don't know about you, but I love sorting activities to teach concepts.  I love to use sentence strips to encourage expanded utterances as they sort.  This way, it targets more than one goal at a time!  For back to school season, I created a fun crayon sorting activity (but can be used any time of the year!)  I chose to target attributes based on the needs of my students!

Using this activity:
-Print and laminate the crayon boxes.  

-Print and laminate the crayons.

-Each box has a sentence strip to use while the students sort the crayons into the correct box.


-Students will sort crayons based on attributes!

***LIKE THIS ACTIVITY?!  LEAVE COMMENTS OR FEEDBACK ON TPT AND I WILL CREATE MORE IN THE FUTURE USING TARGETS YOU ARE LOOKING FOR!!**

You can access this activity in my TpT store by clicking HERE!!

How Do You Use It?! BACK TO SCHOOL EDITION: Paper Clips! (linky party)

Have you been enjoying my "how do you use it?" linky party posts?!  I decided to do a fun bonus one for back to school season.  

We learned in graduate school, that any SLP can do therapy with anything, even a paper clip...so why not have this bonus topic be what we would do with a paper clip in therapy!

If you gave me a jar of paper clips, not only would this SLP be thrilled because she loves organizational materials but I could do some great therapy ideas with it!

What would I do?!

• Following directions: I would give each student a pile of paper clips and make them follow my directions ("put a clip on your head" "put two in the jar").  You can target one step or multiple steps with this!  You can also target spacial concepts too!
• Comparatives/superlatives: you can have students connect them to make various sized strings of clips.  Which one is long?  Which one is longer?  Which one is the longest?
• Use them as a reinforcer or token system!!  For each target sound or answer given correctly, students can receive a paper clip!  If they reach a certain amount they can get a sticker/prize/reward at the end of the session!
• Sorting by color or size!!

Those are just a few examples of what I would use paper clips for if given the chance!  I can probably think of tons more too!  Now it is time to see how other other SLP bloggers would use paper clips in therapy!! See below!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Back to School Round-Up! (activities, freebies, ideas, and more!)

Although it is sad to think about, it is time to prepare for back to school.  Some of you go back in August while others, like me, go back in September.  Regardless...I have made your life easier by putting a variety of back to school materials and ideas available from this one post!

My Activities:

Back to school basic vocabulary pack

Back to school early language file folder activities

Back to school articulation roll, say and color

If you take a mouse to school storybook companion pack

My freebies:

Back to school wh- board game

In the backpack articulation practice

Whole Body Listening

My data/organization ideas/resources:

iPad Rules Sign

Receptive & Expressive baseline data collection

RTI Pre-referral speech/language materials

SLP Annual Review Kit

Speech/Language newsletters

Speech Memos

Speech word art

Speech/language therapy note template

Organization Fun Blog Post

My favorite books:

I hope this round-up helps you organize and prepare.  You can also view my round-up post from last year by clicking HERE!

Scheduling Would Be Easier If... (tips, ideas, and a freebie!)

Scheduling is probably the most HATED aspect of the job.  Many dread going back to school after a relaxing summer because of it.

I recently posted on my Facebook page the statement for you to finish: "Scheduling would be easier if..."  Below were the common or funniest responses:

• If I didn't have to do it
• If teachers were flexible
• If I had a magic wand
• If I was retired
• If I was the only service provider
• If someone else did it for me
• If I was a millionaire
• If I could get kids whenever I wanted them
• If the administration didn't change the schedule
• If I could group kids based on goals not availability
• and so many more....hop on over to my page to see them!

My one word of advice...RELAX!  It will get done, it always gets done!  What do I do?!

• Go through entire caseload, double check mandates, find out what classrooms everyone is in and see what other services they are receiving
• I use Excel and make spreadsheets to help keep myself organized
• I walk around to each teacher to let them know that I have a student in their classrooms on my caseload and to make sure I have their up to date class schedules
• I make sure with administration there are or aren't any "blocked" times I am not allowed to pull students from 
• Grab a blank schedule: either draw it onto a HUGE dry erase board, make it on a file folder, use it directly on a computer, or print it out and work on a piece of paper.  Do whatever works best for you!
• I like to go through each student and write down what times they are available.  See if there are similarities in availability with students of similar age/grade/goal (if ideally possible!)
• Start plugging these slots into your schedule.  Move around if necessary.  Be flexible..it's going to change once you find out when the social workers, OTs, PTs, resource room teachers, and others need these students!  I like to create groups, write them onto Post-Its and move the post-its around the template!
• Write in pencil or something that can be erased!!
• Each time you change your schedule, DATE IT!!!  There are so many times I forget which version was the most recent one!!

