Peace Corps!!!!

A while back, I wrote about my wonderful talented daughter, Andorra, and her application to the Peace Corps.  She has now received a formal invitation, and she'll be going to Indonesia!!!!  I'm so proud of her. 

Feast for 10--- with printable icons!

This is such a great book for Thanksgiving on so many levels---it's happy, there's great food, it features an African American family, the language is simple, there's terrific vocabulary, it's descriptive.  I could go on and on.  This book works for every kid!

I've made some Boardmaker printables to go with it which are very simple and straightforward. This is a counting book---it goes up to 10, and goes up to 10 again!  You can print the icons out in Boardmaker, or in pdf.  If you have Boardmaker, you can edit, change the size, change the pictures.  In pdf, you pretty much have to accept what I made.  

I want to have my Thanksgiving meal with this family!!!!

Download icons in pdf

Download icons in Boardmaker 

book icons

I have since discovered from the Budget SLP that
Florida WIC program has a complete lesson plan
with large visuals to go with this book. Go here
to look at the plan, download the visuals, and get
more ideas!

My favorite page!

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The Little Old Lady who was not Afraid of Anything

This book, The Little Old Lady who was not Afraid of Anything, is one I read with my kids every year!   It works especially well in small groups--generally it's our first play.  Each child has a part---either a hat, shoes, pants, shoes, gloves, or pumpkin head.  Each child has a line (e.g. 'clomp, clomp', 'wiggle wiggle'.....).  I'm amazed at how hard the line is for some of them to remember!
   I even read this with some artic kids---there are a lot of 'L' words in the book!  Every time I point at the child, he needs to say 'little old lady' correctly!      

The video below is one I found on YouTube.  I have no idea who these kids are, but the teacher here did what I did with my kids last week---she brought in real articles of clothing and each child had a part to play along with an piece of clothing to hold.  She paired kids up, while I paired my kids with whatever adults were in the room.  It was all fun! Exactly how you structure this depends on the levels of your children.

I also quickly made some visuals.  I used them during the group activity to assist in comprehension and to cue the kids as to when to say their line.

Click here to get the visuals in Boardmaker

Click here to get the visuals in pdf
    I am in the process of switching all pdf visuals to Smarty Symbols. Since I pay for this subscription, this product is on Teachers Pay Teachers.  If you have Boardmaker, click above and it's free.

Have fun with this book.  I did!     I also want to say that when reading this to the kids, you have the freedom to paraphrase.  Some of the pages are slightly wordy--but I managed to hone in on the action words quickly with an abbreviated reading.

Happy Halloween!






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Success! The Triangle Run for Autism

 Today was a great day! A month ago, I made an attempt at a 5k--which then became a 2.5k. A great deal of reflection followed on personal growth and goal setting.  I've never been an athlete, never been in an organized sport, and had never run in a race or even consistently exercised.  Completing a 5k became a goal, and I really wanted to complete it under 40 minutes. 

The Triangle Run for Autism became a wonderful opportunity to try again---both for achieving my own personal goals, but also for raising money for a great cause. I practiced for this and you can see by the stats below, I finished, and I wasn't even last in my age group.  My chip time was actually a minute less than the time listed below-- that works for me!   Tonight, I'm feeling incredibly fit. 

Advanced Medical

    The best part of this experience was that I was able to easily support a terrific organization---the Autism Society of North Carolina.   They do so much for our kids and their families.  Visit their website if you want to find out more.  Here, I want to thank my donors---Sandy, Jamezetta, and  Advanced Medical  (a premier therapy staffing agency) for their generosity.   The quote below sums up how my donors approach the needs they see all around them.  Thank you all!

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”
― Debbie Macomber, One Simple Act: Discovering the Power of Generosity

Getting ready

I stopped to take this during the race --making my time higher :(

I passed the guy in the full suit of armor.

Me---looking happy it's done!

