Vacation Update

I have been on vacation since...well, since winter break started.  We hosted our first Christmas for 15 people, and then packed our car & dog and headed east to visit my family.  We have been enjoying family, food, and running the dog around in the snow.

But, even though I've been a bit out of touch, I have been keeping very busy on Facebook, because there has been a flurry of speechie activity!  Giveaways, freebies, and sales, oh my! 

Speaking of deals,

3:1 Model

A few years back, two of the SLPs in my district went to a presentation of a 3:1 service delivery model.  As I understand it, the basic idea is that the students on your caseload receive services 3 weeks a month.  During the last week of the month, IEP meetings are held, screenings are completed, testing happens, progress reports and billing finished, classroom observations are conducted, consultations are scheduled, and all those other odds and ends that we don't have enough time in our day to do happens.  It's also a time to make up a session that was cancelled or during which the student was absent.

We have a few districts in our area that have switched to this model, and they swear they see their students more frequently, as they are not pulled for meetings sporadically any more, and they have the time to make up with students if a student was absent or the SLP was.  Plus, they have time for screenings, planning, and testing without having to cancel groups.

Right now, some of the buildings in my districts do this.  For example, one of the elementary schools has one day a week when the service team does not see students.  They hold all IEPs/meetings on those days, and the SLP has time to pull kids for testing or screening around the meetings.  Unfortunately, as someone who is split between buildings, I don't imagine this working for me.  We also have a few part time SLPs who have their assignment based on caseload, so taking a day for meetings wouldn't work, because they have enough of a balancing act getting all minutes met in 2 days a week. Most of us would prefer the 3:1 model, but we are still collecting information about it.

If you use the 3:1 model, I would love to hear from you.  Are you happy with it? Do you wish it was different? Do you really feel like you are meeting your students' needs? Is your whole Special Education team on board, or is it just related service providers? What has been the response of the GenEd teachers? How do you explain it to parents? Are you accountable for your time during your "off" week?  What other things do you do during your "off" time? What else should we know about it?

Thanks, all!

Almost break?

It's been a busy few weeks! 

Can you guess my go-to hangman holiday word?  I usually have at least one student in a group that is working on one of these sounds, and it's pretty good at keeping them guessing for a while!

I have a group that LOVES my joke of the day, so I put three up as a holiday treat for them today.  They loved it, and I didn't have one pout to play games on the iPad instead.  

Two more days until break.  How are you hanging in?

Moment of silence

“It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.”
― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent  

   

Materials Wednesday Can I/Can you?

I have a student who has been struggling with asking questions in the classroom.  According to his teacher, he will roll on the floor saying, "I'm SO thirsty!"  When the teacher asks if he has a question for her, he will say "no". This can go on for 45 minutes, and usually results in the student being very frustrated, and possibly breaking down.

Well, you can imagine that when the teacher brought the concern to my attention, I immediately knew what my lesson plan for the next week would be: forming questions and talking about when to ask.  To be honest, I'm not quite sure where the breakdown is occurring: I've heard him formulate questions ("Can I ask you/tell you something?"), so it might be that he either isn't used to asking permission for things or that he isn't fully understanding when an appropriate time to do so is. 

So I created this quick activity to work on formulating the Can I/ Can you question structure.  The game is leveled in the following way:

 

 

The first level is fixing the question: a question is provided that is grammatically incorrect, and the student is asked to correct it.

Level two asks the student to turn a statement into a question. 

Level 3 provides the student with a very short scenario and has them practice asking a question:

 I also have question starter strips to help those who might need the visual reminder.

It's pretty straightforward, but I hope it will help.  At the end of the game, the students count up the number of eyes they have gotten on their monsters.  The person with the most eyes is the winner!

You can find it on my TpT store.