Sometimes you really just want to....cry.

Again, another not so rosy post from SLP land. This one is largely of my own creation.

Two weeks ago, I decided that I needed to re-evaluate a student long before the 3 year evaluation date. It's a speech-only student so it *should* involve less headache. I did not take into account the fact that the regular education teacher would a) not respond to email (there are a few at my school that NEVER respond) forcing me to hunt her down b) decide that there is only one day a week that she's available c) complain that parents' time is too late (once we actually reached them on Thursday to set up a meeting for today thanks to the ASHA convention & Thanksgiving). To be fair to her, the parents didn't call back and confirm on Friday like they said the would. Needless to say, this caused quite a bit of chaos. The teacher informed them at a.m. drop off that the meeting was canceled since they didn't confirm. The poor interpreter called multiple times to confirm/reschedule with no answer because they're at work. I'm left on pins and needles while the teacher takes off as quick as she can after tutoring. The parents show up for their 4:30 meeting with just one team member present.

Now, this story is not to criticize teachers. I know how busy they are and could never teach a class of 30 by myself. The majority of the staff at my school are terrific. They will go out of their way to help you (and one teacher definitely did for me today so I could hold the meeting.) It's the same in the medical realm too. I remember all too well that there were doctors and nurses who were not very pleasant to deal with during my internship. Life usually hands you less than ideal situations.You are going to get that wherever you go. All I ask, is that a little critical thinking of perspectives be taken into account. You can bet that I apologized to the interpreter for driving her nuts the past three days as well as thanking everyone involved for helping me. (I'm pretty sure I resembled a crazy person from Thursday-5 pm today)

The moral of this story is to be as proactive as you can. Think about IEPs/re-evaluations at least a month in advance. Granted, this is a situation where I was thinking about the situation a month in advance. My biggest problem happens to be the holidays that throw off my January clients. (Don't do IEPs in early January if you can help it. Get them done in December or plan super ahead of schedule.) Also, learn about the teaching staff sooner rather than later. Ask the EC teachers because they know who is going to give you a headache. I didn't have to work with this teacher last year and had no clue that emails just weren't her thing. I really don't mind asking people in person for information if I know that it works better for them. Also, critical thinking is not just for making it out of college alive. It's a life-long skill that should be considered a vital component of any job.

In happier news, I am getting closer to figuring out which courses I want to attend at the convention! I wish I could attend all of them.

Plurals

It's another short post for tonight. I spent way too much time working on billing today. My poor eyes can't take much more computer exposure. It's an occupational hazard. 

I've recently been racking my brain trying to come up with a good way to teach plurals to one of my students. I decided to try my hand at making something on the computer rather than my usual hand drawings. 

Plurals freebie. I'm in the process of having my copy laminated (we get a certain allowance a day based on size -.-). I plan on letting her write the plural forms using a white board marker. My kids are all going through a marker craze right now. The blame lies on me for letting them write on my kidney table with them. I got the idea from one of our EC teachers and it seems to be a "freeing" activity for the kids. They get to practice their spelling and watch me try to write upside down. I just wipe the table down with a Lysol wipe at the end of the day.

Have a great weekend!

Associations and more with figurines

Finding good deals has always been a passion of mine. I blame my thrifty habits on my mother who took me on Goodwill trips from infancy. I grew up thinking that thrift stores are magical places. So there's little doubt in my mind that I would find excuses to go there even if I weren't an SLP.

Dollar stores? Well, those are a pretty recent addiction due to work. I started out by wanting cheap craft supplies and have ended up finding some pretty good therapy "keepers." This post is about some recent "keepers" I found at local a dollar shop.

WOW Best Buddies- May I just say that these could possibly be the best thing I have ever run across for associations? The people and corresponding animals have an obvious match. They are far sturdier than many of my phonics toys. (However, Scholastic has these really cool game controller erasers and I couldn't resist buying one for the phonics box.) The possibilities are pretty much endless with these little guys. I know we will be describing each one and working on utterance lengths.

-Looking forward to their new home-

The set includes the wizard/dragon, Eskimo/polar bear, farmer/pg, fireman/cat, policeman/dog, rider/horse, and caveman/dinosaur.  

Ready for a close-up!

It's a challenge to find something that can withstand several of my kindergarten and first grade boys. I'm pretty sure that no one has ever taught them how to play with a toy. It is a good learning experience for all of us.

Another new addition to my therapy toolbox are 6 webkinz figurines. I like them because the animals are good for articulation and language goals. They come in different outfits that are associated with a variety of actions like painting and even playing golf. Plus, figurines don't take up a ton of room.

I'm good for categorization too!

While convinced that I have magically turned into an ice cube....

Too cold to think? Hurricane Sandy getting in your way?? Try our new and improved 100 page program on for size. It will surely make you forget about that tingling feeling in your hands.

True story...I cannot figure out what to go to at the ASHA convention. Is this how it is for most conventions??? Or did I just decide to go to the most confusing/overwhelming one first?

finally a tiny piece of progress

The first of the reading goal banks is finally here. My guess is that I won't have the other ones started until Thanksgiving or Christmas with the way my schedule is for the next month. The best laid plans have the tendency to go to waste. Oh well, I did mean well at the start of my Common Core project. It's been a great learning experience and finishing those reading goal banks will make me a happier person. I must say that I greatly admire Jenna at Speech Room News and Jenn over at Crazy Speech World. I do not know how they find the time to make such wonderful materials with all of their other responsibilities. Honestly, I feel like I'm doing good to at least post once a week.

Organization

I will be the first to admit that I do not consider myself a pro at organization. My intentions are always great at the beginning of the year even as a student. Every object starts out with a specified place that is usually by alphabetical order, theme, or color....it generally goes okay for the first month. I have the tendency to slowly decline as the workload increases....most notably affected is my desk. It always ends up looking like WWIII if one could use paper as ammunition. I, generally, know where everything is even at the height of my chaos.    

My finds from pinterest and "home-made" items are housed in a green bin. I originally used it to store construction paper. I had to change strategies this year as my "crafts" started to overflow. Now, this is definitely not the end to my collection of therapy ideas. The majority of them are still stored on my flash drive as I never have time to print everything off. I've learned to save everything and leave a back-up on my computer. It's not a great feeling to find out that the project you were going to use got taken off or blocked via internet restrictions. 

I put many of my game card items in note-card holders that I snag for .50 at Salvation Army. I put the pieces for my file folder games in these as well unless I am running out of room. I pull out zip-lock bags when all else fails. 

Some things are just too big for my usual strategies. My great-aunt gave my grandmother a bunch of things she didn't want anymore. I found this card holder and immediately claimed it. I bought a bunch of cards at the Dollar Tree for parts of speech that are too big to fit into anything else. It's a great solution that doesn't take up much space as you can see. 

Organization....it's a never ending battle. 

P.S. I did my first presentation today! It went pretty well I think. :)

A Tale of Two Buckets...

Once upon a time, there were two buckets that lived on a teeny-tiny shelf in a cozy room. They sat on the shelf for months waiting for their turn. They dreamed of their moment of glory.

The sound muncher haven.

The buckets are finally released from shelf duty. Now, they must help the speech detectives make their sounds.

Bat rings for Halloween? Yes, please. They make great reinforcers.

Now to be serious, I used these two buckets to help the kids see how well they can make their sounds. They got to judge whether the sounds were good or bad (in sets of 5) with a little help from me. The good sounds earned a bat in the blue bucket and the not-so-great ones went in the red. I had enough colors to keep the count separate for each student. They got to count out their bats and see how many they had of each kind. I drew faces on the table and put the bats next to the number.