More on Kleenex Boxes

Many of you probably saw this post about the cute little Kleenex boxes that target has and how I use them for following directions with manipulative activities.  I am happy to report that the cute little farm animal boxes are back!  I got a new piggy since mine has been so horribly abused and a new cute little rabbit box!  (I didn't see the sheep this time around, but the cow and chick were there)

So if you wanted them you need to follow the directions:
 go forth
find a big red bulls-eye
look for paper products
select cute animal boxes
blow your nose vigorously, and frequently
and have fun!

If I could I would invite you over to catch my spring cold or to my parents since my mom has the flu... but both kind of suck so hopefully your students can get through the kleenex fast enough for your taste!

Past Tense Verbs - Launch of my TPT

I'm going to start with the second part of the title.  After a lot thinking, I've finally decided to do it and start a TPT store.  I've had A TON of materials sitting on my computer half done for over a month because I've been really unsure of what to do about clip art.  If it were just in my speech room, I wouldn't be as worried about copyright issues, but putting them up for download by others on the internet is a different story.  Push has come to shove and I need to make a decision.  I know what I have and *I* want to finish use it, and I hope you all do too.  Based on that, I've decided to start buying clip art.  Mainly because of the expense of this, I'll be offering some of my materials for sale on TPT.

I rushed to get a lot of things done for the Cyber Monday sale so make sure you check them out in my new TPT store.   I'm planning on more detailed blog posts for them at a later date so stay tuned, but I wanted you to have a chance to get them at the sale prices.

Here is the first one!

Animals Regular Past Tense Verbs!

48 verbs in three levels of play representing all three pronunciations of the -ed ending.

Level One: Students work at the word level and conjugate singe words from present into past tense.

 Level Two:  Students change present tense verbs into past tense verbs in given sentences.

 Level Three: Students create their own sentences with given words. (using the same cards as level one).

Cute animal pictures are on the verb cards.  During the game students collect animals to fill their zoo.  If they get a Lightning card, one of their animals escaped and they must give one back.  The person with the most animals at the end of the game wins!

These cards are available for Purchase in my new Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Check out the Animals Past Tense Verbs activity on TPT.

Check out all of my TPT items here.

Speech Reminders

I'm at that point in the year where many of my students are making to to me at the correct times and on time, but many others are not.  Some of my students are having trouble telling time and knowing when to leave their classroom.  I was talking one of my fellow special education teachers today, and she shared a wonderful idea with me to solve the problem.

I created the reminders by making them in Powerpoint.  I found the clocks by searching the times on Google image search.   The clocks that I used were the first or second image that came up.  I then added the text.  I'm really excited to have this help some of my kids and be less disruptive to the rest of their classrooms when getting them to me!

New Organizational System for a New School Year!

I've been really getting ready for this school year and have been neglecting my blog for the past few weeks, but here is the organizational system I've been planning and hinted about in a previous post. 

I've been making my own therapy materials since graduate school, and been printing and using all the wonderful things available online to use too.  One thing I've always struggled with is how to organize them.  This year I decided to get pencil boxes.  Lots of pencil boxes.  I labeled them according to skill and put a sticky label on the outside edge. 

 When starting to sort, l labeled all the boxes with post-its and reorganized as needed. 

As planned, the boxes fit perfectly on the bookshelf in my room!

Now if only the rest of my space was this organized....  

Shopping for the New School Year!

I've been pretty quiet for most of the summer, but to be fair, I haven't been working either!

I've started shopping for the upcoming school year.  I have no budget anything outside test protocols this year so I need to acquire anything I might want to use in the cheapest way possible.  I've been following all the sales.  My deal of the week is the 1 cent folders at Office Depot.  Pretty much every week during school supply season both Office Depot and Office Max offer some crazy 1 cent and even some 5 cent deals.  There are usually some small item number limits, which has an easy work around.  Bring your teacher ID and get double the limit!  (I think you have to sign up for the teacher max-perks reward program at Office Max no signing up for things has been requested of me at Office Depot) Three trips to Office Depot and my 60 kiddo case load is covered for 60 cents plus negligible tax.

Another Item I've been collecting this summer are cheap plastic pencil boxes (Depending on color the one's I've got were .47 to .57 at Walmart and .99 at Target).  I've currently obtained 9, but am ultimately going for 12-15.  They are going to be used as an organizational tool for the numerous decks of therapy cards I've created or printed from all my fellow bloggers.  I'm planning on featuring it in a future post toward the end of the month.

What's your deal of the week?

