Friday bonus!

Has it been a weird week for anyone else?  Yesterday afternoon, my kids were off the wall.  Weird new behaviors that I have never seen before and squirrely.  I got home yesterday thinking, "my, what a weird day".

As of Monday, we have 15 school days left before winter break.  An early Thanksgiving makes it feel like the time between Thanksgiving and Winter break is going to last f-o-r-e-v-e-r!

I thought as a Friday afternoon treat, I should make myself something for the students to look forward to as we try and buckle down through these last few weeks.  Because when they are excited to come to speech, my day passes a LOT faster.

Earlier this week, I whipped up a little freebie called Puns about Winter are Snow Joke for my artic/fluency/pragmatics kids.  I haven't gotten a chance to print it out and put it all together myself, yet, but I am looking forward to it.

This week, my principal also did a presentation as part of his annual evaluation on using iPads in the classroom.  And if your principal says that he is giving a presentation before school and the superintendent will be there, you definitely find yourself there no matter what.  Especially if this is your first year in said district.

Anyway, one of the things he was providing information on was QR codes. Now, my other school did  a quick presentation on them at the beginning of the year, but I had sort of filed the idea away with all the other things that I was probably told during that first week, but only have vague recollection of now.

Long story short, the presentation was good, QR codes are cool, and my principal followed up his presentation by sending a copy of his notes and saying, "I hope to see QR codes in the classrooms when I do my walkthroughs in the upcoming weeks."

I needn't tell you, dear readers, that when your principal suggests such things, you quickly try to figure out a way to make it so. 

While I look forward to brainstorming some really unique ideas to earn brownie points in the future, I needed something much more immediate.  So I took 15 of the jokes from my puns packet, and put them onto cards.  To find the answer?  Yep, you guessed it, QR codes that link to the answer.

Voila!

You can find it here.

Does anyone use QR codes regularly?  I'd love to hear about how you use them!

Odd job

This is a cup that students at my school use for ketchup.

I have a student that would eat ketchup all day, every day, if he could.  But his teacher wants him to only have 1 cup of it a day, because he gets silly if he eats more.

This means I found myself writing a social story that included a page about only having one cup of ketchup a day.

When I asked one of the ladies who works in the cafeteria if I may have a ketchup cup to photograph, she looked at me strangely.  I tried to warn her.  I led with, "This will probably be a strange request, but..."

She asked her supervisor, who quizzed me on my intentions for said picture.  I did not realize that asking for a ketchup cup (empty, even!) would be a suspicious activity.

When I said that I had to write a story for a student that needs to limit his intake.  "Oh", she said, "I know exactly who you are talking about," and sent off someone to get me a ketchup cup.

Some days, my job is weird.

Materials Wednesday: Teaching Flexible Thinking using Holiday Scenarios

I have quite a few kids on my caseload that understand what they *should* do in problem solving.  In fact, they often can solve a problem in theory, but they struggle in reality with being flexible in their problem solving.  They tend to see things in black and white- their way or everything is ruined.  This rigid thinking can be difficult when forming and maintaining relationships with peers and family members.

The holidays are a time when rigid thinking becomes very difficult. Schedules are less predictable, the number of social interactions tends to increase, and novel situations may pop up.

In preparation for the upcoming holidays, I developed a tool to help teach flexible thinking.  As you can see above, I start with information about rigid vs. flexible thinking.  I then give some examples of what flexible thinking might look like:

Then there are 16 situation cards that deal with things like getting a gift you don't like, not getting what you wanted, handling changes to the schedule,and other situations that might be disappointing/result in rigid thinking.  After each scenario, you can ask the students how they can change the thought to be more flexible.

If you are interested, this is for sale at my TpT store. The super cute clipart was created by Jeanette Baker of Jason's Online Classroom.

Do you have any tips for teaching Flexible Thinking?  I know the Superflex Curriculum has some pretty great stuff, unfortunately, our department's budget this year went to updating our testing materials, so it is a dream for another year for me.

TpT Sale!

I am having a sale at TpT, now through Tuesday.  

Happy Cyber Monday!

Monday App: The Guardian Eyewitness

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanskgiving break.  My 4 days off were lovely.  I could definitely use more long weekends!

I've mentioned how I love free apps, before, right?  And how I am always looking for relevant information to work with my students on?  I am not a huge fan of straight up workbooks and vocab cards, so I try to find things that better reflect what's happening in the world.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right?  Enter: The Guardian Eyewitness.