How else do I stay calm, organized, and focused?!  I give memos to teachers with their students' speech times.  This allows for quick transfer of communication and they can easily let me know if there are conflicts by writing on the memo back!  I have shared my memo used as a FREEBIE in my TpT store!  It is so easy to use.  All you have to do is complete it with the student's name, circle the days of the week and write in the time!  

You can access it by clicking HERE!

Back to School Roll, Say & Color VERBS! (freebie!)

My roll, say and color articulation activities are such a hit I decided to create a fun one that can be used to target verbs in a variety of ways!!

Grab 2 dice, print the page of the target sound working on, and some crayons and you are ready!  No laminating involved!

Students roll the two dice.  One dice will tell them which row to look at.  The second dice will tell them to count across to determine the verb! 

You can have students use these verbs to work on the following goals:

–Expressing present, past, or future tenses

–Determining if it is a regular or irregular verb

–Using verbs in a complete sentence

–Using verbs to ask a question

–Use the verb to tell a story

–Or more!

To grab this freebie, hop on over and "like" my Facebook page!!  Then visit the "free downloads" tab!!  It is as simple as that!!  Already a fan, well then just grab it!  If you like it, leave a comment, it may inspire me to create more similar to this in the future :)

Learning About Your Students - Reading Interest Surveys Worksheet Wednesday #5

Today is Wednesday - otherwise known as Worksheet Wednesday over at The Teaching Tribune.  That means there's a whole lot of FREEBIES for you to grab!  Make sure you head over there when you are done downloading my freebie.  There are a ton of great ones this week!

For my freebie for the week, I have created a Favorites List.  I got the idea as I was reading 100 Minutes by Lisa Donohue for our book study earlier this summer.  Donohue suggested grouping students by interest levels.  This idea intrigued me, so I created a form to capture my new students' interests at the beginning of the year.

I had said in that previous post:

I looked on-line but couldn't find exactly what I wanted, so I created:

My Favorites List  (You can download it free here)

Knowledge of students' major areas of interest helps a teacher to select appropriate instructional exercises. Research has shown that students read interesting material more easily and with higher comprehension. By understanding what students' interests are "we can guide students to select books from the classroom library that will allow them to become engaged readers." (Moss & Young, 2010, p. 56)

  As we all know, if a child is interested in the material, he or she will be more willing to complete the lesson. I can't wait to find out what my new students' interests are next month!  I have had the same class for two years in a row, so it is going to be an adjustment to learn about new students.

I am also going to have them complete this Activity Rating Scale from Laura Candler (pgs. 3-4).  The first two pages are an alternate reading interest survey you could use as well. 

How do you learn about your new students at the beginning of the year?

References:
Moss, B. & Young, T.A. (2010) Creating Lifelong Learners Through Independent Reading. Newark, DE. International Reading Association

Things I Am Pinterested In This Week - April 26, 2014

It's no secret, Pinterest is an amazing resource for teaching ideas, menu planning inspiration, crafting ideas and more!  I am a little more than slightly hooked.  Here are a few of my pins from this week:



I love, love, love new clip art and frames for making materials for my classroom and Teachers Pay Teachers.  I love finding great freebies like this even more!

I love this simple method for having your students self assess their understanding.  They could be used for any subject and during multiple times throughout the day.  I'm going to have the students use them during whole group mini-lessons and also at their desks while working independently so I can spot who needs my help the most.

We live in a high winds area, so it seems like we are always having to clean dust and dirt that has made its way through our windows or patio doors.  I love this cleaning tip and am going to try it out this weekend!

(. . . sprinkle a bit of baking soda into the corners, pour a bit of vinegar into a cup and pour it into the tracks. )

And although I know it is the end of the year, my silly brain is already obsessing about planning for next year, so I am loving this idea for organizing back to school night.

I also adore these pencils - you can have them say whatever you want.

If you would like to see more things I am pinning, be sure to follow me on Pinterest!

What are you pinning this week?  Leave me a link to your boards and I will follow you!