 

"10 Apples"-- Smartboard lesson to share

wishful thinking

Our school system is blessed---special educators have iPads, laptops, and SmartBoards (not to mention small caseloads for us SLPs!).  I don't have a Smartboard in my room, but every classroom has one.  We also have a website where we can upload our lessons to share, and of course, I upload to this blog to share out there with all my new friends in webland.  So, if you or the teachers you work with have a Smartboard, I've created a very simple activity to go along with 10 Apples up on Top book.  I wrote about the low tech printables HERE last week. Today is all about the high tech lesson.  Share both the printables and the SmartBoard lesson with your teachers, and they will love you. (Smartboard link is at the end of this page.)  Maybe your teachers will even reward you with coffee and chocolate.

screenshot of title

Quite simply, the child touches the number die----he or she is rewarded with a virtual die spin.  Whatever number comes up is the number of apples dragged onto the character's head.  The apple on the screen is set to 'infinite clone'---touch and drag.

To download this Smartboard lesson, click here.

Child touches the number (like a dice). It 'rolls'.  Child drags apples to top of tiger head.

I hope you all have a nice start to the school year (if you're working in a school);  our kids come on Monday.  They are a neat, spunky group, and I'm looking forward to a great year!  They teach me every day!

10 Apples up on Top --printables

School starting for us is a week away, so I wanted to share one of my favorite September books--- 10 Apples up on Top by Dr. Seuss.  I've used this for years and have created a few manipulatives to go with it from Boardmaker apples and scanned in images from the book.

screenshot of character pictures

Merely do a search on Pinterest to come up with more things to do.  This is a great book for counting to 10, determining 'more', 'less', and 'same', determining character feelings, and doing a story retell.  I plan on making a simple Smartboard activity for this book in the near future, so keep checking back with me if you use a Smartboard in your class!

This would work great on flannel board, but I didn't have this at home (can you believe it's Friday night and I'm at home blogging about Dr. Seuss?)  I don't have any cute kid pictures with this either since the kids don't come home with me, and they are still on vacation anyway!

  Velcro each piece with the prickly stuff, and use the flannel board background.  Kids love putting the apples on to match the book.    Work on early math concepts along with literacy!  Take it into a classroom and lead a math center.  Possibilities abound!

Click here to get the characters in Boardmaker
Click here to get the apples in Boardmaker

Click here to get the characters in pdf
Click here to get the apples in pdf

Give them a nutritious apple snack at the end.
You will be very popular.




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Back to School--Printable Book with icons

This is my last weekend of relative freedom----I'm watching our hometown boy, Nick McCrory, doing the Olympics 10 meter platform dive (so far he's advanced to the semi-finals).  All I can say is "Wow!"  He actually went to the school where I work; his mom and I hung out at the local pool where our kids had fun (mine, however, did not evolve into Olympic stars).  I guess that's my claim to fame for today.  Good luck to him!   He has worked incredibly hard for this!

So, on to speech blogging: I've created a very simple back-to-school book on Tarheel Reader.  For those of you who want to know, Tarheel Reader is a wonderful resource.  You can search the numerous books by keyword and download them, then edit as you wish. The pictures are real, and the language level is often appropriate for the kids I work with.  My book, "Things we do at School", is here.  I've also uploaded it to Google docs for you to download, and uploaded some icons to go with it.  Download, print, laminate, and velcro, and then have the kids match or request the icons during your sessions.  As an extension activity, let them think of other things they do at school, take pictures, and add to the book! 

screenshot

screenshot

icons to go with the pages---cut out, laminate, velcro

Click here to download the book "Things we do at School"

Click here to download the icons in pdf.

Click here to download the icons in Boardmaker






Have fun with this.  I haven't actually read this book with children yet.  It's hard to do speech therapy activities when the kids are still on vacation!    My joy starts in two weeks.



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Yummy Honey Chicken Kabobs---Gluten Free

Marinade for a couple of hours, then skewer.

I visited my inlaws and was appointed head cook for the evening!  Lots of fun here, and I decided to cook up some chicken shish kabobs (with the help of my kids).  

The recipe was taken from All Recipes.com  with the main ingredients being soy sauce (I used gluten free), honey, oil, chicken, vegies, black pepper, and garlic.  Very easy! 

View HERE to see the recipe.

