12 Things I learned at my first SLP job.

I made it. Summer break. Whew.

My clean up at the end of this school year wasn't the typical ((shove it in the closet and deal with it next year)) kind of clean up.

It was more like... holy cow you're starting a new job next year so you have to take all this stuff you've accumulated with you....

So I drove it to my mom's barn to store it for the summer!

 I decided to make a change in districts this year. I had to say a lot of bittersweet goodbyes after 3 years. I had the best students, parents, co-workers and friends in my old district. It was seriously the best place to start my SLP career. Making a change is always really hard for me. Just when I was feeling un-easy about it I opened a package and found two of these cards tucked in a candle holder. It was a random raffle package that I won.  

This immediately made me feel like 1000 lb. got lifted off my shoulders. It also made me break out my ugly cry in the middle of the school day. Once I pulled it together, I taped it to my wall and finished out the last two months of school. 

Now that I'm on summer vacay I thought I'd do a little reflecting on the fact that I've learned about 1023498435 things in the last 3 years that I could never have learned in graduate school. If you're a CF starting a new job here are some of the best lessons I learned in the last few years at my first SLP job: 

1. Be kind. To everyone. Everyday. Learn everyone's names. Thank your secretaries, clerks and custodians as many times as you can. Seriously be nice and things will go a lot easier.

2. Go out of your way to connect with families. There are a lot of reasons this is important. You won't get the full picture of your student's life if you don't know something about their family and their life outside the school day. Your parents will be much more likely to buy-in to your homework plans and carryover if you've made a personal connection with them.  Lastly, you are taking care of their baby. The most precious thing to them in the whole word. If you're working with their 3 year old they will feel so much better if they know who the heck you are!

3. Don't procrastinate. You'll need help and there is no getting around that.  If you are writing an IEP at home at 9 pm for an 8am meeting and then the printer doesn't work, you won't have time to make other arrangements.

4. Be a team player. Bite the bullet and volunteer to do things that take extra time. If you have a talent use it to help others. For example, whipping up visuals is super easy for me. Even when a student isn't on my caseload, I often make up data sheets or visual posters to support students going through our RtI program. Your team will appreciate your talents and you will be able to ask your team to help you with their specific talents.

5. Think generalization from day one. Ask your student's teacher what is the ONE thing you can work on to make the biggest difference in the classroom.

6. If you make a mistake, admit it and find a way to solve it. Then don't make that mistake again. You're going to make mistakes, so be gracious when you do!

7. Ask for help, but do your own research first. Your co-workers and administrators will be willing to help as you get to know the paperwork. If you can do the research yourself and spend the time to try to solve problems yourself before you check in for help.

8. You aren't done learning. Get involved with ASHA, blogs, conferences, whatever it takes. When a kiddo comes along and you haven't seen that disorder before, get busy researching.

9. There's nothing worse than being out of compliance or completing paperwork incorrectly. Your supervisors might not see how great your therapy is everyday, but the minute you're out of compliance they will notice. The take home message? Get organized early. Double check your dates and get with your teachers, clerks and intervention specialists. Get yourself organized before you get busy decorating that cute therapy office!

10 Adovcate for all things Speech and Language in your buildings. You might even need to advocate for new ideas within the SLPs in your district. Speak up when you have a good idea, but remember that you're new. Sometimes it pays to be quiet and listen to what seasoned SLPs have to say. They seriously know so much!

11. Document, document, and document. Remember, if you don't document it, it didn't happen.

12. You're just one fish in the sea. Remember that when it comes to scheduling, therapy time, etc. everyone needs 'time' with the students. Work with your team. Just get over the fact that you think you're done with your schedule the first time. It will change monthly if not weekly.

After I wrote about half of these I decided to ask my SLP blogging friends what they would share as their biggest lessons from their first jobs. Here's what they said....

