Better Hearing & Speech Month Quiz

It's Better Hearing and Speech Month!  Last year, I didn't get much of a chance to celebrate.  The end of the year is so wonky for me, and I was switching offices on top of it.  I'm learning that May is a crazy time of year for me, because school lets out usually in the last week (although this year we have to go a week into June due to snow days).

This year, I am starting small.  I have been using Sublime Speech's BHSM Packet.  The posters, handouts, and tip sheets are great!

I was inspired to do some advocating for our profession.  I created a quick quiz on Google Docs for my colleagues.  It covers a little bit of everything from the disorders we work with to the estimated yearly cost of voice disorders for teachers.  It's only 7 questions, so it's quick and easy to take.

Think you know everything about our profession, or want to quiz your friends/colleagues? 

If you are from IL, there's a version that includes a question that's state specific.

If you are from anywhere else in the US, here's a version for you.

Both versions have an answer key attached after you take the quiz.

Happy quiz taking/sharing! 

Game Play Rubric

Rubrics.  When I went to ASHA this year, I went to more than one session that touted the benefit of rubrics, especially for social language.  They are a great way to target certain behaviors and make students more aware of what they are working on.

I have a group of first graders.  In my group of four first graders, I have three that have a really hard time playing games.  I knew this about most of them as individuals, but boy, the first time we tried a game together?  By halfway through the session, one student was under the table, one was yelling in the corner, and one was chatting away like nothing unusual was happening.  The remaining student was looking around the classroom, absolutely dumbstruck.  Which is probably how I was looking at that particular moment, to be honest!

So I needed a new game plan.  Luckily for me, I had just come back from ASHA, which meant that I had the idea of rubrics fresh in my head. 

You probably know how to make a rubric, but here's my method.  First, I  identify behaviors that my kids needed to work on.  Since one student started getting upset when he didn't go first, and another when he realized he had to go last, I decided turn order was going to be important.  Other issues from that fateful day included arguing with me about the rules (seriously folks, this was Chutes & Ladders), saying nice things about whoever was winning, and being a good winner/loser.

Thus, a rubric was born.  Because I have some literal thinkers and finaglers in my group, I wrote out examples of the behaviors for each value.  The student earns one point if they don't participate (because remember, we were hiding under the table or in the corner when we started), up to four points for demonstrating the target behavior.

Now, I am all about data collection, and this is ripe for data collection.  I am always jealous when the Special Education teacher can whip out some nicely made graphs of benchmarks to talk about how well Johnny is doing in reading fluency.  So I decided that I am going to have my own charts to show parents when meetings come around.  So I set up a Google Doc, and I keep a seperate page for each student.  The result? When Johnny fills in his rubric, I take a copy of it and plug my numbers in.  Google Docs automatically charts it for me, which means that I am ready to go.

This has been great to print out for parents, and an easy thing to carryover into the classroom.  I have a few paraprofessionals that know to use the rubric when they do classroom games.  It gives me great feedback as to what to target in groups, and which skills are emerging for each student.

If you have students who have similar difficulties, you can find my Game Play Rubric (and directions to download your own Google Docs data sheets) here.

St. Patrick's Day Craftivity

Next week is state testing for my 3rd-5th graders.  It's a week of wonky schedules, proctoring, and pulling the kids I can when I can.  So I need an activity that is relatively easy to throw together, quick, and meaningful. Additionally, my Olympics themed bulletin board has run its course.  The social worker and I usually care for this bulletin board together, since it is outside of her office.  We have another one down the hallway that I put Mia McDonald's Idiom of the Week up.  

Say goodbye to the Olympics!

It has been a brutal winter here, so I want to start thinking Spring!  As always, thank goodness for Pinterest.  I found this cute free craftivity from The Teacher Wife.

Photo Credit to The Teacher Wife

With my 3rd grade and up groups, we could get the activity done in 20 minutes.  My K-2 kids need closer to 30 for the cutting and writing parts.  But it's a great activity to model sentences with, talk about feelings, follow directions, and really brighten someone's day.  I sent this picture to one of the teachers in my building when her 1st grader came up with this response:

Photo taken by my student. Can you see his sleeve in the corner?

