End of the Semester Catch-Up

I'm back. It's been awhile. While I haven't failed at much in life (other than trying things from pinterest), I think we can all agree that keeping this blog updated has been a failure. Life got crazy: my TA hours went up, time spent studying went up, and therapy got easier. So guess what got put on the wayside? Yep, creative planning. I can tell you that we did a ton of amazing things that never got posted (too many science experiments, plural -s races, and long vowel hopscotches to count) so don't think I got completely lazy. Just lazy in the fact that I went straight to bed at night.

But now the semester is over and I'm back. Everything turned out great-- remember the grad school blues post? Yeah, that was not pretty. Thankfully, juggling my life got easier and now it's wonderful, beautiful Christmas break (after I correct 50 more language samples).

My client reached 4/6 of his objectives (yay). During assessment in September, I asked him to write a story. He wrote one sentence with no punctuation, capitalization, beginning, or end. Two weeks ago, I asked him to write me a story and, without any help, he wrote a setting, problem, action to solve problem, and results. Then, he went back and edited for punctuation/capitalization all by himself. I WAS AMAZED. Like so amazed that I wanted to simultaneously cry hysterically and make this face:

I also finished up with my dementia group at a SNF. The ladies were so wonderful and I'm going to miss them so much. This experience really opened my eyes to working with the elderly. I love it! I can't wait until I get another placement with adults. 

I've been on break for about a day (if you can consider it break if I spent 3 hours at school today) and am already excited to crack open the books for next semester. While the classes are not as interesting to me as this semesters', I'm looking forward to adding more knowledge into my brain. I found out that I get to do a practicum at Head Start next semester so I am over-the-moon excited! I'm not sure where else I will be or what other client I have so I'll keep you posted. 

To end this last blog post of the semester, I want to give hope to all the undergrads that I may have scared away with previous grad school horror stories. Looking back, it is not as bad as it may have seemed. While being a TA definitely added unnecessary stress to my chaotic life, I kept my grades up to my usual standards, still had a semi-social life, and learned a lot. I'm sitting here grading language development papers and realizing how much I now know. It is unbelievable. And the best part is that there is so much left to learn. We are so blessed to be in this profession. I'm so happy that someday I will get to call myself a speech-language pathologist. I truly think it is the best job in the world. 

Story Structure Hop

This is an activity that I have been using for the last month but was too lazy to take a picture/write about it. My client has problems writing and retelling a complete story. During assessment he would either say a few words about a story or else write down a sentence to tell a story. I have been explicitly teaching him 4 main parts of a story: setting (including character, place, and time), problem, action to solve problem, and result. We started by just listening to basic oral stories and then matched direct sentences from the story to the different parts. Once he recognized the 4 parts, I wanted to do something a little more active.

I bought cheap foam rectangles from Joann's and printed off category cards for each story structure component. I let him choose which color he wanted for each element (e.g. red for problem). After direct teaching and modeling the use of the story squares, we now use them for brainstorming and retelling. For example, as I read a familiar or unfamiliar story, he will hop to the part of the story as I read. He also creatively plans a written story by hopping to each square and brainstorming that part.

Yesterday proved that the squares work because as I read him a spooky Halloween story, he asked if he could use the squares to remember all of the parts. He also used his finger on the desk to point to invisible space as he was visualizing the squares in his head. It was pretty cool. His storytelling has improved drastically since the first day of therapy.

Sorry for the horrible picture; I was lazy and forgot the category cards and blurriness :)

Superhero Pow

Right now in therapy we are working on editing sentences. My kid tends to leave out punctuation and capitalization. He also doesn't differentiate between a sentence and a full story. In order to make him aware of his capital and punctuation errors, I have him do checklists after he writes stories.

Yesterday I copied his writing sample and cut it into sentence strips. This way he is able to edit his own story in his own handwriting. First, I had him read his story out loud. Then, he had to guess which sentences were actually sentences and not just run-ons or just phrases. Finally, I gave him the checklist and he had to be the capitalization & punctuation detective.

