Symbaloo: Organize your Online Resources

Today, while meeting up with a couple veteran SLPs at my agency to discuss some complex language kiddos, I glanced over at my coworker's computer and saw something that made my heart skip a beat: Symbaloo.  Up until today, I had not heard of Symbaloo and the minute I had some free time I signed up and set up my homepage.

What is Symbaloo?  Well, I am no expert, given that I've only used it today, but I will say that it has already helped me become more organized and has given me a quicker way to access my online resources.  Using my own words to describe it, I would say it is a visual representation of websites you may "book mark" or "favorite," which you can set as your homepage to give easy and quick access to your frequently visited sites.  If you know me, I love to organize, so I immediately fell in love with this tool. 

Here is my Symbaloo "home page."

You can color code your sites.  I just started organizing my sites into four categories so far, including:

Green: Search Engines (yahoo, google, etc)

White: Work  Sites (email, google drive, IEP site, district site, etc)

Yellow: Products (LinguiSystem, TpT, SuperDuperInc)

Purple: Speech Sites (ASHA)

I plan on adding good speech blogs on there in a different category =)

I think this is such a great tool for SLPs, or really any profession, to help organize their resources.  I use the internet and webpages all the time for resources, so this just made my life a whole lot easier!  Not to mention the set up of Symbaloo reminds me a little of how an AAC device would be set up =)

Do you think you will use Symbaloo to help organize your online life?  Learn more about how to set up and use Symbaloo here.

Happy Speeching!

-Courtney

The Snowy Day and Playing with Snow!

 

 The Snowy Day,  Insta-Snow 

I mentioned both The Snowy Day and the Insta-Snow in my last post, What's in my Speech Bin: January, and wanted to share a little more about it.

I made the insta-snow in a container (that I wish was a little bigger and deeper because it can get a little messy with younger kiddos)  that I could carry from school to school.  I think the whole jar of the insta-snow was approximately $13.00 and I barely scrapped the top of it when I made this container of snow, so I'm sure it will last a long time!

I made the snow prior to my speech groups, but you could work on predicting and guessing by having students guess what will happen when you add the water to the powder.

While we read, we worked on verbs and cause and effect by making tracks with our fingers and pencils with our toes pointing out, our toes pointing in, and while dragging our toes (or our finger tips in this case) and talked about what happened when we did each of those.  If you wanted to be really authentic you could go walk out in the snow or put real snow in a container and I'm sure it would work just fine!  The only thing that is bad with this snow and is that you can't form it into balls or pack it, so we didn't get to make snowballs or angels like in the story!

I also hid winter vocabulary cards in the snow for my younger students and had them dig through the snow to find them.  As long as the cards are laminated, they should not be ruined, but objects probably would work better.  Some of the vocabulary we targeted included: frost, snow, snowman, snowflake, storm, ice, freezing, snow angel, snow clothing (hats, mittens, snowpants, etc).  

The kids are so motivated to play in the "snow" so I would be curious if others have found other ways to incorporate this into speech!

Happy Speeching!

-Courtney

What's in My Speech BIn: January 2014

With the new year, I wanted to create a new series called What's in my Speech Bin.  I did a post awhile ago describing how I organize my seasonal/monthly materials here.  Each month I will post a little sneak peek of some of the materials I keep in my monthly bins.  I just put these bins together last spring, so I am anxious to add more materials as the time goes on!  So, let's start out with January!

I won't go into too much detail on how I use these in therapy, but here is a brief overview:

1.  Snowman Stacker:  I have used this to teach size concepts, as well as following directions.  It is also a great reinforcer for articulation (say ten words, stack one part of the snowman).

2.  The Snowy Day:  I cannot give enough praises to this book.  It is great and simple and classic.  It's great for introducing some winter vocabulary, cause and effect, and for beginning narratives.

3.  Penguin Popper:  This is such a motivating tool for articulation kids.  In the past, I have made a target on my whiteboard (each part of the target is assigned points) and the children try to aim for the center.  If the hit the center, they earn 10 points and have to say their target word ten times, if they hit the first ring they earn eight points and say the word eight times, etc.

4.  Snowmen at Night: Following reading this story, I have had kids work on describing by drawing their own snowman and coming up with adjectives to describe.  We have also worked on story telling and narratives by telling a story about what their snowman does at night when no one is watching!

