I Have A Dream

Next Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day so this week in speech we have been learning all about Dr. King.  This week we have been watching videos about MLK and watching the ever popular Kid President's take on dreams.  I am trying out a new schedule with different groupings of kiddos so it's been interesting trying to mix and match activities to meet various goals.  Here are some of the activities we have done so far...

We made our own protest signs with our speech words on it... not the most creative but my kiddos love taking things home to show their families

We read about Martin Luther King Jr and filled out graphic organizers about problem and solutions

We talked about words that describe Dr. King and then created synonyms for our descriptive words.

We drew or wrote about our dreams and then used our good speech skills to share our dreams with our group members.

Miss K's dream is to live in Disney World... not visit... live

We picked out important details from our stories 

And answered wh- comprehension questions about what we read

Our "I have a dream" wall

All of these activities can be found in my Martin Luther King Jr. packet in my Teachers Pay Teachers store here.  So far all the activities have been a hit and a great way to balance multiple goals within a group.

SLP Natalie

Welcome To My Speech Room(s)

As a first year SLP I have heard horror stories about what schools consider usable speech rooms (tiny closets, sharing tiny rooms, or having no room at all to call your own).  Knowing that this a reality for some of y'all let me start off my stating how much I love my little shoe box of a room.  I am very lucky to have a room to call me own in my base school and rooms that we make work at my other two schools.  I figure I would take you on a little tour of my corner of the world...  "Keep you hands, arms, and legs inside the train at all times.  Hold on to your hats and glasses, cause this here is the wildest ride in the wilderness!" (an extra gold start sticker to anyone who knows where that is from). 

First up is my base school room.  This is where I spend Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  It's a tight squeeze, especially with my bigger groups, but we make it work.  I have materials hidden in every nook and cranny but I think I have finally figured out how to make my space work for me and my kiddos.  The game closet is everyone's favorite place and I would like to say it is usually more organized but let's be real, ain't nobody got time for that. 

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I travel between two schools... I share my room at my other elementary school with another SLP (we alternate days were are at school)... This room I had no role in decorating but it works for me and kiddos so I've got nothing to complain about, plus it has a SMARTboard... can't beat that!

I refer to my space at my middle school as the fishbowl/detention room.  It's pretty much just a space that all the different therapists can use when they work at the school.  My kids don't really care what the room looks like but spending that much time surrounded by 4 white walls and one window that all the kids look in as they pass can drive someone crazy.  But you know what, I really can't complain because I have a space I can see kiddos with limited distractions which is more than some can say. 

So there it is the grand tour, all in all I know I am very lucky SLP to have the spaces that I have.  Hope you enjoyed the tour.

SLP Natalie

Guess Who's Back... Back Again... Miss. K is back... Tell a Friend

Remember that time I started this blog and was bound and determined to blog about my experiences as an SLP and thought to myself I'm going to have so much time now that I am not in grad school so I'm going to start a blog... yeah about that.... I swear sometimes being a speech therapist in their Clinical Fellowship Year is way more work than grad school! (never thought I would say that!).  Between figuring out a whole new IEP system, managing a caseload or 50 students, and creating new materials my life has been crazy busy.  But enough whining.  As I start into the new year it is one of my resolutions to add to this blog at least once a week.  I have recently opened a Teachers Pay Teachers store as well.  I figure why not help other SLPs build their material collection and make a little money at the same time.  You can find my site here.

So here we go again, Lord help me.  I'm going to take another stab at this blogging thing with slightly lower expectations than before.

SLP Natalie

Epic Fail

Remember that time I started this blog with the thought that I would have a ton of free time and be able to upload all my therapy materials and talk about my experiences and what I learned from them.... well that worked out really well, not!  But seriously after graduation (this weekend eeek!) and after I return from Disney World (totally getting an I'm celebrating button!) I pinkie promise that I will talk about my School placement experience as well as share the tx materials I made.  In the great words of Arnold Schwarzenegger... "I'll Be Back"

Therapy Quote of the Day

"He threw up on his communication book, we sanitized it.  You can use it if you want"

Never a dull moment in the schools that's for sure! 

Games, Books, and Garage Sales Oh My!

Even though at this time I am unemployed I have still been collecting Therapy Materials like a boss.  A majority of my collection comes from garage sales, goodwill, and savers.  I would say 10% tops were brand new purchases.  When I go to garage sales I mainly look for books and games in good condition and approach it with the mindset that even though I don't have a specific goal for this game or book at the moment, there is a very good chance that I will eventually use it. I have also started spending time in the clearance section of Super Duper Inc and have recently purchased some funny flips books for future use. 

In addition to garage sales and second hand stores I spend a lot of time on Pinterest (follow me here) and Teachers Pay Teachers.  At this point I am just downloading the free items on TPT, some of my favorite speech related TPT stores are SLP Gone Wild, Jenna Rayburn, and Simply Speech. I have been printing off a lot of the color documents in the computer lab as to avoid using up my own ink and then laminating and cutting them right away while I still have "free time".

So much lamination

Funny Flips

My typical Friday night 

One of my recent Michael's Craft Store Purchases
Did you know that if you use show your school district
photo id you get 15% off!

So many TX materials

My Handy Dandy Laminator.  I found this one on Amazon a while back
for a really good price and I also buy my lamination sheets on Amazon,

Books Books Books... I need to get another crate for
the ones I bought today

So many games! Some of them are for my personal collection
but a majority of them are for Tx purposes.

So there you have it my material collection in a nutshell.  I can't wait to have a little speech room to call my own and to have a place to store everything!  Until then I will just keep pilling stuff in the living room until I need it.  

Welcome!

Greetings!  And welcome to SLP Natalie.  I, of course, am Natalie.  Currently I am finishing up my student teach placement and will be graduating in May to embark on a brand new adventure... being a School SLP (fingers crossed!  I am just starting the job search).  I am loving my school placement and really feel like that is where my heart is, now I just need to find a school to call my own.  I have decided to start this blog to share my experiences, get ideas, and share ideas.  So here we go into the super fun and exciting world of School Based Speech Language Pathology.  Please remain seated and keep your hands and legs in the car at all times.

~Natalie