The Thankful Family

 I posted this last year, and love it so much, I'm doing it again.  I'll treasure this forever.

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When Vicki was in first grade, she had the greatest teacher ever--Ann Overton.  She asked the kids to do a project involving being thankful, and involving the family.  Vicki, David, and I all took this on, and the end result was a video that I replay occasionally, and totally love. (This was all done with VHS--no digital yet.)  I'll never forget helping her with this!  It was the best school homework project ever!  By the way, the kids pictured in this are now all adults---they do grow up fast.   Yeah!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up” – Pablo Picasso

I love kids' art; I love special kids' art; and I love Nara Strickland (our art teacher) because she brings out the best in those extra special kids who I love at my school. (She also inspired my daughter years ago.)  This year, she is submitting five of my kids' stunning pieces to be on display at the North Carolina State Fair!   I am in awe of the art (several of these children are nonverbal) and I'm so thankful for Nara for going the extra mile to bring out their inner selves! 

This guy has been my student for 6 years!  To go from being almost nonverbal to painting scenes on canvas is amazing to me.  

 This girl spent her formative years in a primitive refuge camp in Thailand.  Now she battles some health and learning problems--and is very expressive with colors.

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Very interesting stencil art by young boy with severe autism!
Always great with letters and numbers--I wonder how he sees the world?

I love the owl in the tree!  This student was new to all of us this year.

One of my favorite young artists.....painting and drawing are very calming to him.   After every speech session, he makes a picture for me.  He's nearly nonverbal, but with art? He's phenomenal!

Nara's room for inspiration

Teacher Appreciation Week---What you can do

This was written by the Principal of Ephesus Elementary, and is a great suggestion for Teacher Appreciation Week.  Please pass this on:

"So many people have asked my opinion about what to do for teachers for appreciation week. I agree that we all love the treats, the flowers, the gift cards, and the cards, so keep them coming! But you know what would really be helpful? Please take a moment to write to your legislators to demand that teachers get pay raises, step increases, and a fair wage. In NC, teachers haven't gotten that in over 5 years. Some of the people that work with YOUR CHILDREN each day are living below the poverty line. And while you're writing, demand that teachers be treated with respect. We are educated, caring individuals who make thoughtful decisions that ultimately affect all of society. Demand that non-educator lawmakers stop making ill-informed educational decisions. Demand that they have paid time for professional development. Demand that they stop cutting the education budget while padding their own pockets (think Governor McCrory's pay raises for new cabinet members). Demand that teachers earn a fair wage that will allow them to possibly purchase their own Starbucks treat one morning before school. Because while none of us went into education for the money, many of us leave because we simply cannot afford to stay. And that's a shame for children everywhere."

Thanks Principal Creamer!

 

Ladybugs in Speech Group--printable directions

Happy May!   This school year has gone by quickly with major life events ongoing  (one twin graduating, other twin overseas in the Peace Corps, another child becoming a police officer, me a soon-to-be grandmother).    I find myself thinking about these things more and more, those thoughts overshadowing the thoughts of the fun times (and hard times) I have with the kids at my school.  Life is a balancing act, with a certain ebb and flow to it all!

I had a great day today in our primary EC classroom with ladybugs.  We read "Ladybugs Everywhere", and I was amazed at how well the kids did with the icons and sentence strip.  "Ladybug" is actually a complicated word to pronounce, and my one little guy did a fabulous job at it!  He was so motivated by the book!  For whatever reason, I'm finding the simple Boardmaker graphics a real draw when creating adapted books---kids pay attention.  Once I have their attention, half the battle is won.

The second part of our activity added more fine motor.  Alas, our occupational therapist just had a baby, so today, I was part O.T. (We SLPs have to be flexible!)    I prepped the materials in advance---cutting up circles, and rectangles to make ladybugs.  The task was one of assembly and following directions.  There was also the pragmatic piece--requesting materials and colors.  A couple of my kids use a communication notebook with the left side always being core vocabulary, while the right is fringe (activity specific vocabulary). 
I encourage independence, so final products from the kids may not match exactly with the model.

