Category: Uncategorized

May is Better Speech and Hearing Month!

I’m excited to announce that I’ve teamed up with a great group of speech language pathologists (SLP) and other educators to participate in a blog hop this May hosted by Speech Language Literacy Lab titled:

School Based Innovation & RTI

For those of you that don’t know, RTI stands for Response to Intervention and is a 3 tiered way to help students, before they start failing. It consists of:

• Tier 1: high-quality classroom instruction and screening for all students
• Tier 2: targeted interventions for students who are not making adequate progress
• Tier 3: intensive interventions and evaluations to see if an IEP is needed

I’ll be posting next week on How to Write a Social Story explaining the benefits for teachers and parents on teaching social skills, communication skills and positive behavior through personalized “books.”

I’ll explain what social stories are, what types of kids benefit most from them (it’s not just your special education students as I’m writing one for my toddler!) and how to quickly and easily write one to help your student or child.

Below are the following topics that these amazing specialists will be talking about throughout the month – most include a free downloadable resource.

Note that the links will take you to the website’s homepage and you may need to click on the blog to find the article.

After the blog hop I look forward to highlighting the articles and free resources that will be most beneficial to Blue Mango reader!

Blog Hop Schedule:

5/1/2015 Kick Off to Better Hearing and Speech Month!

5/2/2015 RTI for the R sound! Badger State Speechy

5/3/2015 Response to Intervention in High School– A Journey from Abject Frustration to Collaboration and Student Success Stephen Charlton Guest blogs on Speech Language Literacy Lab

5/4/2015 Technology and RTI  Building Successful Lives Speech & Language

5/5/2015 Motor Groups and RTI Starfish Therapies

5/6/2015 Orton Gillingham Approach & RTI  Orton Gillingham Online Academy

5/7/2015 Evidenced-based writing that works for RTI & SPED SQWrite

5/8/2015 RTI/MTSS/SBLT…OMG!  Let’s Talk! with Whitneyslp

5/9/2015 RtI, but why?  Attitudes are everything!  Crazy Speech World

5/10/2015      Consonantly Speaking

5/11/2015 Universal benchmarking for language to guide the RTI process in Pre-K and Kindergarten     Speech Language Literacy Lab

5/12/2015 Movement Breaks in the Classroom (Brain Breaks)   Your Therapy Source

5/13/2015 How to Write a Social Story   Blue Mango LLC

5/14/2015 Some Ideas on Objective Language Therapy    Language Fix

5/15/2015 Assistive Technology in the Classroom  OTMommy Needs Her Coffee

5/16/2015 Effective Tiered Early Literacy Instruction for Spanish-Speakers Bilingual Solutions Guest blog on Speech Language Literacy Lab

5/17/2015 Helping with Attention and Focus in the Classroom   The Pocket OT

5/18/2015 Vocabulary Instruction  Smart Speech Therapy, LLC

5/19/2015 An SLP’s Role in RtI: My Story Communication Station: Speech Therapy, PLLC

5/20/2015 Incorporating Motor Skills into Literacy Centers   MissJaimeOT

5/21/2015 The QUAD Profile: A Language Checklist  The Speech Dudes

5/22/2015 Resources on Culturally Relevant Interventions  Tier 1 Educational Coaching and Consulting

5/23/2015 Language Goals Galore: Converting Real Pictures to Coloring Pages  Really Color guest blog on Speech Language Literacy Lab

5/24/2015 Lesson Pix: The Newest Must-Have Resource in your Tx Toolbox Speech Language Literacy Lab

5/25/2015 AAC & core vocabulary instruction Kidz Learn Language

5/26/2015 An RtI Alternative Old School Speech

5/27/2015 Intensive Service Delivery Model for Pre-Schoolers   Speech Sprouts

5/28/2015 RTI Success with Spanish-speakers     Speech is Beautiful

5/30/2015 The Importance of Social Language (pragmatic) Skills guest post on Speech Sprouts

5/31/2015 Sarah Warchol guest posts on Speech Language Literacy Lab

I wouldn’t be here today without the work and support of so many teachers.

I am so thankful for my childhood teachers and college professors but also the teachers that I’ve met in my adult life:

• the director of my teacher training program at Lesley University & BB&N who challenged and supported me as I began my career
• the principal at my first ever teaching job who visited my classroom late one evening to tell me how much she appreciated my hard work
• the parent, special education professor and founder at my first school who gave me the self-confidence to be an amazing teacher – not to mention countless invaluable advice
• the 1st grade teachers who hugged and welcomed me as the newcomer into their school
• my colleagues who have inspired me, supported me and been a shoulder to cry on when you just can’t get through to that one child

How to appreciate your child’s teacher

What can you do this week to appreciate your child’s teacher? Buying a gift is easy for time-pressed parents and I have put many to good use – gift cards to Starbucks, Amazon, Target or the local deli.

But if you really want to know the truth…

I’m not a fan of teacher knick-knacks as they are mostly corny and cluttering, any money given to me is usually spent on classroom books or materials and I’ve been feeding my husband all your delicious homemade cookies each week because gluten makes me violently ill.

However, the best gifts you can give are often simple gestures that show how much you and your child care about your teacher:

Spend 5 min talking to your child’s teacher

•  Ask your child’s teacher about his or her life or kids
• Tell an anecdote about your child that shows that your child is thinking about the teacher outside of school or applying things learned in class

Help the teacher out

• Bring your teacher a coffee to show that you know how tiring it is to be with children all day
• During field trips politely step in when you see the teacher is overwhelmed with a particular student and having trouble keeping an eye on the others

Send photos and handmade cards

We do love your kids and want meaningful momentos to remember them by.

I framed a piece of artwork from one of my students because it reminds me of his creativity and artistic skill even though he struggled with language goals the whole year.

What teachers have made a big impact in your life?

Make sure you a thank a teacher this week who made an impact in your life or your child’s life. It doesn’t matter whether it was 5, 10 or 30 years ago – that teacher will remember and smile.