The Woman Who Changed Her Brain

I've been on a temporary hiatus from anything work related.  I spend far more time than I care to admit during the school year, and have really enjoyed my first week off (as a side note, updates will probably occur over the summer, but may be inconsistent).  As I can't completely put everything down,  I have been working my way through a book about a radical new way to look at special education - The Woman Who Changed Her Brain by Barbara Arrowsmith-Young.  I first heard of this idea and program in the book The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge (which isn't the topic but covers a lot more brain-issues than just learning disabilities, including strokes and other brain damage - also I reference it several times below).  Links are to Amazon.

Never have I read a book that makes me both so hopeful and so sad.  The author describes her experience as an individual with severe learning/cognitive disabilities and how she was able to not only overcome them, but actually retrain her brain to free herself.  She then applied these exercises to others and developed additional ones to focus on other cognitive deficits.  The basic premise is that these cognitive deficits are what is preventing children with a variety of learning disabilities and diagnoses cannot learn.  Once the deficit is addressed, through a series of exercises (think weightlifting with the brain) these children are able to learn and perform tasks that were once beyond them.  The book discusses many case studies of both children and adults who have found success going through the program in the The Arrowsmith Schools.  It describes individuals moving from the 4th to 80th percentile on various sub-tests of standardized intelligence tests.

It kind of boggles my mind that there is so much resistance to neural plasticity (most of which was described in the Norman Doidge book).  It fits patterns that have been long observed - the stair step pattern of improvements following a traumatic brain injury [building a neural pathway represents the flat/no progress part of the stairs, and the sudden jump to the next step once the pathway has been formed is an almost perfect illustration...].  I do recognize the difference between seeing changes in a damaged, and healing brain than from someone who was "born that way."

I don't want to mislead anything.  This book is both an autobiography and (almost) an extended advertisement for the Arrowsmith Program.  It doesn't cover any strategies for any remediation of the different cognitive deficits described in the book (there are 14 that can interact in any number and at various severity in individuals). I think actual candidacy for the program was discussed more in the Doidge book than in this one, but the program does not seem to be appropriate for all who apply and that seems to be sorted out in the assessment process.

Going back to my first sentence about the book.  I am hopeful that this is a start of a change in what we view as special education.  The long term outcomes for the kids and adults who completed the programs in the case studies is dramatically different from anything they would have otherwise achieved.  I hope that the kids I work with eventually do have access to this or something similar.  The word eventually makes me sad.   I work in a poor area for a district with no money. My heart breaks that my kids (not to mention all the other sped kids in the building....) will not have access to this kind of help. I see almost mirror reflections of some of my students in the case studies. I can almost label specific kids with some of the deficits described in the book.  The program is beyond the resources of my school district and of the families.

I wish there was some more information about specific things that those of us working with these kids could do now. As the research improves, I hope that these ideas will spread into the mainstream for special education. Unfortunately, my kids, and millions of others are suffering now. It's a stretch for many schools to be able to adopt an Arrowsmith program (all the ones in the US appear to be private schools) but I would love something to use with kids now.

If you know of any resources - please share!

Best Purchases EVER!

As the school year is winding down and I have 1-2 days left with each group, I'm finding a limited need for new materials, so I thought I'd share my two most important tools in their creation with you.

Of course I laminate everything so I only have to make things once, so my personal laminating machine is my number one item. 

I have found that I cannot live without my personal laminating machine.  I paid about 25 dollars for it at Walmart (and when I broke the first one due to stupid human tricks...)  I immediately went out to get it's replacement.  Amazon link to the one I have.  I got it at Walmart (but the website won't display the current price).

I find my laminating machine indispensable for many reasons.  Typically, when I'm taking the time to print and make materials, it's because I want to use them NOW (or even yesterday).  I'm not allowed to use the big laminating machine and I don't want to wait until the day they will get done for me in the copy room (if they get to me in the pile this week).  Another bonus is added durability.  I get my pouches from Lakeshore Learning (100 for 19.95).  I find that the sheets are a lot thicker than the big machine and feel more like "real" cards.

One downer about laminating things is that you have to spend the time cutting things apart twice, so enter the scrap-booking paper cutter as number two!

I can't even begin to describe how much time this baby saves me.  Often times I will use a scissors once laminated for OCD-like precision with the plastic, but it's super easy to whip through both pre and post laminiated materials on this thing.  This was somewhere around $20 at Joann or Michaels - and I probably got it on sale or used a coupon. 

Dice Dice and more Dice!