Here is the checklist I made:

I originally got this idea from pinterest, specifically from an anchor chart for "superhero swag" but I didn't really like the swag part of it. He was really cute when I explained the checklist to him. We both did the pow gesture and then, at the end, I asked him if his story had pow and he said, "Double pow! Pow pow!"

Oh Hey Mediocre Life

So here is the thing: just like everything else, this blog has fallen to the wayside. Not only am I super busy, but my therapy session today was cancelled so I haven't made up any new activities for a week. Let me tell you though, having a cancelled session hasn't decreased the chaos of my life.

For the first month or so of school I didn't allow myself to watch TV or really do anything fun. This was great, I focused solely on school and did not let myself have any fun. Unfortunately, this weekend I made the mistake of watching TV, and then, the dam broke. I can't stop. Not only did I watch all the reruns of The Voice, Teen Mom, and Glee, I also went to the pumpkin patch and a wedding with my boyfriend. This weekend=school fail.

The point of this story is this... I got a B+ on my research methods midterm yesterday. That B+ has been haunting me for the past 24 hours. Every time I close my eyes it flashes before me. I asked one of my friends yesterday, "When did I turn into a mediocre student?" Last year an A- felt like failing and now I'm consistently doing an underwhelming job in school.

This isn't an "oh I'm so sad about my life" blog post. It's just a reality check. Life will never go back to how it was. I don't think I'll ever be a consistently A+ person again and that's a hard thing to accept. But I'm learning to deal with it. Case in point: I'm sitting here watching The Voice and eating ice cream. And I have a quiz tomorrow. Oh well, bring it on quiz, bring it on.

One last thing, grad school has turned me into a much crankier person. I find myself glaring at people and thinking about the many idiots in the world. I used to be so sweet and forgiving but not anymore. Here is a video that reminds me of myself:

Plural -s Race

We are working on adding plurals onto base words. He is great at adding -s but struggles when the base words require -es (words that end in s, ch, sh, etc). Since he loves competition, we are going to do a word find race.

Before we begin,  I'll ask him what to add at the end of a word to make it plural. If he just says –s then I will write dress on the board and ask, “what if the word is dress, would you add a third –s onto the word?”  I will explain the rule that when a word ends in –s, you need to add an –es to the end to make it plural.

My absolutely horrible plural -s/-es story

Then, we will each get a reading passage. I'll set the timer for 1 minute and tell him to find as many -s and -es words as he can before the time runs out. I'll remind him that it is a race so try to find as many as possible. We will each race to find and highlight the words. When the time runs out, we will count our words and compare. Then, he will use write his words on Post-It notes. Using a sorting chart written on the white board, he will place each word in the correct category (-s or -es). 

After sorting the words, he will pick 5 -es words that he likes. He will then use the sentence worksheet to write a sentence about each one. Using a writing modality helps the meaning/spelling stick in his head. Here is the sentence worksheet:

Long Vowel Word Wall

One of my goals for this semester (not an official goal, just my own personal goal) is for my kid and I to create a word wall every month. He can keep track of words we are working on plus it is a good transition task from academic to fun. However, when I started thinking about a word wall, I got so bored. Usual word walls are just a poster board with the word written across it. I decided that I'll do themes for each month: October Halloween, November Thanksgiving, and December Christmas. (I'm lucky because my kiddo's family is a-okay with celebrating the holidays in therapy.)

Since I'm focusing on the long vowel a spelling pattern, I'll have a ghost "head" for each pattern. This week at least we are focusing on -ay, -ea-, and -ai-. My kid will write the words onto white slips of paper, sort them by pattern, and attach them to the ghost heads using glue:

Here is an easy ghost head that I found on google images

Our goal is to make each ghost a body. With each white piece of paper, the ghosts will get longer and longer. He can cut each slip so that the ghosts take shape. This also means he'll have to manipulate the words smaller and smaller so that they will fit onto the ghost.

I'll connect all the ghosts together using coat hangers so that we can hang them around the therapy room as visual cues. This will also make comparing them easier.

