New School Year, New Ideas
It certainly
has been a busy (and a bit unusual) start to the school year! If the weather
around here lately is any indication of what the winter and the rest of the
school year is going to be like, we're in trouble! Since I've gone back to
school , we've experienced a minor
earthquake, were blown around and rained upon by the outer bands of Hurricane
Irene, and were nearly left swimming by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee.
The early
dismissal and two-hour delay due to flooding were certainly unexpected, as was
the still-damp carpet in my home office where I sit to type my blogs. My
district has been more fortunate than others in the area in that respect and
that's an entirely different blog topic ... anyway, I've been busy and Mother
Nature has been busy around here!
For me, the
school year is in full swing! The speech schedule has been created (and revised
about 100 times)! The first full six-day cycle of speech has been completed
with minimal bumps along the way (see previous comment about schedule
revisions!). Speech folders have been handed out. I've met all of my new
students. I've started several Reevaluation Reports for move-ins, dismissals,
to do further testing ... you name it.
I have
started the paperwork on a new Assistive Technology referral and followed up on
another. I've attended team meetings ... whew! Isn't it funny how after summer
break, once we're back in school and into the swing of things, it's like we
never left?
I don't know
about the rest of you, but every school year I always like to try something
new, such as a new therapy model or program. This year is the same as the rest,
though I think I may have stretched myself a bit thin this year with all of the
new things I'm trying! So far, so good, though.
I'll give
you a brief run-down here of all of the new things I've started/am trying this
school year. In future blogs, I'll explain each one more in-depth and give you
an update on how it is going!
- Talkies® - I had
mentioned several blogs ago that one of my summer inservice days was spent
being trained in this Lindamood-Bell program. I'm always up for new therapy
ideas, so I took this one and ran with it. This year I have few Talkies® groups
in my schedule for my non- and minimally-verbal students (and I'm trying it 1:1
with a few students).
So far, I've had 1-2 sessions with each group/student. Once I get more sessions
under my belt, I'll blog about how I'm implementing this program with my
students (and how it's working out).
- iPad - I don't
have it yet, but I know it is coming. Our special ed department is purchasing
all of the district SLPs an iPad to use in therapy. I'm somewhat familiar with
them since I have students who use them with Proloquo2Go software; however, the
whole concept of downloading apps is completely foreign to me (I'm old school
with my cell phone - I only text!).
However, from what I hear, this will open a new world for me! I'm going to a training
on 10/19, so afterwards and once I receive my iPad, I'll blog about it. I don't
consider myself tech-savvy in the least (I didn't have a clue how to subscribe
to an RSS feed until I started writing blogs for ADVANCE!) so I'll be writing
about it from the perspective of an iPad/app-newbie!
- Building Literacy in Students with Moderate-Severe Disabilities
Using Stories - This was
the title of a presentation I attended at ASHA back in November. I really liked
the idea and tucked it away for future use (this is why you never throw
handouts and notes from conferences away - you never know when you might use
the ideas!).
There is a new multiple disabilities classroom at my elementary school, and I
thought it would be a perfect place to implement these ideas. Starting this
week, once per cycle I'll be going into the MDS class and sharing an adapted
book with the students using the strategies/techniques suggested by Linda
Schreiber, M. S., CCC-SLP. First time is this Wednesday -- we'll see how it
goes!
- Social Skills Instruction within the Context of BMTA - The autism support staff I
work with at the middle school is trained in Behavior Management Through
Adventure. I work on social language skills with their students. When learning
a bit about this program last school year, I realized that there are many similarities
between what I've been teaching to the students and what BMTA teaches. It
seemed logical to me to do "push-in" therapy with students during BMTA group
activities.
These are
four new things I'm trying this school year. In looking at this list, I may be
in over my head ... however, I'm so
excited about all of these ideas and programs that I really didn't want to let
them wait until another school year! I'm looking forward to hearing from all of
you -- what are some new programs, new therapy techniques or new service
delivery models that you'd like to try this school year?
Post
responses on ADVANCE's blog page or through ADVANCE's Facebook page! I'm always
looking for new ideas! Maybe one of you will suggest something that I can
borrow ... next year!