If you are looking for a quick craftivity that you can use with a wide variety of students, I would strongly suggest this one.

May your day be touched
by a bit of Irish luck,
brightened by a song in your heart,
and warmed by the smiles
of the people you love.

And may we have no snow days to mess with state testing!  :)

What I Wish For...

By now, you've probably heard about the big 3 Million Teachers sale on TpT.  I am super excited about whittling down some of my wishlist!

1. No Print I "Mustache" You a Question: Answering and Formulating Questions by Sublime Speech.  What a versatile product for my K-2 crowd!  And no-print, which is great these days!

2. Speech and Language Common Core Cans by Nicole Allison of Speech Peeps.  I love the idea of exit questions. Great thing to do in the last few minutes of a session.

3. Conversation System: Visual Guide and Scoreboard by Kate Shepard. I am always on the lookout for activities that will help my social language kids.  Rubrics have been awesome for some of my students that have the fundamental skills and are working on carryover, but for those that are still working on those fundamental skills, I am excited to try something more visual.

I also have some clip art that I am excited for, but hopefully that will appear at a later time when I actually have time to make some new products!

In the meantime, check out Speech Room News, who is hosting another What's in Your Cart linky party to see what your other favorite bloggers have in their carts!

Caseload vs. Workload

Oh man, where have I been?  Well, I've been a busy busy BUSY SLP!  In fact, this particular blog post has been sitting in my draft box since the ASHA convention in November!

My split this year has been between two elementary buildings.  While I love working with the K-5 kids, both caseloads have grown as the year went on.  Last year, I added only 5 kids to my caseload during the whole year at a middle school.  This year, it seems like at least 2 kids a month- in each building!

There are a few things that I attribute the growth to.  The first is a change in the district RtI process.  I've gotten more referrals for screens for kids that teachers wouldn't bring to me, since more education has been given to teachers on my role.  Good and bad, right?  The second is that we have had a lot of move-ins this year from other districts, and it seems like they all come with an IEP!

For my own sake, I started to document my time using this ASHA workload analysis sheet.  It's broken down into categories so you can determine just where your week goes.  It's really quite eye opening.  I started to track my minutes before I went to the ASHA convention in November, and have been trying to ever since.  To help my case, I went to an ASHA seminar on adopting a workload method from Laura Epstein.  It was pretty interesting. She suggested that the approach doctors use in their practice to determine practice caseload is a possibility for us.   Patient panels are the way PCP's decide how much time each patient should receive.  Basically, if you are a typical person, they assume so many doctor visits a year at a certain time value, based on your age and health.  Additionally, they use EBP to determine treatment times based on diagnoses.  Strep throat may be one visit for 15 minutes, while something else could be 15 minutes x 6 weeks of follow ups.  

This website has a pretty good explanation if you are curious. 

So what do they recommend you do if you feel absolutely overwhelmed?  Aside from retail therapy (guilty!), there are some more productive ways to work on alleviating the stress and advocating for yourself.


1. Chart your workload for a month. Ms. Epstein recommended calculating the percent of your week spent in each activity.  For those who don't remember how to do that, convert the time that you are contracted to be in the building to minutes, multiply by 5 for the 5 days a week. Then add the minutes you are spending in each activity for the week and divide that by the total minutes.  (e.g. if I am contracted to be in the building for 2250 minutes a week, and I spend 980 minutes in a week doing direct therapy, then I know that 43% of my week was spent directly giving therapy).  Don't forget to include things like lunch and plan time if they are in your contract.  You can calculate the percentage of your week that *should* be spent in those activities, and then you know if you are hitting that goal each week (I would love to meet a related service person who is!).  The ASHA Workload Analysis Survey that I linked to above is really helpful in this endeavor.