At the end of the month we can do some comparisons:

• Which spelling pattern ghost is the longest?
• Which ghost is the shortest?
• Predict which long a spelling pattern has the most words (probably the longest ghost)
• Count the # of words that we have found that fit into the spelling pattern

The word wall after the first day, these ghosts are going to be huge!

Hit the Pattern

Pick three different spelling patterns within a broad category (long vowels). For example, choose 5 spelling words for long a silent -e (crate, rate, lane, frame, ate), 5 spelling words for long ai (paint, faint, rain, main, train), and 5 spelling words for ay (day, Monday, pay, fray, clay).

Work on these patterns earlier in the week so that the kid is familiar with them. For the game, print off the three patterns (-aCe, -ai-, and -ay) on large paper and make them big & bold. Lay next to each other on the floor. Give the child time to look over the patterns and think about words that fit. Explain that you will tell him a word and he needs to toss the spike ball onto the right pattern.

Imagine these cut out and even bigger

Call out spelling words one by one. "Crate" and the child should throw the ball onto the correct pattern -aCe-. If he lands on the wrong one (intentionally), ask him to write the word on the whiteboard. If he spells it wrong, tell him to correct it by using a different pattern. If he gets it right, he gets a point. If not, correct the spelling on the board. Repeat activity.

Extra activities:

• add the words onto his long vowel a word wall poster
• write a sentence using each of the words
• draw a picture of the word (if possible) and make up a story about it 
• "The bunny crawled into the crate for a rest but then he got carted across the ocean..."
• have him find the words within curriculum text 

This is an easy activity to use to see if teaching is being generalized to other words. It is also easy to take data on: if he spells it right, you know the pattern is known. If he gets it wrong but then can apply the right pattern when he spells it out, then he needs more scaffolding. If he gets it wrong each time, he needs to be re-taught the pattern.

My spike "ball"

Roll, Write, Rewrite

I got this idea on pinterest. I saw that someone had made a roll and revise sentence dice game here: thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com. But, since it is not age-appropriate for my kiddo, I decided to tweak it a bit for my lesson this week.

One of my goals for this semester is to have my client write accurate and complete sentences within a narrative. After evaluating the three writing samples that I collected the past two weeks, I realized that he typically leaves out punctuation, capitalization, and cohesive devices. For this lesson, I really want to focus on the punctuation and capitalization. I also added in some long vowel pattern and past tense -ed spelling errors to see if he could catch them. 

First, I made sentence squares. Each square has three sentences that are incorrect. I'll cut the sentence squares out after I print them and glue them onto an empty Kleenex box. 

Examples of inaccurate sentences

After the kid rolls, he will correct the sentence that he lands on. First, he will go through and mark everything that is wrong. Then, we will check to make sure he has all the errors marked. After that, I'll give him a fill in the blank worksheet so that he can fix the errors without having to write all the sentences out again. He hates writing so I figured that I would limit the amount he has to do with this activity. We might not get through all the sentences in one day so it would be a nice carry-over activity.

Fill-in-the-blank editing worksheet

Homemade Plastic

Since I'm being lazy this weekend I decided to just do an experiment using ingredients that I already have. I typed Borax into google and found an experiment called homemade plastic here: http://listverse.com. It is pretty easy. Just combine water, Borax, food coloring, and Elmer's glue. The child can experiment adding more liquid or more Borax and see what type of plastic is made (softer or firmer).

Hopefully mine turns out like this

Here's the science worksheet. It'll be easy to compare and contrast because he just did an experiment using Borax and glue but they are different experiments.

After the experiment, I'll have him brainstorm at least 5 adjectives that describe his experiment. On Thursday, we will use those words to write a story about the substance. 

TA Thoughts

Last night I corrected 95 tests. Each test had 6 pages and 44 questions. That's 570 pages and 4180 questions. Let me tell you, not the easiest thing I've ever done. If I ever hear about semanticity, productivity, and displacement again I might scream. When I first got the tests I was excited to grade them; I wanted to feel like a real TA. For most of the semester I have just been organizing a literacy lab, correcting homework, and holding office hours so this was a big moment. After the first 20 tests the enthusiasm waned. Spelling errors started haunting me and my hand cramped up from holding my red pen so tightly. Why do educated people (I mean, these are juniors in college) think it is okay to not differentiate between here/hear and when has semantics ever been spelled symenticks?

