A Goal Mind!!!

So September is here and almost gone. I have started my scheduled, tweaked it and swallowed a few aspirin but generally it is working out. I just wish I had more time to work with my 41 boys and 9 girls.  As some of you may remember I work with  K-3rd grades with a very diverse population (98%). So many of the students are coming to school with limited English, limited vocabulary base etc. but they all come with big smiles, energy and an eagerness to learn.  The wonderment has not vanished from their eyes and I hope to keep the spark there. And that’s why I come back each day.

This month we learned about each other and fought off pirates. Who knows what next month will bring?!!

You can find the All About Me sheet here.

 

Check out an earlier post on pirates here.

Now to the Goal Mind!

At my school the teachers  work on Hopes and Dreams with their students. Our principal also had staff think about our own Hopes and Dreams for the year. I decided I wanted to work on helping students understand the reasons they come to speech. All staff had to create an apple with their own Hopes and Dreams- these will be placed on a tree in the school hallway.

Mine looked like this: I used the site Tagxedo to create the apple with goal words and used the Skitch app to add my hope and dream statement.

So now that I have my Hopes and Dreams I needed to do something about it.  I knew most of my students needed pictures or visuals rather than words. I used Custom Boards.  I created these with the students so they could help decide on the symbols.  I printed these and put them in clear sheet protectors and use as “place mats” for each student to use in their sessions.

Here are some examples:

I only have 3 articulation only students-  this is what we decided to use for goals. I kept it simple. I want them to know their target sounds. We will talk about levels in therapy sessions ( words, sentences, etc.).

These are examples of what we used for some of our language and social goals.

 

My hope and dream for you is a schedule that works and allows time to dream up some fun ideas to share.

Now go put your own twist on these ideas!

Cindy

Why is that SLP smiling???

A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a carrying sharing person inside. ~ Denis Waitley

I have a new room this year and it has a WINDOW! In the 36 years as an SLP I have worked in many different spaces, hallways, cubby holes, etc. But of all these spaces only 3 times have I ever had a window and the last time was about 20 years ago. This year I have a glorious window that looks out onto the courtyard in the middle of our school.  Yes that is a big reason to smile.

Here is a walk through my new space. Please come on in!

The left wall and my table. My room is in our Media Center.

The back wall – with a WINDOW!

   

The right wall-

Back to the entrance and my desk-

 

The back of my door-

AND  I have more storage right outside of my door. The cabinets even create a cozy hallway right that I could use as another therapy space.

  

AND I have even more storage a few steps away! I store my theme units, art supplies and other items that I use less often. This is how they looked before I rearranged everything.

So the next adventure is scheduling but I will be doing it with a smile as I sit by my window.

Stay tuned for some twists on how I plan to items on my walls and a fun way I’m going to cover the windows by my desk.

Cindy