Tuesday Musings

Today started off as usual… and then I got a visit from our wonderful Superintendent.  And when I say wonderful, I mean it!  We are lucky here at my school, to have been blessed with such a kind, thoughtful, and compassionate administrator.    

She informed me that I have been selected as Employee of the Month March 2013 AND that she nominated me for a local award, The Scott E. Folmer Memorial Student, Teacher and Exemplary Practice or Partnering Award (STEPP) for those involved in Special Education in Allegheny County here in PA.  I am honored!!!  She showed me the submission letter she wrote, and I am just completely in awe.  She puts into words the kinds of things you want to hear from your employer!  It was special to hear all of the great things she had to say.

Last night, I did some “design work” to my blog thanks to Projects Around the House (who I found through Pinterest! My obsession).  These tutorials were so easy, I was able to create social media icons and blog buttons thanks to her!  Also I used picmonkey and pixeden (for the social media silhouettes, mine were 32x32) to create the social media icons.  

I was intimidated at first, but with the tutorials, it was a breeze!  I hope you like them :)

All in all, today was a great day.  I finished some projects around the room, one of those being my "Artic Organizer" (see below) I hope your Tuesday was just as great! 

Check out my TpT Store- Here! :) 

Sleepin' In

Well, we had a 2-hour delay today!  That meant sleeping in... and home-made breakfast crepes! And enjoying my coffee at home...ah what? :)

So, I took a basic crepe recipe and modified it to try to make it a tad healthier and tastier- or so I think :)

My recipe is NOT exact by any means.  So I'm very sorry if you're truly interested in exact measurements.  Don't be scared though, crepes are pretty easy going as long as you make them thin enough! Give them a try... if you do, please tell me how yours turned out!

The Speechie's Whole Wheat Crepes:

• 2 eggs
• A little less than 1 cup whole wheat flour
• About a tablespoon of milled flax seed, I just added this to the flour cup
• 1/2 cup almond milk (use any, mine was vanilla) with another splash (probably a tbsp. more) to thin it out
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons liquid coconut oil (it comes in a thickened state, you need to use warm water in a bowl to liquify it)

(The original recipe calls for eggs, regular flour, milk, water, and butter- I made substitutions as I saw "fit") :)

1. First, whisk the eggs with the milk and water, add in the coconut oil.  Slowly whisk in the flour & flax.
2. Pour batter using a 1/4 cup measure into a skillet or on a griddle that has been "greased" with coconut oil (use sparingly! I only had to add about a tsp. one time and it kept my pan nice and stick-free for the whole round of crepes!)  Use about a little less-than-medium heat.
3. Tilt and turn pan clockwise until you have a nice even layer of crepe batter (this is why I use a skillet not a griddle, easier to pick up and swirl!)
4. Flip with a nice flexible spatula once you see that the underside has cooked through.  You will be able to tell because the edges turn nice and solid and are a give away that it's ready to flip!
5. Sprinkle finished crepes with cinnamon if you wish!

And that's it! Yum.

Though, I have to admit, they are a little plainer than I was hoping... I was hoping for some more coconut/almond-y flavor... but it's nice that you can add whatever toppings you'd like and it won't clash! I used lite syrup to top mine, but you could totally try them dry or add fruit or whatever!

Other than that, the Speechie's day was cut a little short by the delay.  But I am loving my new organizational system for my loose papers... it's called a Fold 'N File (by Thirty One of course) and I love this chevron stripe pattern. It makes me so happy, and happy to stay organized.  I have coordinating colored file folders (of course,... Hello OCD!) to organize my papers into what needs to go to "where".  I keep Post-its, "Please Sign and Return" stickers, pen, and highlighter handy in the front pockets, and of course, the ever-present bottle of Vanilla Bean Noel- my favorite!

My folders:

• Office
• Copy
• To File
• Rosters (yes, plural. I have K-12 I need multiple class rosters!)
• Sub Information
• Emergency Information
• Read Later

And my Speechie kids got a kick out of using Look Who's Listening for multiple "kinds" of therapy today!  This game is super versatile and can be used as the board alone with the smiley's for reinforcement, or used with the cards that come with it for therapy.

Notice we used our large dice, too :)
The cards included are:
Auditory Discrimination (minimal pairs, word parts, sounds in words)
Auditory Memory (numbers, words, sentences, facts/details in a paragraph)
Auditory Integration (interpretation of directions, listening for key words, following multi-level commands)

Very, very useful and the kiddos love rolling the dice to see how many smiley's go on the board!