Whole Brain Teaching - The First Hour

Ahhh... I have now survived day 2 of the new school year!  I was super exhausted yesterday, but today wasn't quite as bad.  I am using Whole Brain Teaching for the second year now, and I love it!
If you have been wanting to give it a try, but aren't quite sure what to do, here are a few tips for starting with your class.  By the way, you don't have to wait until the beginning of a new year to try it out, you can really start anytime.

Anyway, here is a video from Chris Biffle explaining the first ten minutes of implementing Whole Brain Teaching along with a few of my own implementations.

Chris Biffle suggests that the first lesson be conducted in the hallway before entering the room.  At my school, our students come straight to our room from recess (or are brought in early by their parents) so we are not able to do this. 

I had morning work placed at each student’s desk (with their nametag).  On the Smart Board were the following directions:

I want them to get in the routine of what will be expected in class every day.  They will come in and get started right away.  This fits with the Whole Brain Teaching idea of creating urgency – we don’t have one minute to waste in the morning.  I also have incorporated his idea of letting the students know that I am happy to see them, and I have used the word please as Biffle suggests.

Once I was ready to begin teaching (when all of the students had filtered in and the morning announcements and pledge were over). I started the lesson suggested by Chris Biffle for the first 10 minutes of class.  You can download a copy of the script I used this year here.  Feel free to make it your own and practice, practice, practice until it feels natural.

The agenda was posted on the board and looked like this:

Do you use Whole Brain Teaching in your class?  Do you have any questions or concerns about using Whole Brain Teaching?

Back To School ROUND UP!

If you didn't know, this is the second "back to school" season for Speech Time Fun.  I have provided TONS of ideas, freebies, resources, and TpT activities between the two years.  I have provided a place for you to access them all and easily find things you may need!

Back To School Apps:

Wh- Questions At School Fun Deck App

What Would You Do At School If...Fun Deck App

Freebies:

Back to School Wh- Board Game

In The Backpack Artic Practice

Whole Body Listening

Resources & Ideas:

First Week Activities

Whole Body Listening Larry At School Product Review

Top 10 Prizes

No Felt Board, No Worries

Common Core, what?!

Cute and Easy Artic Crafts

Data Collection Tips

TpT Products:

Back To School Basic Vocabulary Pack

Back To School Early Language File Folder Activities

Back To School Roll, Say & Color Articulation Fun

If You Take A Mouse To School Companion Pack

My Favorite Back To School Books:

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.

I hope you found this round up helpful!!  Feel free to share your favorite back to school activities, resources, books, and products in the comments!

Don't forget about the HUGE TpT sale on August 18-19th!  Click HERE to view my TpT store and see what goodies you can get at a discounted price for the new school year!

Back To School: Roll, Say, & Color! Articulation Fun!

Are you looking for more back to school activities?  How about more activities for working on articulation sounds?  Are you already freaking out because you have so much to laminate and school has just (or will soon) begun?!  This activity is SOOO for you! Keep reading!

Have fun working on articulation sounds with this fun back to school themed activity! Best part, NO LAMINATING required!

Using this file:

-Grab 2 dice, print the page of the target sound working on, and some crayons and you are ready!  No laminating involved!

-Students roll the two dice.  One dice will tell them which row to look at.  The second dice will tell them to count across to determine the target word to say!  You can even make them say that word that many times!!!

-Once they say the target, they can color the back to school themed picture!

-Keep rolling and practicing those target sounds until the entire page is colored!  There are 36 opportunities to practice each target sound!  Can send home the worksheet for review home practice!

-Target sounds included, in the initial and final positions:

/k, g, s, f, v, th, sh, ch, l, r, z/

You can access this activity in my TpT store by clicking HERE!

If You Take A Mouse To School Companion Pack!

Use these activities with the book, If You Take A Mouse To School by Laura Joffe Numeroff.

In this activity pack:
-Sequencing Cards: Big version can be used as large visuals while telling and retelling story.  If you print two copies of this version, students can play memory matching games with the vocabulary.  Small version can be used for sequencing on construction paper or a paint stick.

-Sentence Strip:  Use with sequencing cards.

-Cause-effect Matching Cards:  Students must match the causes and effects from the story.  Can use as a memory matching game.  Visual is provided as well!

-Compare/Contrast Worksheet: Venn Diagram to compare/contrast a real mouse vs. the mouse in the story.

-Comprehension Board Game:  Students can practice their recall and comprehension skills on the task cards to move across the board game.  Various question types are used for practice.  Answer key is provided as well.