Be flexible! Schedules change constantly in the school setting and it pays to just ''roll with it!'  Oh and use TPT (especially the free stuff) while you get started! - Nicole Allison

In my CF I learned so much more from the OTs! My advice is to get to know the other disciplines and learn as much as you can from them! - Carrie Manchester

You may think you learned a lot in school, but you will learn just as much 'real-world' knowledge in your first years on the job. There will be more meetings and paperwork than you ever dream of. Make friends with the secretaries and janitors - cookies at Christmas time are always a good idea. - Natalie Snyders

Think outside the box. Being creative is a necessity when all the standard methods aren't working. And back up everything on a thumb drive! - Maureen Wilson

Yes! And back up your thumb drive to Dropbox - Carrie (haha I loved this one)

Try to work with the OT/PTs as much as you can... either school or medical settings. You will learn a ton from them! -Kristin Minden

-You're not going to have all the answers! Tips and tricks will come with practice. Be sure you have reliable professions around you that can answer your questions or point you in the right direction. -Lauren LaCour


-Some administrators will put speech therapy at the very bottom of their list of priorities. It isn't like graduate school where you are surrounded with individuals who understand and value all that you do. Special Ed. teachers can be a great help when learning the IEP process. If your first job isn't a positive work environment and isn't a good fit for you - don't stay!  - Courtney Gragg

Get to know the teachers and their quirks, Teacher will probably think you have an easy job because you don't have a classroom. - Patti Bohlman

Don't get prideful and think you know more than the teachers or veteran speechies. Be respectful of the teacher's classroom if you want a good working relationship and be willing to compromise. - Felice Clark

Learn the curriculum your school is using. It will help your kids SO much. It's also your ob to be present in your building and education others. Many people won't be familiar with what you do. Advocate for your kids and profession. So many doors will open when you start  making those connections with staff members. -Jenn Alcorn

It's ok to ask for help. It's important to work together as a team... there is no I in team! Also make sure you learn the 'culture' of the building. Find out who to be friends with and who you can trust! - Miss Speechie


What do you remember as the most important things you learned in your first SLP job?

SLP clinician transfer: case notes sheet

It's spring which means I am knee deep in Kindergarten transition evaluations. When I am passing the folders to different SLPs for Kindergarten I often want to write other notes that aren't in the file anywhere. I whipped up this sheet to include in their file with the most recent information the new SLP will need.

I might even make myself notes for the student I will keep. That way I can remember anything important in the fall.

Grab it for free by clicking on the picture above. How do you communicate with other SLPs when you trade students?

Printing Half Size {ink saving tutorial}

Overheard in the Staples Ink aisle: WHAT. $40 for ink? You've got to be kidding me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well... if you were with me that is what you'd hear! Today's quick tip is a tutorial for printing things half size. Certain activities work just as well in a smaller version, so I often print multiple pages per sheet. This saves ink, paper, and sanity!

Step one: Open your item and press print. The locate the 'multiple' button under sizing.

Step two: Select the pages per sheet. I select '1x2'. You should see a preview on the right hand side.  

The final product: Instead of printing 35 sheets, I only print 17! For certain students I still print full size on the sound they're working on. I have a few students with a visual impairment. This allows me to make them appropriate for everyone!

Easy money saving tip! How do you save money on printing?

Flipboard {a reasonable way to read blogs!}

Blogs are the best thing to happen to speech-language pathology since Van Ripper. Ok. Maybe there have been a few good things in-between - but you know what I mean. Never has it been SO easy to find new therapy information. 

But... do you need a bloggervention? Are you spending too much time trying to keep up with all the good information? Don't worry, I've figured out a great way to keep up with the dozens of good speech therapy blogs without needing to attend BA (bloggerholics anonymous)! RSS feeds help you by pulling the newest information from every website/blog you ask it to monitor, compiling one source with updates from each blog you 'follow'.

Whether you're addicted to speech and school blogs, home decor blogs, foodie blogs or mommy-blogs, Google Reader has been the go-to RSS feed to keep up with all that goodness! You might have heard this week that Google is closing down Google Reader starting in July 2013. I wrote this post before that news came out, but luckily I have the perfect solution for you to save those subscriptions! Flipboard! This tutorial will show you how to get signed up and use Google Reader, import into Flipboard (an iOS app) and then be all set for when Google Reader goes to internet Heaven in July. 