I've learned quite a bit from grading these tests. First of all, I really wish that I would've graded them before taking my language test last week. Now I feel like an expert on the foundational theories, definitions, and logic behind development.

Secondly, I learned that professors could absolutely, positively care less if you write a novel for each question. I had so many tests where the test-taker obviously wanted to impress someone with their knowledge. They would write on the front, back, and into the next question. My eyes would start to hurt and I just skimmed to look for the right answers hidden in all that writing. My advice to all you "I'm going to write as much as possible people"... stop! Be concise and right. Your professor/TA will like you better for it. Not only that, you look a little silly spending all that time writing 4 paragraphs for a 1 point question. Just stop it.

Third, the people who fail and the ones that get 100% are the only people I remember. If you are in that slim majority, I'll remember your name and have either low/high expectations for the next quiz. The other people are just part of a very large herd of people that kind of slip off the radar. As I was grading I was thinking about how my professors have viewed me and got really self-conscious. When a professor dedicates 3-5 minutes solely on grading your knowledge, they are going to make pretty solid judgments about you. Think about that the next time you take a test and don't study. Your professor is judging, judging I say!

Finally, I realized how hard it is to grade. I really wanted everyone to do well. And when people did not do well I tried to understand their answers the best I could. However, some answers just are not right no matter what (if you answer that theory of mind is being able to theorize about theories of the mind and theories, you have most definitely chosen the wrong answer). The thought of an angry mob of students breaking into my TA office is a scary thought. I'll let you know if it happens.

Story Structure Match-Up

I need to keep assessing his story structure knowledge and since he consistently forget the problem and result of a story, I figured I would give him some scaffolding as I assessed. We're going to read "Just A Mess" by Mercer Meyer.

He will make predictions about the book and then read it out loud. Instead of doing follow-up comprehension questions, I'll have him match up pieces of the story with the different story structure parts.

Don't mind the fact that the problem is in different font, technical error 

For the specific story cards, I used one real name and a few fake, along with one real setting and a few fake. I also pulled sentences through the story for him to identify as the problem and result.

Just an example of the character cards

I'll cut the cards out so that he can lay them across the table and work on solving which card goes under each story part. He is really good at identifying character and setting so those should be an easy way to start this activity.

Things I'll Assess:

• Making predictions about a book
• Reading fluency
• Story structure knowledge when presented with examples 

Spinning Top

While I was hurriedly trying to put together a lesson plan yesterday, I was trying to think of other ways to probe past tense -ed. Are you sick of past tense -ed activities yet? Because I sure am. And I'm really sick of probing. It has gotten to the point that I know exactly what I want to work on this semester but I'm required to finish out this week of evaluating/assessing.

Anyway, I decided to use a spinning top game that I saw on pinterest. After class I raced to the White Elephant since they have the best toy selection in town. Of course they had cute old-fashioned spinners. For some reason, I got home and promptly forgot that I was going to do this activity. I think I just got too caught up in failed bouncy balls. Fortunately, I was compiling all my stuff this morning and realized I never planned this activity out.

I just threw together a really quick container for the top to spin in. I found a shoebox lid and taped construction paper to the bottom. Then, using various straight-edged materials, I tried to draw straight lines. Of course I'm impatient and messy so my lines weren't straight and my words turned out crooked. Oh well.

Don't mind the ink smear :)

Here is the plan:

• Child will spin the top
• He has to add past tense -ed onto the word the spinner lands on
• He has to write the new form of the word onto his worksheet
• Spin again

The lazy worksheet: I'm just so tired, I don't want to design a worksheet!

Homemade Bouncy Balls

My science experiment for tomorrow comes from www.sciencebob.com again. I'm moving away from the vegetable oil/vinegar/baking soda concoctions and into more direction involved experiments. It might be a little difficult but tomorrow we are making:

Bouncy Balls!