-Where do you find it? Sorting pages: Sort the picture into the correct category based on where you would find the items provided.

-Let’s Describe Card Game: Vocabulary based on story/school theme.  Students will be provided with a visual to assist them.  For each description made, students will earn a point.  The student with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

-Category Say & Color:  For each item in the picture, students must say the category label before coloring the picture.

-Pack The Backpack:  Print and laminate the backpack page. Print and laminate the “packing pictures.”  Use the sentence strip on the “Pack The Backpack” page to work on following directions and asking/answering yes/no questions.

You can access this companion pack in my TpT store by clicking HERE!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Back To School Early Language File Folder Activities! ((AND GIVEAWAY!!))

Are you looking for activities for back to school?  How about for early language skills, preschool, or to use with students with limited language!?  When working on these goals or with this population, I love to do sorting activities and fun file folder activities that incorporate TONS of sentence strips to encourage increased MLU.  Keep reading to see an activity pack I created for this population!  I cannot wait to use it this year!

All of the activities included can be used as sorting activities, file folder sorts, or adapted easily to fit your students’ needs.

Tons of visuals and sentence strips provided!

Activities included:
-Does It Go In The Backpack:  Students must determine which items do and which do not go in a backpack.  They must answer the yes/no question provided and use sentence strip to express complete utterances.  Other goals you can address: categorization, answering wh- questions, describing, prepositions, and following directions.

-What is the student doing?  Boy and girl picture is provided.  Students must sort the action pictures and use progressive verbs in sentences.  You can also use this activity to work on: responding to “who” questions and pronouns.  You can also see if students can determine which actions are done in school and which are not!

-I Spy In The Classroom: Print the classroom picture.  Students can use the visual to locate all of the named objects.  Goals to address: prepositions, answering “where” questions, describing, and using school vocabulary in sentences.

-Who Will Wear It?  Students must sort the clothing into boy, girl, or both categories.  This activity can elicit conversation, future tense verbs, and work on pronouns.

-Will They Ride The School Bus?  Students must determine which people would and would not ride a school bus.  They must answer the yes/no question provided and use the sentence strip to express complete utterances.

You can access this activity in my TpT store by clicking HERE!!!

Now you can win a copy for yourself!!!!  Enter to win below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To Do (Before The First Day of School) Linky

Sometimes I think I have a bit of adult ADHD - I have a million ideas swirling in my head, then I start on one project and another idea pops in my head.  But... I also love crossing things off to do lists, so, I decided to link up with Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies to keep on track and accountable.  I also find things on other people's list that I forgot which helps a ton!

Classroom Décor:
1. Pack up and move rooms (I am looping to 4th grade with my class)
2. Clean and rearrange furniture in new room
3. Finish New Daily 5 Signs and I-Charts to match new theme
4. Print out and laminate New Daily 5 Signs and I-Charts
5.  Print out and laminate Whole Brain Teaching Signs
6. Create, print out and laminate Scoreboard with new theme
7. Decorate

Lesson Planning/Paperwork:
1. Type up new procedures to teach
2. Labels for Interactive Notebooks
3. Re-do Intro Letter, behavior letter, and Star Homework form
4. Copy morning work for first month
5. Print out library labels
6. Library basket
7. First week lesson plans
8. Finish unit plans for math and ELA
9. Finish unit plans for science and social studies
10. Get Large Paper bags for student supplies
11. Make copies of student supply lists (2 per student - 1 to send home, 1 to keep track)
12. Print, copy, and prep student planners
13. Create, print out, and laminate learning scales for 4th grade
14. Sharpen pencils

Speech & Language Newsletters!

Are you looking for better ways to stay connected with parents/caregivers for next school year?  I have found using newsletters and sending them home monthly, quarterly, and in some cases weekly really helps!  It helps keep parents/caregivers involved, and helps them talk to their children at home about what they are learning about in speech.  It also helps them contact you if they have questions/concerns.

Using this file:

-Print a newsletter 
-Mail these home or send home with students monthly, quarterly, or daily.
-Generic theme so can be used throughout the year!
-Write in each section provided or type and glue into boxes.
-Variety of versions are provided:
          -Blank
          -Categories for you to write in with suggestions on items to                   include
          -Checklist 
           -Black & White

**Sample vocabulary lists for each month is provided to assist!

This file is available in my TpT store and can be accessed by clicking HERE!