You're going to start with a free app "Flipboard." Go download that and it'll be ready for you when we get to that point.  Flipboard is like a personal magazine of all your own interests. It can pull in your Twitter, Blogs, Favorite news articles, etc. You 'flip' through the 'magazine' by swiping your finger. 

The other thing you'll need is a google account. Google Reader, although on the way out the door, is a great way to get organized and imported into Flipboard. With google reader you 'subscribe' to blogs. The great news? Once you sign into Flipboard and connect your current GR account,  Flipboard will save those subscriptions for you. And you'll be able to add to them - making Flipboard your new RSS Feed! 

Here's what my Google Reader looks like. You can see updates from Blogs I follow. The arrow is pointing to the list of subscriptions (blogs I follow.)

Ok, so now you have Google Reader. Let's follow some blogs! On the right side of my blog you will see this widget. Click 'Join this site'.

A box like this might pop-up, then you can click on Follow This Blog. Viola. You're a follower and Speech Room News posts will show in your Google Reader.

Now lets move on to step 2. Open the new app that you downloaded called 'Flipboard'. This is going to give a magazine type feel to reading blogs (and more). I use Flipboard on my iPhone, but you can also do it on your iPad. 

Sign into Flipboard with your Twitter and Google Reader accounts. 

Here's what Flipboard looks like. The 'gear' you can see in the bottom right corner, is where you can log-in to your google reader account. Click on the Google Reader square. 

From there you will be able to flip through and 'browse' all the blogs in your google reader! Mine includes an assortment of SLP blogs, home blogs, beauty, and more! You'll see 1-2 images per page with the title of the blog and one picture. If you're interested in reading the entire article, just click on the picture! 

While it looks like a ton of steps, using Flipboard is super easy and FREE. It makes catching up on your favorite blogs each week super easy! The perfect 5 minute activity when you're waiting in line at the grocery store or when you're waiting for the water to boil for dinner!

Use another RSS feed? Don't worry you can always use Flipboard to read those - just tap on the red ribbon and search! 

If you're looking for a great place to start and find SLP blogs, the SLP Blogs Bundle from Sean is a GREAT! You just click and get over 70 SLP blogs inserted into your Google Reader. Then you can unsubscribe from any of those that don't fit your needs. Easy! 

I'm sure I'm not the only person searching for other alternatives to RSS feeds now the GR is on the way out - if I find something I plan to use after Google Reader I'll keep you updated! For now, I am happy I'll be able to save my current subscriptions - but not sure how Flipboard will allow me to edit my subscription list once GR goes away. 

Does anyone else use Flipboard? What other ways do you read blogs?

New TpT Features! {a tutorial}

Have you been on TpT since they launches the updates? I just wanted to show you the best feature I have found so far!

You can now search by 'Speech Therapy' materials. FINALLY! 

Here are the details. Start on the home page TeacherspayTeachers.com

 On the left hand side look for the 'subject' heading and then hover over 'specialty' (because we're special!)

 When you hover over 'speciality' this tan box opens. Scan the right and look for 'speech therapy'.

When you select Speech Therapy, you will see your search constraints on the left side. The automatic sort gives you items based on positive ratings. There you can see what other SLPs have bought and rated the most positive. ((Thanks for rating SRN activities up there in the top of the items!))

If you don't want to search by rating you can change that drop down box to sort by price, alphabetical, or most recently posted.

But don't stop there! You can narrow your search even more! Look to the left hand side and now you can see sorting within the Speech Therapy section by grade. I selected preschool and you can see my CandyLand cards and Hot Chocolate Categories are rated the highest SLP preschool materials.

Let's say you are only looking for freebies. Or products under $5. There's a search option for that! Under 'prices' select what you are looking for. I chose 'free' for this option. You can see that my Hungry Caterpillar and Whack A Sound /s/ downloads are the highest rated free preschool items in the SLP category.