 Communication is the goal, not the product.

Below are the screenshots of the step-by-step.  I did a lot of prepping in advance to avoid difficult scissor requirements.  Glue and tape were the tools needed.  I used the Pictello app (my favorite) for this activity.  The kids merely touched the iPad for voice output, and swiped to turn the page. 

Title page

Screenshot, and the photo of my midnight prepping!

They clearly understood this step!

If you would like the ladybug directions in pdf, click here.  I cut out the body from red poster board, while the black parts are construction paper.  The cutting, as I said, was in advance, and not part of the directions.

This weekend, I'm in Brevard NC.  The fog over the mountains as I drove in was lovely.  This picture isn't mine, but captures the essence.  Have a nice weekend everyone!

Speech/OT groups---there's a method to my madness

I totally love my EC classrooms.  These are classes where the children can not function independently in a regular education classroom and need more intensive small group instruction.  Most of the children struggle with functional communication.  I realize that some school systems mainstream (include) everyone. Our system does not and this blog entry is not a statement about the benefits of either setting----These kids are on my caseload so I collaborate with the EC teachers and try to do many of my sessions in their rooms. The teachers need to see what I do!  

Every Friday, the OT and I lead a group in the primary EC classroom.  This group is always centered around a monthly theme, and has a literacy component, a fine motor component, and a 'fun' (otherwise known as a pragmatic language) component.  I can say it's totally fun. There's lots of laughter both from kids and adults---if the activity isn't reinforcing, then who would want to communicate about it?

So, here is the method to my madness---an outsider looking in might see a lot of chaos.  I actually have a schedule and structure to every group (plus IEP goals in my head for each kid).  With the help of my incredibly talented graduate student clinician and our OT, here is the latest session:

1.  Schedule:  We made a schedule (written and drawn) with the children.  In this case, the events were video, book, spider craft, and spider web.  We list the items on paper, and have kids each item off as we complete it.  The first item which was a Youtube video was a 50 second Itsy Bitsy Spider Song which was just to grab their attention to the theme (spiders).

2.  Literacy:  If you read my blog at all, you know that I adapt books.  Sometimes I even make them up.  Today, however, we used an Eric Carle book---The Very Busy Spider. You all know this book---repetitive, simple vocabulary, and easy to adapt.    You can find simple pictures to use with this book lots of places, and in the past, I've even used Beanie Babies to go with it.
If you have Boardmaker, hop on over to Boardmaker Share for this ready made board with all the icons.



3. Fine Motor Activity    Today, our fab OT had the kids make paper spiders.  You will notice the notebook on the right.  We are working on the kids using more core vocabulary words when communicating.  One child's communication book has a consistent core page on the left---and activity specific vocabulary on the right.  We add core words regularly along with new content pages, and with modeling and practice, he's communicating better all the time! 

4. Fun  Once the spiders were made, the kids made a group spider web by throwing a yarn ball across a big piece of bulletin board paper.  This was actually a great turn-taking activity and a way to teach attention-getting, calling a name, throwing, catching, participating.....   We had a page in our notebook of all of the children's and adults' pictures, so the kids could select who they wanted to throw the yarn to next.  After each throw, the yarn was taped down.  The spider web which resulted was perhaps not a perfect, symmetrical one, but it certainly was the kids' work!



5. Result   I thought this was adorable, and the classroom teacher proudly hung it on the wall outside the classroom.


Just to sum this all up, I love working with other professionals, and these groups are the highlight of my week.  The activities are not the goal---it's all about the process during the activities---naming vocabulary, requesting items, turn-taking, commenting, the list goes on, with the objectives varying with each student.


I have to give credit where credit is due----my graduate clinician planned and implemented a lot of this lesson---her first time for this group!   She'll make a wonderful SLP someday!  

