Thursday, October 24, 2013

Updated Classroom Pics

My kidney table finally came in!!!!!  Yes, I am actually THAT excited :)  This table makes it so much easier to work with my students as opposed to the long, rectangular table.




My updated SGM Station:


Curtains hung on cafe rods with command hooks!  I still want to add some ties to the curtains where they are pulled back and I also need to cut some length off the bottom.  It's coming along though :)

The symbols are colored coded by Beginning, Middle, and End of a story.


Close up.


The kids have been loving my SGM Station this year :)  I would love to hear about/see some other speech classrooms that utilize the Story Grammar Marker program!!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

New Goal Wall

I have a nice big wall across from my speech room that really needed some decorating!  I thought it would be the perfect place to display my students' speech and language goals.  Last year I had them write their goals on stars then hung some gold ribbon from each of the stars and had the caption "Shooting for Great Speech and Language." I wanted to do something similar this year but with a different caption.  Here's what I did:




The kids traced their hands/arms and wrote their IEP goals somewhere on them.  I think it turned out pretty great :)

Do you display your students' goals in your classroom?  I would love to hear some more ideas!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Google Forms for Data Collection <---- Greatest. Idea. Ever.

I wish I could say that I thought of doing my data collection this way myself, but I actually got it from Heather Marchuck over at Quart Size Communicators!  You MUST check out her post on paperless data collection; it is fantastic!  Her tutorial is super thorough which makes it a breeze to set up!  

I have always thought about doing my therapy notes online so I didn't have to lug around a giant binder full of papers, but just didn't know how to go about doing it in the most efficient way.  Heather takes you through the process of creating a Google Form for each student so you are able to quickly and easily record attendance, data, and any other notes you want from the session. 

To make it even more convenient, I downloaded the Google Drive app on my iPad so I always have easy access to my therapy notes.  If you don't have an iPad, not a problem.  You can access your Google Forms via email.  Heather's tutorial shows how to send a copy of the form to your email.

The biggest perk of doing my notes online?  COPY AND PASTE FOR MEDICAID BILLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Seriously my billing goes a million times faster now that I just copy and paste from the spreadsheet Google creates for me after I record each session.  

Here is what my Google Form looks like:






It looks overwhelming at first, but seriously it's super easy!  After you create one then all you have to do is Make a Copy of it and change the kids name, IEP info, and IEP goals.  Everything else stays the same.  

I basically did the same thing as Heather with only a few minor changes.  I added the Intensity and Frequency of Prompting/Cuing....




I think I also did check boxes for a few things that she didn't.  The check boxes are nice because sometimes you work on more than one goal per session or do multiple activities per session.  I like that flexibility.  

Does anyone else use Google Forms for their therapy data?!?!? How do you like it?

Friday, October 4, 2013

Big News!!............


I'M ENGAGED!!!!  WOOHOO!!!  :D

We had been dating for almost FIVE years so I am beyond excited to be taking the next step with my best friend :).  Wedding planning is already in full swing!  Within the first week of being engaged I already had the ceremony site, reception venue, rehearsal dinner venue, DJ, and photographer all booked.  I'd say I'm pretty on top of things ;)

Needless to say, I have had wedding on my brain since the engagement 2 weeks ago so that is why I haven't posted on here lately.  I will get back to it soon, I promise!

Happy Friday everyone :)