I love that this can help us narrow our search for amazing materials. And it shows you how important leaving feedback is! Other SLPs will want to be able to find the best materials with a quick search.

What do you think? Will the search bars help you find materials more easily, with the ever growing market of SLPs on TpT?

Storage & Organization

I get asked this question every week. How do you store all these materials?

So today I took a picture!

I store the units I sell or buy on TPT in gallon sized bags. I leave title pages in and use the instruction pages as dividers within the bag. Each of the games is rubber banded in there.

Then I put all my current seasonal bags like this into a container that sits next to my kidney table for easy grab and go. You can see books that I will use in the container too. You're looking at almost all my lesson plans for the season.

Then when we play a game I just pull out what we need. I leave the other items in the bag sitting next to me!

Seriously how great are these listening comprehension activities? I love this clipart! You can find them in this packet on TPT. 

This is the cheapest, easiest way for me to have easy access to my activities but also having them organized.

How are you storing your items?

Organizing Fun Decks

Now that I've been using my new kidney table in my room, I don't have my cabinets at arms reach. To help me from getting up and down a bazillian times mid-treatment, I stole this idea from Pinterest.

Grab a over the door shoe rack. I used sticky hooks to hang it on the wall. I filled it with my card packs so now they are at arms reach. Perfect for when my groups finish an activity early or something isn't working and I need to change activities!

How do you store your fun decks?

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Welcome to my Speech Room

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Welcome to My Speech Room!

Wait, it's mid August already? Wait,  school starts on Monday? Although I can't quite believe it... it's Back To School time! I thought I'd show you my room and give you a freebie to get things started off on the right foot!

I went into my school a few times this week to work on getting myself organized! When I showed up I got some super news... I get my room all to myself this year! I'll miss my friend, but am SO excited to have the whole space. So my week started a little like this...

....unpacking everything! We have to have everything packed so that the custodians can move it out to clean over the summer. So with the help of my amazing custodians and secretary I moved out my friends desk and swapped my table for a kidney table.

A little arranging and voila! I'm doing a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom theme to start us off this year. I had loads of inspiration from other speech therapists including Liz, Dina, Brea, Cindy and Kristina.

I added my Chicka Chicka Tree and yellow letters saying "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom in the Speech Room." I also added some of my most common artic sounds to the tree! Will there be enough room?!

My coconuts have areas of speech treatment on them. My groups and I always have a conversation about all the things we work on in speech. This especially helps those who aren't working on their 'speech' explain that I also help with fluency, language, etc.

This my the view from sitting behind the kidney table.

On our first day back I plan to have my kids fill out this sheet. We will talk about what they are working on in speech. For the articulation students we can tie in the talk about letters/sounds from the book. We will tape these sheet to the wall for a bit. At the beginning of each session, I'll ask the students: "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, What are you practicing in the speech room?" Once they can independently verbalize that their goals are I will send the sheets home.

I also made some blank Chicka Chicka Boom Boom therapy cards. I left them blank so you can add whatever learning targets you want to them! I wrote categories on my set to review with one of my groups!

Try this video on your iPad for a little fun too!

Download the FREEBIES right here :)

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, How are you decorating YOUR speech room?

You asked, I answer!

After posting yesterday about organization and my speech room - I have have several questions asked by multiple people. So This is a quick follow up!

1. What are those WH visuals you spoke of in hushed tones (or text?)

These are what they look like. I can't find the source. If you made them - claim them! I'm pretty sure I got them on Boardmaker Share but now I can't find them. I also looked on SpeakingofSpeech, but they weren't there either. I put them on magnets, so the kids can pull them off the wall as we work on different skills.