 Happy Groundhog's Day!!!



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Reading the Script

Hi Readers

Did you know that the most important part of my job is to administer the 'End of Grade Tests'? There's regular EOGs, then there is Extend 2 (watered down EOGs), then there is Extend 1 (for kids who really can't do academics), then there is the retests of all three.  It takes at least a month.  I'm in the middle of it now, and it's all an exercise in reading a script. (Do you really need a Masters degree to do this?)  I'm testing a kid in a one-on-one (actually two adults on one if you include the proctor) setting this week, and so far, he's been a compliant participant.  So.....all is good.  Last year, I wrote a haiku about testing.  This year........EOGs drain the life out of creativity and of me.  I can't wait until it's over.

Parlez-vous français? --Foreign Language Instruction in Elementary School

 If you go to another country often you'll be amazed at the number of people who can speak English.  Our family hosted a German high school student for a few weeks--not only did he know English, but he could tell jokes, discuss religion, and talk on any number of subjects all in his non-native language, fluently and with little accent. Granted--it's a myth that all other citizens of other countries know our language, but more know ours than we know theirs.




With the arrival of the internet, you don't need a passport for international communication.  One click, and you're there!  People from all over the world look at this blog---some for photo images only, while others spend a bit of time. It's time to realize how important it is to be a part of the world community!

Hard at work planning for the next week!

Our school is fortunate enough to have a French program.  It's not French immersion, or a dual language classroom model, but the kids are given near daily exposure and direct teaching in the French language.  There is a structured systematic curriculum and it shows in the quality of work the students produce and how well they do in French poetry competitions and French exams (5th grade). What I love is that many of our special needs children actually do quite well in French!  Our teachers are creative, and teach to different learning styles. They use movement, music, drama, reading, written language, and verbal conversation.

I walked around the school and took some snapshots of different learning outcomes for French at the various grade levels. Here's what I saw! 

French play in first grade

Who doesn't love a French restaurant!

I'm impressed!

I never did this in elementary school!

One of my regrets as a speech pathologist is that I don't really know another language (my two years of high school Spanish don't count).  My caseload has blossomed with languages---Spanish, Burmese, Bengali, Chinese.  Even learning one other language in the early years (such as elementary school) greatly assists you in learning a third language as you get older.   We all are in a world community.  Languages are important for careers and life, so I'm so appreciative of the French program, and the quality of teaching I see daily.  The kids and teachers love it, and ultimately, everyone will benefit.




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First Grade Goal Setting--What is Important to a 6 Year Old?

 From time to time, I like to post what I see on the wall outside of my speech room.  Today, Ms. Capps and Ms. Alston displayed their kids' New Year's Resolutions.  The children each wrote a goal for home and a goal for school, and what I loved about the goals was that they were specific and achievable. We should all follow their examples!  Read for yourself!  I love the cute little illustrations too! 

For those of you not from Ephesus, "road runners" are tickets for good behavior,

Ephesus kids are Roadrunners.  The "home" picture and goal on the left is cute.

School goal is left, home is right.  This ESL student is still learning English.

She must spend a lot of time now at the water fountain! 

"I will stop whining."  "I will not turn around at lunch."

"My goal is to write neatly."  "Hanging my clothes up."

The Children of Ephesus

First Graders

Actually, this posting is not about ALL the children at my school---just the first grade.  The first grade team, in preparation for open house tonight, asked the kids to create their own realistic likenesses using a collage-type of format. Parents coming in then had to try to match their child's name with the piece of art.  I loved how the children perceived themselves, the details, the colors, the individual touches!

Can you believe the bead work? 

The bleached hair styling!

He looks ready for Wall Street.

The Mohawk!

The bangs!

Love the earrings and hair!

This tradition has continued for several years. Thanks, Gretchen!  We now are making plans for staff to make their own self portraits and have the students guess!  I can't wait!