2. Look at your student population.  Kids who stutter may be a heavy time investment initially, but theoretically, as they move to the maintenance phase there is less of a time investment with them. Same with articulation.  However, if you have a caseload that is heavily language based, your "invested time" might start high and stay high.  Ms. Epstein recommended that as a practice, we start to derive a more formulaic approach to this, but thinking about my caseload, I'm not entirely sure how that would even work.

3. Ms. Epstein also recommended comparing your district to others in regards to prevalence of disabilities. In other words, what does your caseload look like compared to districts around you? Are you over identifying students?  This one can be tricky, I think, because I know some districts are "magnet" districts for certain disabilities, and people move to the district because they want the services provided by the district.

4. If you want to really go the extra mile and make your case, ASHA also offers other workload analysis sheets to really break down the time you are spending on activities, as well as the time you NEED to spend on those activities.  They also have some great examples and templates for you to use to really paint a picture for your administrators.  

5. Look at what your state has to say.  Some states have set certain guidelines, and there are a few districts that have adopted a workload model.  In my case, the guidelines are pretty general.  I can't have a caseload of more than 60 students, but that does not pertain to my workload. 

It can be frustrating when you feel like your workload is not manageable, and typically, you are not the only one a district to feel that way.  While it can be tedious to track your minutes on a daily basis, I truly do recommend it.  If for no other reason than to see just how your days look.  I know some days the final bell rings and I wonder what happened to the day!

How about you? Does anyone work in a district where caseload is not the driving factor in your assignments?  How did your district transition to a workload model, and what does that look like for you?  I'd love to hear about it!  Or if you are like me, and trying to collect the data you need to advocate for yourself, do you have any additional recommendations?

September Speech Link Up!

The school year is off and running!  We are in week 4 already, and time is flying by!  Here's my link-up for September, brought to you by All Y'all Need!

Schooling: We have to do online trainings for my school district on allergies, bloodborn pathogins, HIPAA, ethics, and a few other things.  On top of that, the company that I do PRN work for also makes us do similar yearly trainings.  You can bet that the systems aren't compatible, so this weekend, I will be sitting down and doing TWO rounds of the same trainings and quizzes.  Plus, I signed up for some continuing ed credits through my ASHA SIG so that I can have all the credits I will need for my state licensure at the end of October.  That's going to be a lot of time on the computer!

Excited: I have two eligibility reviews due October 1st this year (yowza! That's like *no* time from now).  I am hoping to use the CELF-5 for these kiddos, since it ships this week.  Keep your fingers crossed that it gets to us by next week!

Prepping: I bought a bunch of stuff at the last TpT sale, but was out of cardstock.  Today, the three packages I requested came in, which totally made my Monday.  Color printer, here I come!

Trying: At the building I've been at for a year already, I am trying 5 minute quick artic 2-3 times a week. It feels more time consuming right now, because I have a lot of kids that I see for one sound only that I'm trying this with, but I'm hoping that some of my kids that are close to generalization will get to that point faster and I'll be able to rotate in new kids.  I'm on week 3 of actually doing therapy for some of those kids, and already I've seen a huge improvement in one of my students that worked almost all year last year on getting the /r/ in isolation (it was like starting from scratch every week!).  He's almost ready to move to syllables, which is a pretty big leap for him.   

That's all about my September, what about yours?
Is anyone else waiting for the CELF-5? 
Have to sit through awful monotone trainings that you can't skip through? 
Have you had success with quick artic?  I am seeing the kids individually, which is the part that feels the most time consuming. 

Back to School Shopping

You've heard about the TpT sale that starts tomorrow, right? Because it does. And I could not be more pleased.  I have been quietly adding to my wishlist (OK, so the last few weeks have been more in the "frantic" realm) as I read over student goals, and start to think about how I am structuring this year.  One of the big things I am thinking about is homework.  Homework that will actually get done, is relevant, and maybe, just maybe, might be a little bit of fun, too.  I am inspired by a homework post I read recently that sends home games and activities with the students to help facilitate speech and language at home. I have many articulation bingo cards that I inherited from the SLP who retired before I was hired, but Bingo will only get me so far.  Here's what I'm thinking right now:

1. Quick Drills from Mia of Putting Words In Your Mouth. How cute are these?  The concept is simple, the price is certainly right, and there's a little something for everyone (everything from sports to flip flops to Star Wars!), along with word lists for multiple sounds.  How easy would it be to practice with a student and then send it home so they can show off to their folks?  Just print, laminate, cut, and go.