I followed the recipe, but did use gluten free soy sauce.  Also, during grilling, we brushed on San-J Asian BBQ Sauce.  It turned out perfectly.  All of the kabobs were gone at the end of the meal. 

ready to grill!

When I went gluten-free, I thought my life had ended in terms of good food.  I totally was wrong.

finished product!   Yum!

The Case Against Assistive Technology

I lifted this video off of another blog---The Assistive Technology Blog. 

Normally I try to think of my own topics or write about a small but important moment of my day.  This Don Johnston video, however, was powerful, and all of you who work with children with disabilities should watch it.

Let's Make Jellyfish---printable directions

We make happy friendly jellyfish in our Extended School Year program!   The kids made these last year, and I wrote about it here.  Since then, I have learned to post directions to share in Google Docs, so here is the link for the directions in pdf

I put together a very simple communication board for one child, but my main goal for the group was for them to learn the routine of following a schedule, and using appropriate language to request. (Three of the four children could speak.)  The OT was with me (this was a co-taught group), and provided much needed help with the fine motor aspects.  We may end up doing this or similar activity again to develop some Joint Action Routines! 

Click here to download directions for the Jellyfish craft in pdf.

Finding a voice (or whistle)

I'm at home today.  The Extended School Year contract was for only 4 days a week.  At first I was a little bummed----less pay!  Then I thought---less work!   I have time to watch magical little videos!

The above is a trailer for a slightly longer movie (the trailer is one minute; the movie is five minutes).  The name of the movie is "Whistleless"---about a determined bird struggling to find his voice.  There are no words, just beautiful animation and music. I would recommend you clicking on the link below to watch the full length (5 minute) version. 

I loved this partly because it represents what we want for all of our children---for them to find a voice.
(I also loved the animation and music and so much more....)

Here is the link to the longer movie.

With my day off each week, I can reflect a bit on why I like my job. It's shown in the picture below---providing eager children with the tools or skills necessary to communicate.  This can be very rewarding!

SLPs help kids find their voice!!!

Guess the Mystery Food

This sounds like the name of some speech/language game, but no---this is the real summer school lunch.
Feel free to comment!

What can Dolphins do? Latest printable adapted book

As many of you know, I'm working this summer in the Extended School Year program.  It's a nice job, with great kids, and I'm anticipating that the theme will be around oceans, beaches, sea animals, and fun.  To prepare for this, I've been making a few materials, and the latest is a dolphin book that I grabbed off of Tarheel Reader, revised it a bit, and adapted it with Boardmaker icons. Print the book, print the icons, laminate, cut out the icons, afix velcro, and let the kids match icons to the pictures as you read it.  Expand their knowledge base with questions!  Let them fill in the answers!  The possibilities abound.

   This book is very similar to some previous books I've developed or adapted (cats, dogs, horses, and chimps).  Download free!

flickr

icons to use to adapt the book

Click here to download the book "What can Dolphins Do?"

Click here to download the icons in Boardmaker

Click here to download the icons in pdf






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Nostalgic moments

David and I are on a road trip.  This is the week between regular school and ESY, so we always take advantage of this and go somewhere; away; anywhere other than here.......

This year, we chose to return to some old stomping grounds---specifically Lexington and Danville, Kentucky.  Danville is the location of the Kentucky School for the Deaf (my first teaching job), and Lexington?  Lots of memories ---
       Lexington was where I lived when I was little,
                                where my mother died,
                                where my grandmother lived,
                                where my dad remarried
                                where my brothers were born
                                where I met David,
                                where I got married,
                                where I attended the University of Kentucky
                                where I first worked as a speech pathologist
                                where Zach was born......

First job after college---teacher of the deaf

First house for David and me!   Apparently well-loved now by different owners

I relived those days on this trip. I visited with an old friend from Danville (met her on my first day there in 1979!).  I visited with a nephew I hadn't seen in 21 years and met his wife and daughter.  We talked a LOT about family history.
        David and I biked around Danville and around Lexington, and visited our old house.  So many memories have been brought to the surface; I'm awash in them.  How do I return to reality next week? 



