Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Pirate Talk

I recently purchased Pirate Talk when Super Duper put it on a 50% Facebook only special. (No, I still haven't recovered from the reduction of their special sales prices yet. -...- )

Waiting patiently for me to open the box in between finishing up SOAP notes.
Game board and movable characters. The kids were confused about the start and end points. 
Arr, mateys! There be much treasure for the taken'!"
The cards are divided into subjects. The kids can repeat sentences, answer questions, follow directions, work on categorization, and come up with their own sentences about the scene. I like my options. :)

I definitely like the high-interest appeal of the pirates. It targets a pretty good variety of goals. The majority of my students struggle with following directions, answering questions, and repeating sentences so I'm not required to do much thinking with this tool. This is a blessing on particularly hard days. 

However, one of my students has already complained that there is no captain. It's  never a good thing when you have to repeatedly tell a student to pick a color. I'm thinking about making my own "captain" figure and sitting it in random places around the board. The "crew" will have to rescue him from the dangerous sharks. This should take care of the complaints.

In other news......


Here is a pragmatics goal list that I composed to align with Common Core standards. It's not an exhaustive list, but it contains short term goals that I have used.

Social skills aren't just about the students and sometimes we as professionals forget that it also extends to us too.

As a single, *young* (though not in the eyes of my students for sure) woman, I am acutely aware of the fact that I must rely on my critical thinking skills to get through IEP meetings. I don't know what it is like to have a child, particularly not a child who is suffering from some type of delay or disability. A parent decided to remind me of this recently and I couldn't agree more. I don't know what it feels like to not understand my child or to listen to them scream in frustration as they can't find the words they want. I'm a completely blank slate and the only thing I can do is try to imagine the kind of parent I would like to be someday.

My solution is to read blogs by parents. It doesn't compare to the real-life experience, but it does give me an idea of things parenting might involve. I have a list of few favorites here:

1. Speak Jane Speak
2. My life and kids
3. The Salad Days
4. The Pioneer Woman 

This is the only "child" I plan on having for a llllooooonnnnggg time.

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