2. Silly Stories Articulation - s, th, l, ch, sh, j and /r/ & vocalic-r from Speech2U.  These are mad-libs lists by sound.  Neat for some of my reading-level kids. Easy enough to send home a mad-lib story and have the students practice.

3. Speech and Language Homework for a Year and Social Language Homework for a year by If Only I Had Super Powers. Talk about thorough!  A great supplement, and great examples for parents of opportunities they could take to help their student target their goal areas.  And so easy to organize for sending home, which is much appreciated.

Since not everything can be homework, here are some of the other things I have been coveting lately:

1. Secret Agent Articulation by Jenna of Speech Room News.  My students go crazy for QR codes, and love them to bits.  What a great way to incorporate something fun with articulation AND a little vocabulary building. 

2. Idiom of the Week from Speech with Sharon.  My recent office move has put me smack dab in the middle of a hallway that every student passes at least four times a day.  Since my door is in prime real estate, I would like to do an idiom of the week.  My idea is to preview it on week 1 with my students, have them do the worksheet that comes with the activity, and then hang the idiom of the week up with the student definitions the following week.  My students can take pride in their work being on such prominent display and have the opportunity to tell their friends what an idiom means.

3. Evidence Based Practice Quick Reference Binder by Carissa Ten Hoeve from Home Sweet Speech Room.  This year, we are reevaluating our district-wide RtI programs, which includes speech.  There are also talks of new materials, and I anticipate that this binder will be really helpful in my hope to get some new, relevant materials for my buildings.

Have I missed anything?  What are you looking forward to clearing off your wishlist?

Anatomy of a speech room

Last week, I went in to set up my office.  Luckily, I stopped by the principal's office to check in.

"How do you feel about moving your office?" he asked.
"Well," I said hesitantly, "when we talked about it in the spring, I said I was a bit worried about the location of the other room, and I would miss my window.  Also, it's a smaller space."
"Yea, but it's air conditioned," he responded.  "And it's possible that you will end up with two staff bathrooms in your room, so I think it might be less disruptive if the teachers aren't coming and going while you're there. Plus, the new room has a HUGE closet."
"OK. If you tell me I'm moving, then I will."

At that point he suggested I go look at the new room.  I realized my nameplate was already on the door.  Since the decision was already made, I came back, asked the secretary for the key, and set about to figure out just how to get everything that was in the room out, and everything from my office in.  Because sometimes, you know when it's time to just smile and do what the principal asks.

Now for the "Before" shots:

Here's the room with someone else's stuff in it (except the bag on the chair, laptop, and waterbottle).  After a few hours, a lot of moving, and access to our color printer, here is my speech room for the year.  Let's do a rundown, because almost all of my room is decorated compliments Teachers Pay Teachers, and I am super excited to start the year! 

 1. Speech-Language Therapy Objective Binder by Queen's Speech. Common Core is here, and the principal that will be evaluating me this year is gaga for "I can" statements and objectives clearly stated for every lesson.  After printing out the file, I put each sheet in a sheet protector and used two binder rings so I can easily flip between the objectives.  Hanging it on the whiteboard puts it in a prominent space that my students will easily be able to read.

2. Super Social Skills by If Only I had Super Powers.  I am so excited to incorporate this program in my room this year.  I have a number of students working on social skills, and my new elementary building includes our district's BD/ED program.  This packet has social stories, power cards, games, and those handy reference posters (which you can get free as a preview!).  I just found out today that we have to hire a new social worker in one building, so this will be great for some of the co-treating I was planning on doing while the new person gets their feet under them!