So all in all, it's been a good week!  As always, keep checking back for more fun :)

Dedicated...

This is dedicated to my First Grade Teacher friends... you know who you are! Thanks for reminding me that someone (or somebodies) are reading along :)

And you'll be REALLY proud I'm not slacking tonight!  :) I had an awesome day for it being a Monday... come on, you all get the Monday blues.  When you're pulling in to your parking spot thinking, "Where did my weekend go?"  Anyway I'm super excited about this week.

First...because the week started off great.  You guys, I got my run in at 5 am today.  Thank my fiancé for that one.

Second because I thought of the cutest idea for a reward at the end of the week for a special group of Speechie friends.  I can't spoil it and tell you though, sorry! ;) You'll find out Friday, promise.

Third, because I was productive this evening, woo hoo! Take a look below...

I can't wait to share this with you.  It started off like any other mini-lesson, blank and waiting for some cute clipart... and it hit me.  Add some cotton candy!  So, Regular and Irregular Verb Cotton Candy was born. Here's a preview :)

And I think it's pretty sweet- haha- get it?  Well cotton candy reminds me of all things "springy", it's bright, and sweet, and I usually indulge in some when I am watching hanging out at the Pirate game at PNC Park, or at Kennywood.

So in light of the massive snow storm we are supposed to get Tuesday night in through Wednesday, here is my cheery new mini-lesson.  Enjoy!

Goodnight friends!

Winding Down

Wow, it's been seriously a whole week since I last hopped on here.

It's been a crazy one, for sure! Lots of transfer-students coming in, and IEP's due, new referrals galore and my SLP friends out there, you know what I'm talking about!  It sometimes comes in all at once, even when you are super prepared and ahead of schedule :)  Sometimes I will go a stretch for about a few weeks where I think -phew- all is calm at work, and then BAM! It seems like I have lots going on.  And by "calm" I mean the usual flow of work, but just at a steady pace.

I was so busy I really didn't even have time to grab any cool pictures of my students hard at work (which they were!).  Here's my collection of school bags gathered on the therapy table though! ;) No wonder some of my colleagues laugh as I walk in the door!

 I really have to give a shout out to my Speechie kids though, because I know in the dreary middle of winter, it is SO hard to focus.  It's like your brain and body are begging for sunlight and warmer temperatures.  But they have been at it.  They have even been entertaining my crazy antics in the Speechie's Room, too.  You know it's great to take your job seriously, but sometimes kiddos just really "tune in" more when you throw a funny joke or a silly face in there (which I feel like I make all the time, especially in artic & apraxia therapy)!

I seriously LOVE my job.  I feel like sometimes I don't say that enough.  I feel so so blessed to have found my school, and also to have chosen Speech-Language Pathology as my field of work.  And what I love even more is that the teachers I work with are realizing the impact that communication has on learning.  They are celebrating the "baby steps" even when others don't view the successes as that great.  They are appreciating more, understanding more, and collaborating more.  I know lots of people who gripe about their workplace and I feel really great to be in the position I'm in.  If you are one of my colleagues, THANK YOU! :)

All in all, this has been a great weekend.  I have started some new projects, and finished a few others.  Due to the popularity of my mini-lesson, "Synonym and Antonym Clouds" which you can view in my TpT store here, I am working on creating a few more mini-lessons.  'Cause let's face it, therapy is basically little "mini-lessons" all day long!  We wear many hats as SLP's, and I think these mini-lessons are great to have in your pocket (or...PC, Mac, whatever) for those days where you don't have a lot of time!

In other news, here's a cute picture to brighten your day.  This is my adorable niece, on my laptop, dancing along to SuperWhy songs on PBS kids jukebox.  That's her favorite show and I think it's so neat that instead of watching re-runs on YouTube when she's over visiting, that we can play the music from the show and dance along!

Enjoy your Sunday night and keep checking back for more!
PS... please let me know what you think! :)

Weekend!

Happy Weekend!

This weekend has been productive *I think* so far!  I love sleeping in and taking my good old time getting up, because the week can be so hectic.  Plus in a few weeks I will be helping part-time to cover a maternity leave for 12 weeks (yes, in addition to my full time job) so I am taking alllll the extra minutes I can get.

I can foresee March-April-May being the busiest months of my life in 2013.  In those 12 weeks that I will be covering the leave as part of PRN (as needed hourly) staff, I will also be training for the half-marathon in Pittsburgh, as well as getting ready for our wedding in July!

The weekends usually leave me with a little bit of extra time, so I'll doodle some clipart, think up activities/therapy ideas, look on Pinterest and Etsy, run some wedding errands, work out, etc.