Hands down, this is my go-to for inferencing work.  I use the pictures to talk about the differences between an observation, inference, and prediction.  We then practice using those skills.  The app has  a picture of the day gallery (screen them first- in the past I have seen tribes with topless women, flag burning, and  violent moments), which gives plenty of choices.  Each picture has a caption, which gives information about the picture, but I usually like the students to try and figure out as much as possible, then compare their response to the caption at the end.The app also allows students to zoom in for detail, which some really like.

In recent weeks, I've used it as a launching off point to talk about Sandy, and the East Coast especially with my middle schoolers.  It's hard for my students to really understand some of the devastation, because they have no frame of reference.  So taking the time to look at pictures, talk about what was happening, and apply this all to something that is happening right now has been really beneficial for some of them.

Do you have any good pictures from online that you use for inferencing?

Middle School on NPR

Anyone who works in the middle school setting, did you catch NPR's This American Life this week?  It was an hour devoted to middle school.  If you work in a middle school, or remember anything about middle school, I would suggest giving a listen.  You can download the podcast for free through iTunes, or stream it online.  I thought it was a pretty good listen while I cleaned the house this weekend.

Monday App: TED Talks

I am a HUGE fan of TED talks in my daily life.  I find the topics fascinating, and the speakers to be a mixture of entertaining and brilliant.  I am (like most SLPs, I think) someone who collects information.  I am intrigued by how the brain works*, and so much of what they talk about has to do with just that.  If you have spare time, there are some great talks by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor about her experience of having a stroke and Jane McGonigal, who talks about how video games can change our world.  There's also a very funny talk about making a toaster.  I mean, there are hundreds of really interesting ideas on there, so do take some time to check it out.

You are probably wondering where I am going with this.

Well, I have a bunch of students that work on comprehension.  As much as I love reading aloud all day, every day, I try to find different materials to comprehend.  After all, my students are expected to sit through teachers talking in class, and comprehend information ALL DAY.  So listening to different speakers and learning about different topics is a good way to practice.

Enter the TED app, which is a free app that you can add to your iPad (or go to the website via computer).  There are a few nice features about the app: first, you can save talks, so you can find them easily for different groups.  Second, you can use the "inspire me" button to find short talks in a genre (looking for something persuasive? informative? funny?).

My students typically respond well to the talks.  I typically aim for the ones that are under 5 minutes, and then I'll ask inferential, concrete or prediction questions afterwards.  We might define words based on the context, or take a look at what was funny/why it was.  I usually use this with my 5th-8th grade crowd, and always screen first for too much technical language.

Here are my 3 favorite talks to get you started:
1. Thomas Suarez: A 12-year-old app developer.  My students love the idea that a 12 year old can design apps.  We talk about the apps this kid has designed, the steps he outlines in the talk, and how he has applied his skills to his school.  I've also used it as a launching point to talk about setting goals, we infer how we think he is treated at school (seen as a nerd vs. seen as someone cool because he can do what he does), and try to predict what he might do next. Some kids come up with pretty neat app ideas that they would want to create.

2. Joe Smith: How to use a paper towel.  This is a short piece on, well, exactly what it sounds like.  But it blows student's minds, and I'd like to think I am doing my part to save the planet while working on speech.  You know, two birds and all.  

3. Mark Bezos: A life lesson from a volunteer firefighter. This is a great talk for inferring.  It's also good for problem solving, and acts as a launching point for what things you would grab if there was a fire, what your family safety plan is, who you would call, etc.  


Have you used TED talks?  Got any ones I should find?  
Do you use something else for listening comprehension that your students like? 

*I once apologized to my college advisor, because I spent 4 years avoiding a neuroscience class, and completed my psychology degree without it.  When I got to grad school and ended up in 5 semesters of neuro classes and was the graduate TA who took over the undergrad class while the professor was on maternity leave? Yea, I felt it necessary to email my undergrad advisor to apologize.

Thankful Thursday: My Laminating Fairy

My school doesn't have a large laminator.  In fact, neither my elementary NOR my middle school have one.  Shock! Gasp! Say it ain't so!

Oh, but it is.  Because we have something better.

I have a laminating fairy*.  Twice a week, the fairy comes and picks up materials to be laminated and returns with them two days later.  Right to my mailbox.  It's pretty amazing.  And I am SO thankful about the time I save when I don't have to wait for the laminator to warm up, and get covered in the scraps of laminate that adhere to me via static electricity.