3. This is a combination of efforts, and isn't actually related to TpT, but to my other source of inspiration: Pinterest.  I got the idea for it from The Learning Curve, who posted it a while back.  I used free worksheets from Mommy Speech Therapy, printed at half size, and color coded on cardstock initial, medial, and final for each sound.  I put one for each sound on a binder ring, and ta-da! Instant word lists for those times when I need quick drill, if a teacher stops by to ask a question, or if I need some words for a language activity.  Plus, because the worksheets have pictures for each word, so my younger students can pair the word with a visual.

 3. This awesome bulletin board comes from Danielle Reed at Sublime Speech.  Speech Slides and Language Ladders is my new reinforcer.  Last year, I did stickers, and when a student earned 5, they were rewarded.  It was OK, but got old fast.  This year, I am excited to use this. Students will get 1 roll of the dice if they follow the speech rules for the session and get their work done. If they bring back homework, they get another roll of the die.  Hopefully, they will be motivated to bring back that homework!

 5. Inspirational Subway Art from Middle Grades Maven. A packet of 12 inspirational quotes that I put on construction paper to jazz it up a bit. They are very cute and colorful, and a very quick way to decorate!



That's about it.  My principal wasn't wrong- the closet is HUGE, which means I have plenty of space for materials so the office space can remain uncluttered, which I appreciate. I still have to put up some of my visual cue sheets for vocabulary, which will go on the other side of the whiteboard, secured with velcro for easy referencing.  

In other news, the AC is highly effective.  So much so that I wore a jacket today! 

One speech room down, another left to set up!



*No one asked me to write this, and I have not received anything in exchange for doing this.

July Link-Up

I know I've been on a bit of a hiatus, but hopefully, you can see why!

Time for the July link-up from  All Y'all Need.  If you want to participate, check out the details on her page. 

 Just finished our travels!  We did 3 days in Rome, and 3 in Florence.  The weather was beautiful the entire time we were there, and we walked walked walked around the cities!  We averaged over 14000 steps a day while we were there and 25 flights of stairs (thanks to my Fit Bit for keeping track!).   We took close to 1000 pictures, but here are some of the sights!

Using: oh the bugs!  We got back from our travels and turned around for one (rainy) weekend in Indiana, and the following in Wisconsin, both on camping ventures.  I thought we were bathing in bug spray!  I hoped we'd left them in their respective states, but over the weekend, we took the dog for a walk and only made it a mile out before we had to turn back- even with the bug spray, they were swarming and biting through our clothes.  They are serious this year!

Loving getting back into my Zumba groove.  OK, so the school gym we use makes it feel more like Bikram Zumba, but there's something fun about bopping around to the catchy music.  And an hour and a half class gets me about 8000 steps, which is hugely helpful in the summer.  Last summer, I started a session and in the second class, I had a "Zumba solo", wherein my coordinated self lost my footing and sprained my ankle.  It benched me for quite a few weeks, so I am happy to be able to actually participate this summer.

Yummy- I went to a freezer meals workshop yesterday, and made 20 crockpot ready meals, that I am super excited to break out when the school year starts.  I am a big advocate for freezer cooking (it's the only system my husband and I can agree on to get dinner on the table), but I was in a bit of a rut with my regular marinades and go-to recipes.  It was fun to get together with some friends and put things together.  Let's hope those dinners turn out as good as they sounded!

One material purged...

The speech pathologist that retired 2 years before I took my job left a LOT of stuff behind.  Lots and lots of worksheets (a whole file cabinet full!), workbooks, references, and games.  Some of it has been helpful, and this being my first year in the district, I didn't want to make too many waves and get rid of things en masse.  After all, one never knows what one will encounter on a new caseload, yes?

At the end of the year, I did start to tackle some of the extra materials.  I needed a better organization system that worked for me, and part of that meant taking the games off the shelf where they were taunting my students and moving them to a place where they were a bit less...obvious- namely a cabinet.  In order to do that, of course, I had to go through the cabinet's contents.  I was able to whittle away some extraneous materials, including this gem:

Copyright 1979!

It's too bad this book was missing a cover and had been split into chunks to fit into a folder.  I looked on Amazon, and they are selling for over $100!

What's something you've uncovered hiding in your speech room?