What's in my cart? Back to School

Recently one of my son's friends from his freshmen year in college graduated with her master's degree in speech pathology.  She posted a picture with her fellow SLP grads on Facebook and I remembered the joy I felt when I graduated.  I also remembered being so anxious and nervous about starting my new job as a school-based SLP.  Although, Angela and I were fortunate to start our careers together, I think we were both a little overwhelmed with the huge responsibilities we were about to undertake.  I can't help but think how much easier our first year would have been if we had had a wonderful resource like Teachers Pay Teachers.  Because of this, we wanted to give each of these SLP graduates a gift from our TpT Store.  Angela and I have been humbled by their gratitude and even though our gifts were small, we hope we helped them discover an invaluable resource :) Congratulations, UWG Class of 2015 SLP grads!



University of West Georgia Class of 2015
Masters of Education - Speech Language Pathology Graduates

With that being said, I am ssssooo ready to use this fantastic resource to do some Back to School shopping!  We are linking up with the fabulous and iconic Jenna Rayburn at Speech Room News to share what's in our cart for the TpT Back to School Sale!

First let me tell you about three products from our store, Sounds Like Fun, that will get your school year off to a great start, and then I'll share three items I am buying on TpT to get my year off to a great start.

This 36 page Back to School Therapy Pack includes activities for listening comprehension, compare & contrast, vocabulary identification and labeling, categories, describing, sequencing, basic concepts, antonyms, "wh" questions, "Would you rather?" questions, "Back to School" word lists by sound, and 10 reinforcement games which can be used for language or articulation therapy.

This bundled set of Articulation Ring-a-Lings includes over 600 color articulation cards for the speech sounds: p, b, m, w, n, h, d, y, k, f, g, t, r, l, v, j, z, s, th, sh, and ch. Each card is marked for ring placement for easy storage. This product also comes with sentence facilitating strips to help students produce sentence level responses.  Are you looking for sounds for specific developmental levels? We also have smaller sound sets if you aren't ready for the complete set bundle.

 

This interactive articulation word wall is great for bulletin boards or speech room wall décor and can be opened in iBooks on the ipad for traveling SLPs. Initial, medial, and final speech sounds include: b, d, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, z, ch, sh, j, and th. Initial and medial speech sounds include: h, w, y. Consonant blends for l, r, and s are also included. These word list are perfect for readers and can be used imitatively with non-readers. Ideas for use can be found in this product.

We love these no prep worksheets from Jessica Finch, The Speech Peach :) No need to prep anything, just print these sheets off and you are ready for therapy and instruction! It can't get any easier than this!

This All About Me Interactive Book from Kristin at Beautiful Speech looks like a great activity for beginning of the year therapy and it is a super price!

We wish we could buy everything in Kelly Workman's store!  It all looks fantastic, but since we are only poor school SLPs (lol), we are going to start with this jam packed Vocabulary Dice Decks :)

We trust you will find all these great products helpful in getting your new school year off to an exceptionally great start!

Happy Shopping!!!

5 Actions to Assure a Great School Year

Back to school next week?! Really? Where has the summer gone? Even though being an SLP is the best job ever, I'm still a little sad to say good-bye to my summer time routine.  I just realized I needed to get in the "Back to School" frame of mind so I started thinking about what I needed to do to have a successful school year.  After a little soul searching, I concluded there are five key actions which will assure a great school year, not just for me, but for everyone.

1.  Have a good attitude.  First and foremost, the importance of a good attitude cannot be underestimated.  Starting each day with a positive outlook is imperative to maintain a healthy and happy work environment. To maintain a positive attitude you should look for the positive aspects of every situation, remember to be thankful for the many blessings in your life, and surround yourself with positive people.

2.  Be adaptable.  After twenty-one years of working in a school system, I understand the value of being adaptable. With the crazy schedules SLPs maintain, being able to adapt to any situation is a necessity.  In order to be adaptable you need to keep an open mind, allow yourself to step outside your comfort zone, not be afraid to try new things, and forgive yourself if you make a mistake.

3.  Stay organized.  The beginning of the school year is so hectic. Unpacking and organizing the classroom, therapy materials, and files are always a priority.  Once you get everything organized, work extra hard to maintain this organization throughout the school year. To help with organization, write important dates and information in a planner and stay up to date with planning and paperwork. Do NOT procrastinate!

4.  Practice Patience.  These days I'm almost always in a hurry for one reason or another.  It's always rush, rush, rush and because of the advances in technology, I, like most others in our society, have become accustomed to having anything I want, anytime I want. Faster internet connections allow you to make instant contact with others, find an answer to a question, look up an address or a phone number, etc.  We've all become conditioned to immediate gratification.  When we don't get this gratification, we tend to become impatient with ourselves and with others.  To practice being more patient make a conscience effort to slow down and when you feel yourself beginning to become impatient, take some deep, relaxing breaths and focus on calming down.

5.  Be resourceful.  Last, but not least, if you are an SLP, you understand the importance of being resourceful.  Many school-based SLPs get stuck with less than desirable room conditions.  Over the past years, I have done therapy in closets, store rooms, and supply trailers. I quickly learned to make the best of what I was given. Thankfully, now I have a great classroom and office, but I know not everyone is so lucky.  With budget cuts, money for materials has been in short supply the past couple of years so I certainly recognize the relevance of being resourceful.  Fortunately, now with social media, being resourceful is easier than ever! Follow and join some SLP collaborative Pinterest boards. Check out these boards, SLPs on TpT and Materials Made by SLPs for SLPs. Read speech blogs. There are tons of resources available from some fantastic SLP bloggers. Use Bloglovin' to follow your favorite blogs.  You can't go wrong with Speech Room News and Speechie Freebies. These are two of our favorites :) Like SLP pages on Facebook to get great tips and ideas in your newsfeed. Allison's Speech Peeps and The Speech Bubble SLP are two good bets. Oh, and lets not forget Teachers Pay Teachers! There are some fantastic resources available on TpT and lots of them are free! We would love to have you follow us on all our social media sites:

Teachers Pay Teachers Store:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Sounds-Like-Fun

Blog:

http://soundslikefunslp.blogspot.com/

Instagram:  @SoundsLikeFunSLP

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/soundslikefunslp

I hope you will find these five actions helpful to you this school year :) I will keep my fingers crossed that I can follow my own advice, lol! In any case, I have a feeling that Fridays are about to become a lot more important to me :)