Caution, Stop, Up, Mom, Dad

80% of kids at my school learn to read with the regular curriculum---in this case Leveled Guided Reading Fountas and Pernell.

About 15% learn to read using the same curriculum, but a bit more intensive.

The remainder need specialized instruction---very individualized. Tier 3 interventions, often EC support, special curriculum dependent on the child's strengths, sometimes special classrooms, sometimes one-on-one.

In one child's case (my student), he seems to be learning to read and write words that are highly interesting to him---words that appear in elevators, and color words, safety signs, and names of family members. He really doesn't have the verbal ability at this moment to tell people that he is interested in reading. Due to his autism, perhaps everyone assumed he wasn't really ready.  No one knew about his reading skills until his mom discovered that he was spelling his favorite words on his iPad, and asking her how to spell less familiar words.  Wow! 

Today, I went around the school with this little boy, and he read many words and signs he saw in the hallway.  I took pictures and made a special book just for him!  I got goosebumps! 

'Caution' is what he told me.

No problem reading 'stop'!

'Up' was the word

He spelled color words on the iPad, and words such as 'cat' and 'dog'.  What else does he know?  Kids like him challenge my assumptions, and make me rethink everything.

iPads and Tornado Warnings

We had horrible weather today.  Torrential periods of rain, 100 percent humidity when not raining, and tornado warnings---two warnings.  At home, when there's a warning, I stay inside, keep my eye on the TV, and that's about it.  In a school with children of all ages, the teacher in charge directs large groups into small confined spaces where they 'assume the position' (huddle) for long periods of time.  The space might be a bathroom or closet.

When children have autism, it's usually impossible to make them huddle---they simply don't understand or sensory issues prevent them from doing this for 30 to 45 minutes.  The next best thing then is to keep them sitting and happy in a safe room---again not always easy.  This is where the iPad really came in handy today. When the tornado alert sounded, I bounded to the EC class, iPad in hand, to help the teachers and to keep the kids entertained in a safe way. We actually had a few iPads for about 10 kids.  

1. Kids took turn in the safe room playing simple iPad games.

2. YouTube videos on the iPad were played to keep them entertained.

3. With the iPad 2, we took a few silly pictures during our confinement, and shared them.   Most of the photos were of the kids (they loved them), but I caught a few adults ;)

One of our lovely staff members!  She's a gem!

4.  With the iPad, the teachers could monitor the weather conditions on the internet and anticipate how long the kids needed to be confined to the small space, since there were no regular announcements coming in otherwise.  The iPad alleviated anxiety all around, in many ways, during a stressful situation.

To conclude here, most of the children that I work with survived the day unscathed.  I'm sure some of them wondered why they sat on the floor for long periods of time in a different room with a lot of adults and other kids, but the teachers worked very hard to keep them happy and calm.  The iPad helped a little, but I have to give credit where credit is due. Yeah, Ephesus EC teachers and assistants!!!!!

What did you say? Decibels in the classroom

I have a new favorite app!   Most people wouldn't get excited about this, but as a speech pathologist, this app is a very handy tool.---entitled "Decibel" by Gadget Frontier.    To understand why this is such a great tool, read my personal experience below.

Our school (which is a great school, so I'm not really being critical here) has one hallway where the HVAC units are individual classroom systems installed in each room's ceiling.   They rattle incessantly and make a constant blowing noise.  If someone sits under one while kids are contributing in class or reading aloud, the adult has to literally read the child's lips.  Teachers are forced to shout all day (not good for vocal health).  I could hear that these air conditioners were loud, but when I looked into purchasing a decibel reader from Radio Shack, they were a bunch of money!   I complained about the noise levels to the powers in charge, but didn't have empirical data. Remedies were moving slowly.