And this weekend was no different.  My Nutribullet led me to try something I wanted to make for a long time... "the green monster detox smoothie".  I had my doubts because I have had many Pinterest successes, but just about as many Pinterest "fails".  You know, the things you try out as easy as the DIY instructions sound, but they just don't come out right.  Anyway, the "green monster" came out AWESOME.  With a few tweaks.  the original pin can be found here.

Here's my picture of my smoothie.  I know it doesn't look fantastic.  But it tastes really good.  I promise.

In "Speech" news, looking back to Friday, we had some fun!  Some of my students worked on my new Activity Pack that I created for my Sam: The Dog Who Likes Carrots story and the results were great.  I used my story and the Pack for 1/2/3rd grade therapy as well as with an older student whose goals include writing.  Of course I only used the parts that were applicable to each student and his/her therapy/goals, but it was nice to have the pack as a resource.

Here's a pic of one of my students working at the SmartBoard:

 And our St. Patrick's Day themed door is finally done, too! Here's what it looks like!

I hope you enjoyed looking around :)
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Thursday Night

Another day, another post!  Check out what I've been working on these evening:

 My visual First-Then boards! Available at my TpT store here!

 

Just a few of the PCS symbols included in the set!

 

And a little preview of the whole thing!
Hope you enjoyed the sneak peek :)

Today was a good day.  My friend Deanna and I made our half-marathon shirts- yay! I had a great run (a trend this week that I'm happy about) and my student who uses an AAC device (hers is an iPad with Tobii SonoFlex communication app) was absolutely loving the personalized "People" page I was working on late last night.

It makes all the "extra" minutes you put into work so worth it.  I love love love what I do.  I feel bad sometimes calling it my "job" because it is a lot more than that.  Yes, sometimes I run around crazy trying to create/adapt materials, prepare for sessions, collaborate on-the-go, document progress, write IEP's and ER's, oh yes, and provide therapy... but my students every single day make me so happy.  They make me laugh, they challenge me, make me a better clinician, question methods, ask important questions, act silly and sometimes even make me cry... in both the ups and downs of life.  But that's why I'm here.

This is the feeling that brought me to Speech-Language Pathology as a profession,... that feeling you get when "it" clicks and your student accomplishes a goal- one that others may think is a "baby step" progress wise- but you know makes the biggest difference in their entire communication world.

'Night friends!

Blustery Wednesday

I am SO ready for summer!

I, for one, am sick of dragging my big fluffy coat around (you southwestern Pennsylvanians know what I'm talking about) and plus... I need a little sun!  I think maybe I need one of those lamps that simulates sunlight in my room :)

And I have to look at this face every morning before I leave.  Just look at it. Like the pic says he does this to me every.single.morning.  This was Sam's most recent "snuggle me" face while I was making my lunches for the week.

 

Very distracting!

Anyway this morning I woke up so, so cold.  Like I do every morning in the winter.  I was rolling around in bed, and I had the phrase "snug as a bug in a rug" stuck in my head, trying to squeeze 5 more warm minutes out of my bed before I had to hop to it.  {As a side note, I have decided that slippers are now a must in the winter- I know that sounds so silly but really they are wayyy better than socks.}

So I had this whole snug-as-a-bug thought going around in my head I thought, "Hey, what a cute idea for an activity..." so there's now that to work on. ;)

Then I had quite a few exciting things happen today at school.  One was a major "fail" for my half-marathon clean-eating regimen.  Yep, Girl Scout Cookies.  Why, oh why, did I even order ONE box?  I mean, I checked out the nutritional info, eh, whatever... not worth talking about.  Life's too short to not enjoy a thin mint now and again. Or four.

AND I used my new materials in therapy today! My kids loved Sam's story, and they did well with the Comprehension Questions- just the right amount of challenge.  At the end, I got questions like "Does your dog really talk?" and "Does he ACTUALLY like carrots?" ha ha. Very cute.  My new large dice were a hit as well! Look at these puppies! Huge. About as big as the palm of my hand, and so much fun.  I found them at Pat Catan's.

And my day ended with a chuckle.  While in-servicing my teacher colleagues on a student's new iPad device, another student interrupted and said, "Is (student) getting a new dinosaur box?" Of course, she meant DynaVox... like the little girls previous AAC device. Figured that'd give you a laugh, too.

Happy Wednesday friends!

Tuesday Fun!