I went on a mad goose chase this afternoon looking for Borax and finally found it at Safeway. Kinda expensive but hopefully I'll get some more use out of it than just tomorrow. The ingredients for this project are:

• Warm water
• Cornstarch
• Borax
• White glue
• Food coloring

The directions are on the link that I listed above so I won't waste your time going over the whole experiment. Here is the typical science worksheet:

Rationale behind this activity:

• Reading instructions
• Making predictions
• Motivation (for each activity that he finishes during therapy he earns an ingredient)
• Following directions
• Thinking about first, then, finally
• Using compare and contrast thinking 

WHOOPS:

So I just tried this. 5 TIMES. From 5 different recipes. And it didn't work. My hands are now covered in glue, stained blue from food coloring, and have a weird smell. So I wouldn't recommend doing this. However, since it is the night before my lesson and I have a full day tomorrow, it is either do this experiment or nothing. And I think my kid would riot if I didn't have science. So... I think we'll probably do it. Then, I might tell a white lie and say that the ball needs to dry over the weekend. Since I know it won't work, I'll just go buy a bouncy ball and give it to him on Tuesday and explain that the experiment didn't work. I'm not a horrible person, right? Yay, failed science for everyone! 

The mess I got left with...

Bouncy ball fail

Quick Update: Volcano = Success

I have a test and a quiz tomorrow and a lesson plan to write so I don't have time for more than just a quick update. The session today went great. The "Johnny Appleseed" book was so cute and he loved tossing the bean bags into my homemade toss game. But, he loved the volcano explosion activity best of all. My wonderful boyfriend volunteered to make a volcano for me and it turned out great. The kid's eyes got as big as saucers when he saw it. It was the usual experiment with baking soda and vinegar. Here are pictures of the volcano:

Here is the science worksheet I created

Beanbag Toss: "Planting Apples"

So just like Johnny Appleseed tossed seeds to grow apples, I thought that I could have my child toss beanbags to grow words... aka, add the past tense -ed onto words. The idea is simple: just like the bowling game, there will be base words and the child will have to write the past tense form of the word on a worksheet. 

I thought of a beanbag toss earlier today but gave up on the idea because 1. I don't have a bean bag toss game and 2. I was feeling too lazy to even think about it. Then my guilty conscience came into play: "Jill, if you don't include fun games he isn't going to listen. And if he doesn't listen then you'll fail." So I decided to make my own bean bag toss game.

Not as easy as one might think. Especially for me. I tend to get impatient and sloppy when making crafts. Funny how I forgot that about myself until I had already started the project. This is what I started with:

3 boxes and some construction paper

I ran to the Dollar Tree to grab some construction basics: duct tape, more construction paper, and a utility knife. Without having a plan, I grabbed the knife and just started cutting holes. Like I said, I'm impatient. And the result was-- uneven circles. "Oh well," I said to myself, "It gives it character."

Next, I used double-sided tape to attach the construction paper to the boxes. After I started, I realized that maybe I should have applied the construction paper before cutting the holes. It was very difficult to try to get the construction paper completely lined up with the edges and I finally gave up and just taped on bits and pieces. After looking at it, I said to myself, "Oh well, maybe no one will notice."

Then, I had to find some way to tilt the boxes up so that bean bags could be tossed through the circles. I decided to use another box. Big mistake. Since the Dollar Tree only had cheapo duct tape (in leopard print, I might add) it did not hold up. I went on a treasure hunt around my house: eating utensils, nope. Bunny stick treats, nope. Paper towel rolls, nope. Long skewers... yes! I taped 5 skewers together on each side of the box and, voila, it worked perfectly. 

Let me explain the concept behind the game:

• Each hole has a base word attached to it
• When the child tosses the bag into the hole, he has to add past tense -ed onto the word and then write it on his apple worksheet
• Retoss

My next problem was: how will I attach a base word beneath each hole? After looking around my craft box I found these:

Dry erase message boards

I cut the message boards in half and then into thirds. After attaching them with double-sided tape, I wrote a base word onto each. This way, I can reuse this bag toss for many other themes/ideas.