5.  The Mitten:  Anyone who reads this book knows it is great for sequencing!

6.  Fake Snow:  The kind I bought was actually sold out, so I put a link to some more on amazon (or learn to make your own here).  I have made fake snow in a bucket and have hidden objects in there for describing or articulation.  I have also used fake snow while reading The Snowy Day and have the kids make different kinds of tracks in the snow to keep them engaged in the story, as well as learn winter vocabulary (make snowman out of the snow, snow angels, tracks, hills, etc).

What are some of  your favorite seasonal activities and materials for January?

Happy Speeching!

-Courtney

Melissa and Doug Reuseable Sticker Pad

I am a huge fan of Melissa and Doug toys for both speech therapy and my own son.  Some of their items can be a bit pricey, but their Reusable Sticker Pads are very fairly priced at about five dollars and GREAT for speech therapy!

I got the habitat sticker pad as a gift from a fellow SLP last year and use it all the time.  I just ordered the vehicles pad.  Now I have my eye on the play house pad!  Oh the possibilities!

Here is how I've used this in therapy:

Categorizing:  Have the kids sort and group the animals into their correct habitats.

Vocabulary: Work on naming and labeling the animals to introduce new vocabulary.

Following Directions/Prepositions: Give one to two step directions, while also addressing prepositions by telling the child which animal the place on the pad, as well as where (place the whale above the lobster, etc).

Describing/Comprehension:  Have the child describe the animals using adjectives/descriptors.  You could also have them listen to your descriptions to work on comprehension/listening skills (point to the long, red animal with pinchers)

If you are looking for some cheap and versatile speech materials, check them out here!

Happy Speeching!

-Courtney

Bear Snores On

Before winter break, my preschool kiddos and I read Bear Snores On.  I love the "Bear" series and they are great for targeting language goals!

I made a little cave out of a tissue box by painting it bronze (I would have used brown, but bronze is what I had laying around!).  I had a bear beanie baby and found a printable for the characters in the story here.

While I read, I had the kids place the characters in the cave as they were introduced to keep them engaged and to also work on naming/vocabulary for the animals.  We also worked on following directions following the book by having them listen to which animal I wanted them to put in the cave (put the bear in first, then put the rabbit in).  Prepositions were also targeted using the beanie bear and the cave (put the bear in back of the cave, in the cave, on top of the cave, beside the cave, in front, etc).

We also talked about hibernation since it is winter, but that seemed to be a little above their heads!

Happy Speeching!

-Courtney

A SLP's 2014 Resolutions

Well, friends, it's almost 2014, which means it's time to make some resolutions!  I wanted to limit my resolutions to just a handful and I wanted to make sure they were easy to follow through with.  It's small changes that can make a big difference!  So, looking into the new year, here are my professional resolutions:

 

1.  Acknowledge my kiddos' accomplishments in a BIG way.  Who doesn't like to be recognized for their achievements? Of course, I'll continue with the verbal praise, but I want to take extra steps in letting my students know how proud I am of their hard work.  Time to start using my Awards and Certificates for SLPs more (which is on sale for extremely cheap at SuperDuperInc by the way) and start incorporating some of the cute ideas I've seen on Pinterest, such as the Spotted Using Good Speech behavior management system.  It's always good to send a note of praise home as well!

2.  Set aside time for some serious collaborating and consulting.  Although I do collaborate and consult with teachers, I want to step up that part of my services by making that time more consistent and efficient.  This means doing some education workshops and being better about scheduling specific times to consult, rather than talking for five minutes while I'm on my way to pick up a student.

3.  Learn more about language therapy.  So far, in my 2.5 years of my career, I have done a lot of professional development on articulation, autism, apraxia, executive functioning, and English language learners.  Time to get back to some basics and refresh on some language therapy techniques!

4.  Be more consistent in incorporating core curriculum and classroom units into therapy.  This goes back to number 2, doing more collaboration with teachers and really working together to incorporate their goals into the curriculum and vise versa.  

5.  Less pinning and more creating.  I have a good number of awesome therapy ideas pinned to my account that I have never implemented.  Time to get the creative juices flowing and start implementing some of those fun ideas!

What are your resolutions or what are some resolutions you have accomplished this past year?

Happy Speeching!

-Courtney

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