Well the long weekend was fun!  I got a lot accomplished over the past 3 days and I'm very proud of myself! :) It always feels great to get things done that are on the top of your "to do" list.


Yesterday it felt like one of those days where I had good luck ALL day.  It was awesome.
I got my car back, even though it was supposed to be ready Saturday. Oh well :)
But that was a great feeling... she looks as beautiful as ever!

And I had an amazing run yesterday.  I am so excited for the half marathon! Under 12 weeks to go!  And... there was a sale on grapefruit at Market District! Ha! Go Monday! If every Monday was like yesterday I would be so so happy.

Well, even though I thought it would be ready yesterday, my book and activity pack are finally done!  I am so proud of it because it is the first very large book and pack I've created all on my own (well OK, minus KevinandAmanda.com's amazing free fonts).  It includes a 27 page book in PDF format, and a 13-page activity pack.  Check it out here in my TpT store for more details on what's included.  I am so happy that I could sing!

Here's a preview of the Activity Pack :)

 

Here's a preview of the book (cover and 3 random pages) :)

I hope you enjoy looking! Please let me know what you think! :)

Goodnight all,

Friday!

It's Friday! One of my favorite days of the week because it means the weekend is here! :) Now, I love what I do, but we ALL need a little time to unwind and relax.  But I am still hoping to be very productive over the weekend with school materials as well as everyday stuff.

My newest project includes a story about my "carrot-eating" dog Sam.  No, really... my dog LOVES carrots.  The way most dogs love bones, or those bacon flavored treats.  And he's pretty awesome.  So I want to share a little preview because it might be awhile until it is fully published (I'm hoping by Monday afternoon but possibly earlier!) :)  I want to get it just right because a) he is my own personal dog b) I want it to be amazing!  

I would love to release a pack that includes:

• Story
• Comprehension Questions
• Preposition Cards
• Divergent and Convergent Naming Tasks
• Math Worksheets
• Writing Prompts
• Craft
• Compare/Contrast
• Possibly even a Game!

So that's coming. :)

Also, tomorrow is looking to be a good day because my car is finally done! 4 weeks ago I was in a car accident and my car had it pretty rough.  The whole back end was smashed by a guy who was most definitely NOT paying attention (read: probably texting).  He admitted fault, and all that, but still a super big inconvenience.  Anyway, it's DONE and I get to pick her up as early as tomorrow morning! Woo hoo!

I am looking forward to a little extra sleep and my first long run to my half marathon training tomorrow as well.  There are some incredibly awesome tank tops I am coveting right now for my training/for the actual event.  I giggle every time I see the "I Don't Sweat I Sparkle" and "Sweating for the Wedding" - though I don't think I'll end up actually buying these, I'll probably make my own version :) If you're interested though check out Ruffles With Love on Etsy.  Ah, Etsy.  Another one of my "favorite places" on the web.  I could spend hours upon hours on Etsy, Pinterest, TpT, Twitter, and of course Blogspot!

But now I'm going to relax a bit before I decide to tackle some more of my story!

Enjoy your weekend, friends!

Creeping Along to Friday! (AKA Thursday!)

Hello! Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!  

This evening I have been working on a cute little activity called "Compound Caterpillars".  Super cute caterpillars that have compound words on them.  Use it for a center activity or for something fun after your lesson!

I created the border and the caterpillars by hand, and of course, my favorite Pea Mily by KevinandAmanda.com makes an appearance in this activity.  I am obsessed with this font. Truly.  Sigh :)

Here is the preview of "Compound Caterpillars"!  It will be available in my TpT store shortly!

Today was a busy day, time literally flew by!  I ran around all day and wrapped up (literally) our Valentine's pops.  And I also distributed these Valentine's out to their owners so they could presumably give them to their Valentine.  Aw... :) 

I literally had boys blushing when they told me they wanted to give it to a girl.  I said to many of them, "Hey! It's OK to have GIRLS who are FRIENDS!" and then they relaxed a little.

I hope you all enjoyed your day/evening with loved ones and I know I am truly blessed to have my friends and family in my life.

It's important to stop once in a while and tell the ones you love how you feel. :)


Happy Thursday!

Sweet Wednesday!

Day 3 of feeling like there is a candy shop in The Speechie's room!

No biggie though, the kids are loving it.  Because a lot of my kiddos are seen more than once a week (even those 30-minutes-a-week-guys due to switching my therapy schedule over to a more "burst"-like schedule) most of them are completely done with their pops.  Thank goodness! I can't take the temptation of this chocolate any longer,... I've been so good though! :)  My half marathon training began on Monday, and I am determined to stay on track. 