Here is the finished result (it's bigger than it looks)

Close-up of the dry erase board on the box

I also created this worksheet for him to write the full past tense word on:

Just like the bowling pins, I need to write the line in once I print it

Johnny Appleseed Writing Sample

Writing Sample
My plan for writing assessment is to collect two writing samples: one on a familiar topic (going to Grandma's house, going to a birthday party, playing a sport, etc) and one on an unfamiliar topic (going to outer space, treasure hunting, etc). Last week I had him write on a familiar topic so this week I'm using an unfamiliar writing prompt. Which is PERFECT because I found this free print-off on teacherspayteachers.com:

Things I'll Assess:

1. Use of the four story structure parts (character, setting, problem, result)

2. Use of capitalization and punctuation

3. Cohesive ties

4. Spelling and morpheme use

"Johnny Appleseed" Reading Fluency Assessment

Reading Fluency/Speed Assessment
I think that my education friends from Whitworth (and my mom) would agree that I have a lot of children's books. I can't help it. I go to a bookstore and just want to get every single one. Plus, my mom saved all my childhood books so that I could use them in my future classroom (too bad the teaching thing didn't pan out Mom). But, I tell you all this because when the idea of Johnny Appleseed popped into my head I clapped my hands and made seal noises. I have the perfect book!

By Jodie Shepherd

I bought "Johnny Appleseed" the semester that I student taught at the school's book fair.

Tangential topic: when I was little the school book fair was the HIGHLIGHT of my life. My mom would take my sister and I and we were allowed to choose a book or two. Seriously, could I have been a nerdier child? Further examples, I also was a diligent follower of a hamster forum and raced imaginary horses online. 

ANYWAY, this book is perfect for my kiddo. Right reading level and a quick & easy overview of Mr. Appleseed. Plus, it works out perfectly because since our session is the night before Johnny Appleseed Day, he can form a schema so that he will be ahead for Wednesday. 

Here is how I am using it: I need to get a timed reading from him. He is pretty alert so I think he would know if I was timing him (which I do not want him to know). Therefore, I will just audio record it and be able to see how long it took him by listening to it after the session.

Things I'll Assess:
1. Speed
2. Continuous voicing
3. Accuracy of using a guess & go strategy
4. Ability to focus for a whole book
5. Comprehension at the end

Johnny Appleseed Day 2012!

Wednesday is Johnny Appleseed Day. I LOVE any kind of "holiday" that can incorporate history and fun into learning. When I student taught in kindergarten we had a whole Johnny Appleseed day: the kids walked around barefoot, made applesause in a crockpot, and made tin pot hats. There are so many ideas for celebrating the day in the general education classroom: apples into fractions, geography with where Johnny went, or learn about an apple structure for science.

The man of the hour

Alas, I am not in the general education classroom anymore. Sometimes I miss planning for every subject, there are so many possibilities. Now I just need to focus on reading, writing, and language skills. Since I love Johnny Appleseed oh so much, I decided to dedicate my Tuesday therapy session to the guy. I'm very excited in case you can't tell.

Since I only have a 50 minutes session, my activities are going to have to be pretty quick (no crockpot applesauce making for me). Instead, since I am still evaluating and assessing, I'm going to focus my assessments around Mr. Appleseed. Read my next few blog posts to see what I am doing and feel free to get ideas for your own Johnny therapy session. I hope you enjoy Sept. 26 as much as I plan to :).

First day at a SNF

Today I went with three other SLP students to a skilled nursing facility (SNF pronounced sniff). I was completely out of my element. With kids I am completely comfortable, I know how to get them engaged, and am able to refocus their behavior. Elderly adults are another story.

The three students and I will lead a combined aphasia/dementia group this semester. Many of these patients have run out of insurance for speech therapy services so they come to a weekly group to help them engage in communication. Each week we plan a thematic lesson to help them remember and try to get them talking to each other.

This week we decided to have a Classic Film theme. Since my one true love movie-wise is Gone with the Wind, I had to bring in my stuff to share. I printed off pictures, shared a framed photo that my sister got me for Christmas, and played a few important quotes on my audio recorder. It got me really excited about lesson planning and I'm lucky that I get to do this as a job :).