Screenshot ---indicates the background noise is 68 decibels

Then I found "Decibel".  For 99 cents, I felt it was worth my own dollar to purchase this for the iPad, and then take the iPad into the classrooms and measure noise levels.  National guidelines state that background noise in classrooms should be 35 decibels.  Some of the classrooms I measured recorded nearly 70 decibels (the same loudness as a vacuum cleaner) under the HVAC units.  The same was true in another school (an older middle school)  where a speech pathologist shares an office with a noisy air conditioner---also 70 decibels.  How do the students hear her?  How does one teach speech sounds to a kid when the sounds are masked by background noise?
     So, with data in hand, we are now all working together to get these noisy air conditioners fixed.  Fans are being turned down, teachers are requesting and getting sound field systems, and everyone is more aware of classroom acoustics and student learning!  My school has made great strides with the help of the administration and the School Improvement Team, and will continue to make progress especially since I'll be tracking background noise with 'Decibel'. Life is good!

Decibels are the numbers on the left.

Four iPads

Four iPads are not enough.  How could they be?  At our school, there are 450 kids, an army of teachers, and lots of other people like me (speech therapist) who all need their own little personal data device/computer/toy/camera to carry around with them.  We need piles of them--or so it seems!  Read on.

won't happen

Unfortunately, there is the money thing.  Even though iPads are cheaper than laptops, they are not free.  At $500 dollars each, plus money for the case and apps, supplying even a fraction of the school is not feasible unless Santa Claus appears.

Being a public school, we know that Santa won't step a foot into the door, so resourceful people need to look at other sources of funding.  That's why I am so grateful to the Public School Foundation and the Stroud Roses Foundation for generously funding four iPads for Ephesus Elementary.

Four iPads may not sound like a lot, but to a good teacher who knows the value of using an iPad as a tool for data collection, an iPad is invaluable.  In the hands of a teacher, all IEP data, intervention data, attendance for reading and math groups, and anecdotal data can be easily entered into Google forms, which then throws it all into a neat google spreadsheet. Four iPads translates into helping at least 100 kids.  Tracking progress is important!  Plus, for those kids who need an extra little nudge, there are thousands of educational apps out there for them to spend a little time exploring.   A teacher can build this time into a child's schedule.

I just filled out a purchase order today for these four invaluable tools, and can't wait until they arrive! 

For those of you in Chapel Hill, check out the website for the Public School Foundation!  This is a wonderful organization that is really making a difference in the education of our children. 

Little Things Matter (But are they really little?)

Tomorrow is the first teacher workday of the school year.  This is my 19th year at Ephesus--same job, same room.  Hard to believe....   My kids grew up at Ephesus (they are now adults), some of the former students there have come back as teachers.  Working there is more than a job but part of my life, and usually I come back excited and eager!  This year though is starting with a cloud of sadness--one of my students, Asiedya, died in a house fire two weeks ago.  Saturday was her funeral.  Although I've gotten over the shock of it all, and don't randomly wipe tears away at various times of the day (too much), I still think about her and the tragedy of it all quite a bit.   So, to ground myself in reality, I'm devoting this day's blog to very small moments documented in a few photos. 

Meet Lizard---taken on the deck by my daughter, Andorra, where she was housesitting last week.  Isn't he (or she) just beautiful!  Look at the little toes, eyes, nose, ear holes, and skin!  Great picture!

Another of nature's friends---dragonfly.  Can you believe the eyes?  and the delicate wing structure?  He kept coming back to us and sitting on whoever had their finger up like an antennae. Vicki took this picture.

Did you know that you can knit a seahorse?  Alana asked Andorra to do this, and she spent weeks making it just for her!





It is the little things---not really little, and not things--- but the qualities of being a friend, enjoying the outdoors, living life, and loving people that really matter.  So, I'll go in to school tomorrow remembering Asiedya, the angel that she always has been, and work on doing little things for the little kids that will still be there.  Hopefully, I can help make a difference in their lives, the way they make a difference in mine.