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Letter to Graduate Student Interns in Speech Pathology

I work with wonderful speech-language graduate interns from a great program (University of North Carolina).   These interns help me a lot and I try to help them. They come with a variety of skill levels---some have literally no skills (1st year) while others are nearly ready to graduate.  This letter is addressing not the clinical skill level, but other areas which are not usually measured heavily on their evaluation forms.
 ------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Speech-Language Graduate intern!

 For the record, I love graduate speech interns working in my elementary school office.  You all bring fresh ideas, current research, enthusiasm, and desire to do good work.  This rubs off onto me!   You help me be a better speech pathologist, and I'm grateful!  Some of you come from other professions--I've worked with students who were in business, who were eye therapists, and who were artists.  I've worked with students who were mothers, and some who had just left their own mothers.  You are all very interesting and very smart.  You have to be smart to get into the top notch program you are in now!   You are, in fact, in a higher rated program than the one I graduated from, with lots more opportunities to do different things.  I personally would like to take some of the classes you are currently taking, and I heard that some of you took a 'speech trip' to Guatemala.   Take me with you!   

For all of your smarts and enthusiasm, I do have a few tips to help you through the practicum experience.  This list is based on what I've observed collectively---most of you do fine in most areas!  No one is perfect, though, so these are general tips to make your practicum experience an even better one!

1.  You actually may not want to ever work in a setting such as mine (elementary school).  I get it! My life plan was to not work in a school---life plans don't always work out.
      The practicum setting is what it is----you must show enthusiasm on your face when you arrive!  I want to work with someone who wants to work with me.  Force yourself to look like my school is the coolest practicum site ever and where you want to spend your career! 

2.  You may actually never want to work with children.  You may really not like children.......however, when you are with a child, you need to act like that child is the most special person and the most wonderful person ever.  You need to be five times more enthusiastic than you actually feel.  If the child thinks you like being with him, then he will be reinforced by what you are wanting him to do.

3.  We all have our 'stuff'.....in my case, I have car problems, four sort-of-grown kids, ants in my kitchen, sick relatives, gluten issues, fatigue..... the list goes on.  You have your 'stuff' too.  I understand; however, my problems are not your problems; and your problems are not my problems.  We are in a professional relationship, so we need to focus on the job at hand.

4.  Dress professionally.  Cover midriffs, and don't show all of your distracting tattoos. 

5.  Show up to this practicum site in a timely manner.

6.  Show initiative!   During 'down time', please don't sit at the little therapy table and look at me expectantly. I often have my own work to do, unrelated to what you are doing.  You are welcome to go into any classroom, observe, see how a speech kid is doing, make materials, read a therapy manual, or explore Boardmaker.  In short, I love independence both with the kids I work with and my graduate interns.  

7.  Spellcheck your work.      No additional comment needed here.

8.  Keep track of your own practicum hours.  Use a spreadsheet and do this daily!

9.  Don't expect me to know all of the answers.  I don't!   I work with children from all walks of life and with various disabilities.  I'm totally amazed all the time by some new disability or new variation on a disability.  I don't have the answers----but I problem-solve.  You need to learn to do the same.  It's not something you learn from a textbook.

10.  Plan your lessons and show me the plans.  Google docs is a good thing!  Write it all out, and share it prior to the school day.  It then becomes my responsibility to read your plans.

So.....speech-language graduate interns-----it's not so much the coursework in my setting.  Once you have the very basics, it's all about enthusiasm, professionalism, showing initiative, and the nuts and bolts of practicum.

I love you all and I really love it when you tell me that you have your CCCs!   I hope you like my setting; I hope you learn something from me.    I hope you become successful clinicians.

Sincerely

Ruth Morgan, CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist

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The Writing Process

Blogging is not easy!  There is a distinct parallel between blogging and the 'writing process' that we teach our kids.  You need to have some type of catchy title, an introduction, a middle, and an ending that sums it all up.  You can't use the same words over and over again.  You shouldn't use the same simple sentence patterns; instead, you need to join sentences together to make smooth flowing paragraphs. Vocabulary needs to be specific, but not babyish. You need to make some type of 'point'--sort of a mini-thesis statement and your details need to support your point.   Good blogs take time.  In addition to good writing, you also need to add visuals.  Those of you in blog-land need something cool to look at.  I understand, because I hate to see blogs of just text.  I need pictures, cartoons, graphs, or videos. 

