Thankful Thursday

As SLP's, we know that our work space can sometimes require....flexibility.  Last year, in one building I was in the kindergarten observation room, next to the Deaf & Hard of Hearing Early Childhood Classroom and across from the cafeteria.  Let's just say, trying to pull kids for evaluations between the hours of 11-2PM was out of the question.  I also learned a LOT of songs about colors, counting to 100, and the "wave goodbye goodbye" song still works itself into my dreams.  :)

This year I am THRILLED by my offices.  Thrilled, I say.

Today, I am thankful for my window.  Because it lets in enough light that I can leave the flourescent lights off for a good portion of the day.  Plus, I was privvy to an exquisite maple tree (that I wished I took pictures of before the rain knocked off the beautiful leaves) that turned a vibrant shade of fiery orange and then a scarlet red.  It looks out over the front of the school, so I always have a few students that get a little distracted by the comings and goings of staff and other adults.  But oh! a window that looks outside!

This is from the very beginning of the year, but it's the best picture I have.
There are actually 3(!) windows. And I did get chairs since then.

There are plenty of other things that I am thankful for in my current digs.  Check back in upcoming weeks for more things I am thankful for!

What about you? Do you love your window, or do you yearn for one?  My other office doesn't have windows, but I still love that one for different reasons. 

Materials Wednesday: Multisyllabic Election Day Words & Vocab

I know we're all knee deep in Halloween, but around the corner is a pretty big day: Election Day.  A day that is chalk full of juicy vocabulary words and most of them are at least 3 syllables long. Multiple birds with one material? It's a thing I like to do.

So, there's a few ways you can make this work.  There are the vocab words on cards:

There are the same vocab words segmented on cards:

There are definitions for matching:

In all, there are 18 vocab cards with matching definitions and corresponding segmented cards.  There's also a cheat sheet, in case you are like me and maybe this isn't your area of strength, that has each word and definition.

You can find it over here on my TpT site.

The few ideas I came up with for use were as follows:
Younger Elementary:
1.) Multisyllabic word card game.  If you have students working on multisyllabic words, they can play a straight up card game with the segmented cards or regular cards.  There are cards included to draw an extra card or put a card back.  The student with the most cards wins.
2.) Multisyllabic memory.  Use the regular vocab and segmented vocab cards in a memory game (6x6 grid).  The students practice each word they turn over.

Older Elementary/Middle School/Early HS students who are unfamiliar with the vocab:
1.) Match the words to the definitions. 
2.) Use the words & definitions in a game similar to go-fish.
3.) Memory game with the words & definitions.
4.) Drill either the definitions or the words using either the words or definitions as a word bank.






Students who are more familiar with the vocab:
1. Play the game with the vocab cards. When the student draws a word, they have to define it to get the card.  The one with the most cards at the end wins.
2. Drill the definitions or vocab words, sans a word bank.
3. Provide the definition and have the students answer in question form, like Jeopardy ("What is president").



If you try it out, let me know.  And if you have more suggestions on how to use the cards, please share that, too!

My Apps Monday

Some of my middle schoolers are...not thrilled about coming to speech.  I have to pull most of my students from their study hall, which means that they miss out on the chance to get their homework done before they go home.  Plus, many have been in speech for at least 6 years, and they know what's hard for them.  Working on things that are hard for them isn't exactly fun, and I get that.

Typically, I have 1-2 activities planned for the session, and if we have time, the last few minutes can go to homework.  For some students with vocabulary needs, I might scrap my activity if they have work that is vocab heavy that we can incorporate.  This year, I was lucky enough to not have to pull many students from different teams at the same time, so I don't have to worry about groups that aren't working on the same material.

My favorite app to use lately for my vocab kids has been the (free) Flashcards+ app

 

Having kids come straight to my room after lunch instead of study hall means the incidence of forgotten text books is pretty high.  Rather than wasting 10 minutes sending the student back to his/her locker for a textbook, I find out what they are learning about in science or social studies, and *boom* flashcards readily available.

How, you ask?  Well, Flashcards+ has a button in the bottom right corner that lets you add a deck from Course Hero or Quizlet. So, my seventh graders that were studying the atmosphere last week?  I put in atmosphere and got a bunch of choices. You can preview first to see if the words are familiar (my kids like to check fist so they aren't being quizzed on words they don't know).  A quick easy (and free!) download, and the deck is yours. When they changed to the water cycle this week, it was a very easy to get a new deck (the water cycle was also a great thing for my fluency and artic students to talk about).   The thirteen colonies?  Easy peasy.  Downloading the deck is almost instantaneous, which is good, because we have a terribly SLOW wifi connection.

Each card has the word on one side, and a swipe to the side flips it for the definition.   There is a check mark, so you can check the ones the students know and leave the others unchecked. You can chose to practice only the unchecked ones if you want to go back at the end to run through the ones the students struggled with.  Swipe down for the next card.

Of course, I could make my own cards when/if I need them using the app.  However, with how quickly topics change in the middle school setting, I love the fact that there are other people who have already done that and that it's fast an easy to generate relevant material. They also have idioms and other figurative language terms.

Most of the vocab that I have found tends to lean towards middle school through high school group.  I haven't found much for my elementary kids, but I haven't done extensive work to find it, either.  You can't add pictures, so it's text heavy.

Have any great decks from Flashcards+ that I should look for?

**I am not getting anything for mentioning this app.  It is, after all, only my second post.  But I always appreciate hearing about apps that are user friendly, and even better if they are free!**

Welcome!

Hi all! I was inspired by some of my favorite speech blogs to share some of my own takes on the speech world.  I am a Speech Pathologist in the cornfields of the midwest.  You know, the kind of place that publishes the average corn crop in the local paper next to the spelling bee coverage (no joke, that was today's coverage).  I work in the schools, and currently split my time between an elementary and middle school.  It's my first year in my current district.  I now live in the same town that I work in.  It's a pretty big deal for me. Like everyone else that works in the schools, I am addicted to Pinterest.   :)

In my spare time, I work at a nursing home, take Zumba, and spend time with my husband.  We've been married for about a year and a half, and we met in college.  Our cat and dog are both about five years old, although we've owned the cat since she was a kitten, and the dog for only about a year.  Both are a little odd, a little needy, and despite the picture below, the cat will have you know that she DESPISES the dog.  But we love them anyway.

Penny (the dog) and Ariadne (the cat).

When the weather is warmer, I like to garden, or at least pretend I know what to do with dirt and plants.

Summer bounty

I'd like to think there's more to me than that.  And there probably is.  But I'm sure you'll find out more of my idiosyncrasies as things go on.  :)