Yesterday was a dice-filled day.  I was playing a newly created dice game (getting things together for you - stay tuned for my next post!) and my children were spending an unfortunate amount of time chasing dice around my office.   I found a great dice idea on pinterest and was hopefully to be able to implement something.  After fruitless searching at several stores I was still unable to find small snack containers to put the dice, and had no idea where any of the little toy machines were for the plastic bubbles.  The last stop of the night was the Dollar Tree.   I take a quick browse through the toy department and low and behold - there are the giant dice I've always wanted.  They even had six colors.  Feeling slightly pragmatic I limited myself to four - on the idea that I'd use one color at a time.  Since chipper chat and other Super Duper activities have long since taught me that childern + foam dice = limited life span.

2.5 inch cubes

I can't guarantee that a Dollar Tree near you will have such dice, but they typically carry similar items so it would be worth a shot to check!

I finally have giant dice and am so happy!  One of the other SLPs brought a big wooden dice back from a weekend trip and I have been jealous.  Her giant dice may be fun, but I'm also excited that mine will be quiet!

An as excited as I was about my big dice, I was feeling depressed about my lack of ability to contain the little ones.  And there - right behind the Cash Register it was.  A machine with Zombies in little plastic bubbles.  Not only are dice contained, I've got lots of little Zombies to attach to a friends present.  I ultimately want a fourth dice bubble, but I ran out of quarters for that trip. 

The dice slip and slide on the round inside of the container and it's actually kind of fun to shake them!

Dropbox is my New Best Friend!

I absolutely love Dropbox.  It is a great way to share documents between different computers.  I use it to store word documents of evaluation reports I haven't yet entered into the online system, sample IEP goals and objectives, test descriptions and so much more.   I can't even express how wonderful it has been not to have to worry about emailing the most recent copy of a document to myself to work on at home, all I have to do is save the the file in the dropbox instead of in a regular folder on the computer.  I can then open it up on my home computer without any extra effort.  It has taken one extra step out of working at home and it has made many things much easier. 


It has been a great way to share materials, resources and collaborative documents with the other SLPs I work with.  When I find a new material, write a new generic test description or have a great picture of a student I put them in a shared folder in the dropbox and the share is automatic.  It's also a great place to keep a running list of new referrals and evaluations so we can all have, see and update the same document and not keep replacing shared copies.  

I have a separate account set up on the iPad using the hotmail account I also set up for ipad exclusive use (no chances of student access to my email, please and thank you!).  I then shared all the PDF therapy materials books and other resources to the iPad dropbox account.  By opening the dropbox app on the iPad a wealth of resources are literally at my finger tips.  

1. Open the book you want.

2. Turn the iPad vertically for a full screen view.

It's a great way to have all the sounds in an articulation book or other materials with you while traveling.  No planning ahead/printing pages from the book for each student necessary.  Putting books in the iPad instead of your travel bag is a great way to save paper and your back. 

It's also a great way to view PDFs or word documents you created or download from online in therapy.  I love it for word lists I've created.

Sometimes I just Stutter - PDF of a book about stuttering for ages 7-10 that's free for download on www.stutteringhelp.org

I can't express how much I love my dropbox and I really do use it all the time.  For the security conscious among us, I was cleared by our school "tech guy" that it was secure enough to store student information.  You get so much space on dropbox for free and by inviting others you get additional free space. 
Signing up for Dropbox by following this link will net me more free space and I will be VERY appreciative.

EDIT!

Since posting this I found another use for dropbox on the Ipad.  Pinterest is always showing me some great conversation pictures to use in therapy.  I didn't really want to format all the pictures to similar sizes and do the print, cut out, laminate cut out sequence.  I instead found a way to use all of those great conversation/description pictures on the iPad.  I created a folder on my main dropbox account and shared it with the Ipad.  Then I'm able to open all the pictures on the iPad and have easy access during therapy sessions!

Homework

Homework is on my mind right now, as many of my 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders will soon be missing 2 weeks of speech as it is standardized testing season.  Language homework can be difficult to figure out for your higher level students, but articulation homework is so easy, there's really no excuse.

I think homework is extremely important for my students.  I know that all of us have had at least one student who is at 0% accuracy on their speech sound in the hallway when talking and then the “light switch” flips and then they are 100% in conversation in the speech room.  Homework is one way to get those good productions out of my room and into the classroom and home.   The short homework time allows parents to hear the progress their child is making.  It also gives the child an experience using the right sounds with their parents.  The parent becomes more in tune to correct and incorrect productions and can positively reinforce when the child starts to generalize into conversation. The child starts to think that the parent is listening to the correct productions and starts monitoring the speech at home.  And for me?  It’s a win-win as I dismiss another one and reduce my caseload. 

I have several rules for all homework I assign.  