Here's a link for something similar:  http://www.speakingofspeech.info/dec15/WH_cards.pdf


2. What is your take on homework?

I live in a great district. The families really care about education. For me that means many of my student complete their homework on a regular basis. I give everyone a yellow folder at the beginning of the year and start the year by sending homework weekly. If students complete homework I send more home. If they consistently forget to do homework, I stop sending it. For those students, I write that they aren't completing homework on the progress report and that helps sometimes. Even if they don't complete homework frequently - I send homework home occasionally in the hopes that parents will see it and follow through. A post about my parent communication will be coming to you soon.

3. Do you do a reward system?

I do sticker charts. It's simple and the kids can manage it themselves. I do them for k-5 kids who are on IEP's. I see a lot of kids through RTI - they don't have charts because their sessions are usually shorter and adding the stickers just takes too long to get out the door. For my IEP kids, they manage stickers while I'm passing out homework and getting everything finished up.

I keep the stickers in the top of the pocket chart. The charts are on the wall behind the door (where they aren't in sight from the table). Students get one sticker for behavior and an extra if they return homework. 10 stars = prize. I ask parents to donate to the prize box , order happy meals, and find treasures at the dollar store.


3. Where did you get that pocket chart?

The pocket chart is from Oriental Trading! Check it out here:

http://www.orientaltrading.com/storage-pocket-chart-a2-59_9024.fltr?prodCatId=388884&tabId=3


The over the door hangers came from a teacher garage sale. Not sure where those are from, but you can google it!



Those were the most asked questions! Hope they help you!

Anatomy of the Speech Room

I can't tell you how many of you have emailed me asking me about organization and storage! It's certainly a hot topic!! Today I'm going to let to you peek into my speech room with a look at just how I organize everything. I'm really not a super organized person. I can usually find what I need - but it's not always in the most efficient manner!


Let's just get to it!

This is my room! Tada! One thing I wanted to highlight from this picture is the red pocket chart thats hanging up on the cabinet. This year I made it my goal to make my own version of the awesome Speech Sound Wall Pocket that Annie made.  I used a pocket chart and a over-the door hanger with them.

I printed pictures from Mommy Speech Therapy that you can download for free! It's wonderful because there are words in isolation, phrases and stories. Most sounds are in the initial, medial and final position of words.

I printed all the sounds, laminated them and then bound them with a book ring. For common sounds, like the /r/, I made many copies of the artic packets. For less common sounds, I just made a few. So when kids come into the room, I can ask them to grab the packet for their sound.

My working files are housed in this crate that sits next to me. Each child has a file with the data sheet. They also contain homework packets for each objective. That way I have plenty of homework activities on hand whenever I need it.

My file cabinet is organized like this! These folder house an 'original' packet that contains many homework pages for each goal. They are supposed to have extra copies of packets, but that rarely happens.

Try not to be alarmed. This is my cabinet. I feel a little exposed - showing my dirty cabinet - but I know you feel the pain of overcrowding so I'm going for it and showing it to you! The top shelf if language-ish things. The second shelf is artic/phonology stuff. The third and fourth shelf are full of other preschool toys and activities.

Within my shelves are small buckets/totes of organization. I have a big tub full of general activities. Some of my more commonly treated objectives are in these smaller tubs for easy access. The awesome paper activities you download on my site are just put in plastic bags. That keeps them easy to see and small to store.

I keep practically every container I can get my hands on. Chinese take out plastic containers are amazing. This one I used to keep my Artic Fries in is an old Swifter wipe box!

I have a mix of dish tubs and rubbermaid containers as well!

I store my preschool units in these crates. For each week I plan a Circle Time lesson and accompanying individual therapy ideas.

I keep all the materials for that week in a plastic bag. My amazing CF supervisor Kara organized her preschool lessons like this last year. It has made everything so easy this year! I just grab the bag I need, update and add any new activities for the lesson and I'm ready to go! This one is my Goldilocks & the 3 Bears bag for next week.

And here's a peek at my desk. In real life. I didn't even clean it up for you!

Ok, so there it is. Just a peek at how I organize things. What are you using? How about we all pull out our iphones and upload a picture onto the Speech Room News facebook page. I'd love to see what you're using. I'm sure there are more efficient ways!