Some of my recently laminated goodies.

We also have a copying service in my district that is serviced by a district employee.  If I ever had large copying projects, it would be the first place I go.  They also make posters, which I am interested in possibly dabbling in next year.


*I am aware that my fairy is actually a very sweet and kind parent volunteer who I frequently thank profusely and will be getting a gift certificate from me for Christmas and the end of the school year for her help!

Materials Wednesday: Common Core Matrix

If you are like me, your state standards were easy to select from: the choice for SLP's in my state was pretty much between 2 goals: a receptive goal and an expressive goal.  Almost anything we wanted to work on tied to one of those two goals.  

Of course, we have all spent time getting familiar with the Common Core State Standards.  What I realized very quickly when starting to use them was that I was NOT going to be able to keep them straight in my head.  Not when they change each grade level, and I was now working with students K-8.  That's way too many numbers for me to remember.  It's also a HUGE time waster to figure out where to find an applicable standard each time I want to write a new goal or make a lesson plan. 

Enter my Common Core Speech Pathologist Matrix for grades K-12. A one page reference sheet that provides a corresponding Common Core Standard by grade level and goal area.

See?  So if I have a student that is working on articulation, I consult my handy dandy sheet, and know exactly where to look in my (free!) Common Core Standards App that I talked about on Monday.  I find it especially handy for language goals, so I know exactly what my students should be expected to do regarding story retells or vocabulary.  I also can easily look forward or back a year to determine what skills will be needed or may be lacking.

The goal areas are for the topics listed below.  You can see for some areas, it's not a goal we target in the K-1 groups.  I don't write goals for analogies for kindergarteners, but I might work on categories, which I probably wouldn't work on with older kids.

I refer to my matrix constantly.  At IEP meetings if I have to develop a goal, this saves me a ton of time.  If I am looking for educational impact, it's nice to have this as a reference.  It's also great to have when I am talking with the special education teacher and we are discussing how our goals might overlap, and how we will each target an area. In fact, I keep a copy of this on my clipboard at all times, as well as a copy hanging in each of my offices.'

Although in the end, always use your professional discretion. There may be more than one CCSS that targets a goal area, and if you feel that said standard is more representative of what you want to target, please use that one. I am certainly not the be all and end all expert on this.

This is obviously my way of organizing the CCSS.  Does anyone have a better way? How big was the change from your state standards to the CCSS?  How is your district doing with the shift?

If you are interested in purchasing my matrix, you can get it here.

Monday App: Common Core Standards

Ah, the Common Core.  The pages and pages of .pdf that I flip through on the internet.  The document I have printed for each office so I can cross check before I write goals. Oh, the time I have spent with you, Common Core Standards!

So, when I was perusing the App Store and came across the Common Core Standards App by Mastery Connect?  I was thrilled. 

 As you can see below from the handy dandy widget, the standards are organized by the common core areas, then by grade level.  It's SO much faster for me to look up standards now.  Try it out here if you want:

 And I almost forgot! This fabulous  app is FREE!  Wahoo!

Stay tuned for Wednesday, when I share a material that makes looking up Common Core Standards even faster & easier.  Between these two things, you'll spend less time sifting and more time using exactly what you need.

What Common Core shortcuts do you use?

Parent Teacher Conferences

I always have great plans for parent teacher conferences.  I think I'll have time to make materials. To catch up on paperwork! To schedule evaluation times! To talk to parents!

The reality is that I managed to get just a little bit of all of that done in the last 2 days.  So I don't feel like I've really been able to cross anything off my to-do list.  I can say that I did get a little chipped away from every part of my list: materials for students, updated goal tracking sheets (I had 12 IEPs since the start of school, and haven't done a great job on updating some of my group data sheets), meeting with parents (OK, I did all of these), sending out invites for the meetings that meeting with parents confirmed times for, getting out RtI permission slips to teachers so they can talk about it with parents, try and figure out when I am testing the 2 students I have re-evals due for in 2 weeks (I hate being so last-minute, but it's been crazy with Institute Days and P/T days, Halloween and our local Pumpkin Fest also meant kids couldn't be pulled).

So I can't say anything is really crossed off my list.  But I can say that I have a lot of things started, which is more than nothing, right?

I am spending the weekend away from my computer.  What are you up to?