1. Signed by a Parent

All of my homework needs to be signed by a parent and when the student returns it they get an extra sticker.  3, 6, or 8 stickers are redeemed for prizes, depending on how many times a week I see the student.   I think we all are familiar with the system.   My kids also earn stickers for following the rules of the room during their therapy sessions.  The nature of the district I work in means I’m pretty flexible about the definition of a parent and typically say “mom, dad or whoever takes care of you.”  I’ve gotten back papers signed by parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, big sisters and mom’s boyfriend.  As long as my students are practicing with someone they regularly communicate with

2. Clear Time Limit on the Assignment

One thing I try to be clear about when sending things home is to make sure that kids and parents are aware of is that I expect my homework to take about 5 minutes.  Families’ lives are so busy and many of my kids need extra help for both speech sounds and other homework things.  Once you add in sports and parent’s lives beyond kids, there is precious little time for extra.  By keeping such a short time limit on it, the less involved parents are able to spend a short amount of time and the student still has extra practice.  On the other end of the spectrum, the highly involved parents don’t make their child spend an hour practicing the same ten words.

3. Kids Pick Their Own Words to Practice.

There is more than one reason for this.  The first being, I simply don’t have enough time to select 10 new words for each student every time I send homework.  The second, and primary reason, I want kids to pick words that they practice.  They need to practice words that they need to say.  I’ve had more than one student add a sibling or friend’s name to their list of things to practice.  I’ve even had a few pick my name, Liz, for either L or Z sounds.  Once I have kids practicing reading in therapy I may also add words that they are struggling with to their list of things to practice, such as multiple s/z words or complex blends so their homework targets specific things they need to work on.  And for a bonus point – writing down homework words keeps hands and brains busy while other students are practicing.

4. When to Send Homework?

I send homework on one the last session for a given week, or when there is a break during speech therapy.  I will typically send homework right before my indirect service week (I do the 3:1 service delivery model) and all other breaks in school such as Winter and Spring breaks.  My second through sixth grade articulation students, who are at or beyond the word level, get some kind of homework at least every other week.  The ones who ask for homework will get it a little more often.

Now that we’ve got the rule system worked out – what to send home?

Articulation kids are relatively easy.  I just have them pick 10 words off their word list and write them down to take home to practice.  When they get further along in the therapy progression, I have them start doing thinks like working doing their reading homework while paying attention to their speech sounds, and having 5 minute conversations with their parents using good speech sounds.  For each sticker I typically make kids do things 2-3 times rather than just once.  

I have a separate half-sheet for both words and sentences.

The google docs are here:

Articulation Homework - Word Level

Articulation Homework - Sentence Level

What do I do when the homework doesn’t come back!?!

Before I start this topic, I should start with a disclaimer – I’m not big on having consequences leave my room (outside of extreme situations).  99% of the time my students will not earn a sticker and life goes on.  I might be working on speech and language skills, but the reality is that I’m a kind of therapist.  I want my students to feel like we’re in a safe space.

This is the thing that I struggle with most.  I require a parent/guardian signature to comeback with homework.  For some of my kids, heartbreakingly, it’s really too much to ask.  I’ve had them practice with afterschool instructors, big-brother/big-sisters and working things out with the classroom teacher is another option.  I work things out for these students on an individual basis and I usually know which parent's aren't going to be involved.  For some of these students, I will stop sending homework because of the stress it causes the student.

The second reason that my homework comes back is because homework in general is not coming back.  Many of my kids who have this problem are on the EBD teacher’s caseload.  I continue sending homework and hope it comes back.  The few assignments I get back are better than nothing.  School in general is typically very hard for these kids.  I don’t like putting added pressure on them for homework as some days getting them to my room is challenging enough.

The third type of non-returner of homework I’m currently dealing with is the student who just can’t be made to care about speech.  They try their best every time they are in the speech room and do fairly well.  Out of sight and out of mind.  No homework, no practice, not even awareness of the next speech session….  The most effective thing I have is taking good data right before and right after any service break or long weekend.  If they don’t practice, you can show the student how they did before the break and how they did after and the difference.  Some of these students are counting the days until they get out of speech and this can be an effective ‘carrot’ to encourage practice.

Please share any ideas you have for homework with students!  In the past, I’ve printed or copied picture pages from No Glamour Articulation (Lingusystems) or the Webber Jumbo Articulation Book (Super Duper) and even gotten wordlists from the HELP for Articulation (Linguisystems).  For younger students, I will often tear a “mastered” page off the front of the picture-packet for them to take home to “show mommy and daddy how good you’re doing!”