Anyways today we had a few "Game Days" going on.  Game Day?? What's that? Well, students in The Speechie's Room earn a sticker each time they come to their speech therapy session WITH their folder AND participate.  This is the key.  

Kids try to get me all the time,... (student without speech folder at the end of session: "May I get my sticker now?") Hmmmm.... Sorry Charlie! Now most of my co-workers will tell you I'm a softy... but I am a TOTAL stickler for the rules when it comes to Game Days.  You have to be.  Because otherwise, you will get walked all over. I repeat... all over! ;)

So I have a chart that each student is given at the beginning of the year with 25 spaces on it.  It looks like this:

You can see my rules at the bottom.  This was adapted from a chart I found online called a "Strive for 25 Chart" from SuperTeacherWorksheets.com.  

The students have to be present, bring their folder, and work hard 5 sessions in a row.  If they do that, they earn a (very coveted) Game Day!  This means they get to choose any game from the game shelves and play it during their session!  After filling up ALL of the 25 spaces they get to pick from the *glorious* prize box.  I get asked about the prize box alllllll yearrrr longgg. It's only used for two things "Meet the Challenge" chart & birthdays!

Here is said prize box :)

 And this below seems to be THE game to play this year. It's called "What's in Ned's Head?" 

Oh, you don't wanna know.  Well of course, you know if you have it.  There is some seriously gross-out looking stuff in there.  Namely "Ned's lost lunch" (you can guess what that looks like). 

Well I purchased MY Ned's Head at a garage-sale.  So Ned was missing quite a few things.  Not a problem at all, being as Ned (well, the creators) give you blank cards.  So in you pop some miscellaneous random items you have laying around (don't we all have those?) of which mine included: a green beanbag, a leopard gecko, a wiggly fish, and a green seahorse.

Ta-Da! Fully functional Ned. He's a very popular guy, too.

Ned gets used for all kinds of therapy activities as well as Game Days.  We can work on adjectives/describing words (i.e. soft, bumpy, squishy, wiggly, green), comparing/contrasting, pragmatic language skills (taking turns, following the rules, etc.) and many many more skills.  My favorite rule: "NO peeking!" many violators have been caught by their peers.  My speech kids are sticklers for rules, too! :)  

I hope you enjoyed Ned's story.  He's become an important fixture in The Speechie's Room!

Oh- and PS- I'll upload the Meet the Challenge Chart as a freebie to my TpT store! :) Just in case you want to snag it. 

Enjoy your evening, and Happy Wednesday friends!  

 

Tuesday Happenings

Well, today was fun! We DID run out of cookie pop sticks for our marshmallow heart pops, though... so we revised a little :)

But then I thought... we TOTALLY should have done the pretzels to begin with! Because you can eat the stick too!  Though the marshmallow heart pops with the mini cupcake liners were super awesome.

And my LoveBirds are done!!! I know, I know totally "too late" for Valentine's Day because seriously who's going to use them on the Wednesday (day before) Valentine's Day? Whatever, it was a pride thing.  :) 

And I feel accomplished.  Though TpT is giving me some trouble right now on posting (my computer is SUPER slow).  The preview below is not accurate for how high-quality these birds are.  They are in 1050 dpi PNG files.  Transparent backgrounds so that they literally can go anywhere their little feet take them.

If only I could figure out how to make better preview files :)

Happy Tuesday, friends... I am going to go enjoy my evening with a little Valentine's dinner because the future-hubs and I can't actually fit that in on Valentine's Day.

Enjoy your night!

New Adventure!

Hello!

I am trying out blogspot which is a major change for me!
My other site hosted by weebly --> (check out it here) is my baby that I have been working on, and I'm very proud of it!

We'll see how this blogging thing works out :) I had a couple of friends who say blogging is not for them and I wouldn't have thought it was "for me" either, but... to tell you the truth... I LOVE to talk and share and connect and this seems to be the perfect way to do that.  

Combined with my new love of updating my website, and trying my hand at creating materials to share on Teachers Pay Teachers (AKA TpT), I think I might really enjoy this! Watch out! :)

Today I've been working on improving my "LoveBirds" clipart collection today from my store, improving it to (seriously) 100% better with the help of some terrific teacher help on TpT! I also realized that users would probably like the clip art as separate files instead of all smushed into one PDF ;) Sigh... I love learning new things!

Stay tuned for more... 

Oh and PS the adorable font I use for my signature (below) is a freebie from KevinandAmanda.com and it's called Pea Mily. I am in LOVE.  That is all.