My point here is that I don't have the mental power now to write much or put up cool pictures.  EOGs (end of grade tests)  have gone on for a long time. (Read about that here).  Today, I had three meetings after today's EOG session (4 hours worth of meetings).  I'm not complaining, but there's no creativity going on in my brain.  I really feel sorry for those of you (SLPs) who have 50 to 60 kids on your caseloads.  I don't know how you do it. 

This song is for summer!

Blogiversary

One year ago today, I started this blog.  Time Flies!


My first entry was about the local meadow.  You can read about it HERE if interested.  The meadow is a lovely place, and so close to my house!  You would never know it's in Chapel Hill.

Believe in what you do---Write a Grant

You may recall that this year, I had the pleasure of supervising a wonderful CF, Ashley Robinson. She possesses the remarkable ability to take a suggestion or idea and literally run with it.  In this case, she had an idea for a grant proposal, wrote it up, submitted it, and got it!  Here's her post!   (She is my very first guest blogger!)

 --------------------------------------------

My wonderful supervisor, Ruth, has been gracious enough to let me guest blog for her. I have appeared on Ruth's blog a few times – I am her clinical fellow (CF) and she has been monitoring and documenting all of the time she has spent directly supervising me – even devising a Google form to keep track of the seemingly countless observation hours. Back in the fall, I applied for a grant on behalf of the Assistive Technology team. This grant was awarded by the Public School Foundation of Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools. (http://www.publicschoolfoundation.org/ 

    Ruth walked me through the grant process and got me through my first grant application. The grant was titled, “It's Never Too Late: Targeting Literacy in Middle and High School Students with Disabilities.”

Our aim in this grant is to provide middle and high school students with disabilities easy access to age appropriate material at their reading level. The Assistive Technology Team Lead, Jim Tignor (check out his cool tech blog here: http://shinobijimbo.blogspot.com/) found a free app called ScribblePress, which allows students to write and illustrate their own books. There are several ready-made templates, so students who have trouble generating novel text can have more structure. Authors have the opportunity to share their material for others to read.

     Today, I want to take the time to thank the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation for their generous funding towards this grant. With this funding, Jim and I hope to put one iPad loaded with the ScribblePress app, and other apps to support literacy development, in each middle and high school. Exceptional Education teachers will be able to make use of this technology in their classrooms and with many different students. We have so many great educators in this district, that it will be a real pleasure to provide them with technology to support what they are already doing in their classrooms to target literacy.

On behalf of the secondary Exceptional Education teachers and the Assistive Technology team, we would like to send a huge THANK YOU to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation!  

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 Ruth's Final Note: I realize that most of you don't live in Chapel Hill or work in our school system.  This blog post by Ashley is a great example of seeing what grant opportunities exist, and then writing up a proposal to match what is available.  During our current limited funding times, Ashley and others are doing what they need to do to help their students.  Ashley will be completing her CF year in two days!  Congratulations, Ashley: Job well done!

Ants, ants, and more ants--craft with printable directions

A few days ago, I shared a book I wrote using Boardmaker called "Ants Everywhere".  To go along with this, I also had the kids make a paper ant---a very simple craft with printable directions.  I used Pictello on the iPad to present the directions.  Pictello is a great app--nice because it has text to speech, it's engaging for the kids, and it's very user friendly.  It took about 10 minutes to make the Pictello story---once the steps were made, I  then exported to a pdf file to share with the teacher and with you!
Click here to download the 'Ant craft step-by-step' paper copy.

Notice the Pictello app on the ipad

Child is using Pictello on the iPad to show him what to do

They're taking over! I love the one on the lower left!

I also made a simple communication board to go with this activity.

To download the communication board in Boardmaker, click here.

To download the communication board in pdf, click here



My principal observed this lesson by the way, and found it very entertaining.


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