However, like I said, I am completely out of my comfort zone here. I'm still learning the fine line between chatting with them and having them take me seriously. I was telling my friend Shannon that I now know what it feels like to just be pushed into therapy without any guidance. When I stood up to lead the group I was at a loss for words. I'm much better at the one-on-one interaction. Today I sat next to the loveliest woman with Alzheimer's. She got such a kick out of "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn" that she had me laughing the whole time.

I'm really grateful I have this opportunity to work at a SNF because it is a good introduction on working with elderly patients without having to be doing individualized care. Since I am still learning, it is a lot easier having a group there with me for support. Also, since it is just once a week for 2 hours, I have a lot of time to plan and focus on my kiddo. (Speaking of, the lesson went GREAT last night, he loved, loved, loved bowling and the experiment "Fireworks in a Cup")

Sorry if this post was short and boring, I'm off to a concert but wanted to check in! I gotta get my creative juices rolling for next week so hopefully I'll post a few more activities this weekend. Have a great weekend everyone.

*Bragging section* So since I had a pretty crappy week I figured that I'm allowed one bragging moment... right? Especially since I started feeling like I was the worst SLP in the world until today. 1. Today my supervisor told me that I wrote the best SOAP notes (treatment notes) that she has ever seen from a first year clinician. 2. I got 100% on my neuro test. Maybe I will survive after all :)

Gorgeous Gone with the Wind-- loove it! 

Fireworks in a Bottle

Materials:

• Soda bottle
• Vegetable oil
• Water
• Alka-Seltzer tablets (thanks Bayley!)
• Food coloring

So in contrast to Tuesday's experiment "Lava in a Cup" we are going to do "Fireworks in a Bottle." I found this experiment on Mommy-labs.com. This how is it supposed to turn out:

We can only hope that I can actually get it to work today

First, I'll have the child read and follow the instructions. As we are watching the experiment, I'll tell him to remember the lava experiment and be thinking about how this is the same and different. Afterwards, he can fill out his science sheet:

Just like last time, the child can fill out the first, then, finally sections. Then, since we have done a similar experiment, he will compare and contrast at least one part of the experiment. After he is done, I will save the science sheet and add it into his science notebook.

Bowling for Words

Nothing makes me feel better than to check another thing off my to-do list, so instead of being a Negative Nancy all night (just for that lovely post) I decided to get some work done. 

I have a therapy session again tomorrow. Since I'm still trying to see what my child knows, I have to run some more assessments. However, probing spelling patterns & morphemes is so boring. And if it is boring to me, I can't imagine how the poor kid feels. 

So once again, I started my brainstorming ways. I knew after yesterday that I would need to figure out my client's knowledge in regards to past tense -ed. There were a few misspelled words on his science experiment worksheet. But, how do you probe past tense -ed without just asking a kid to spell words. Well...

I was sitting in class this morning and came up with idea of using my handy-dandy bowling pins. Then I realized that I would need velcro to glue base words onto the pins. So I called my poor boyfriend and, instead of even saying good morning, I hurriedly said, "Need velcro, don't have time, in class, gotta go." Poor Mark. 

Anyway, my plan is to have my client bowl and he has to change each word he knocks down into its past tense form. For example, he knocks down walk, so he has to write walked onto his bowling pin worksheet. 

Since I want to use these pins over and over again, I couldn't just velcro each card directly onto the pin. Instead, I cut up a page protector sheet and made little clear envelopes for each pin. I put the sticky velcro part on the pin and attached the fluffy velcro piece onto the clear envelope. Then I stuck the cards into each slot. To make the base word cards, I just cut index cards into thirds. 

Here's how the pins turned out

Here is the bowling worksheet I made. I had a bit of trouble putting a line in each pin for him to write the word so I plan to just draw it in when I print it out. 

Grad School Blues

*Whiner Alert: this post might not be cheery or full of sunshine*

I look back to little, sweet, innocent Jill-from-the-past and want to smack her. "Why did you apply to grad school?" "Where did you get this grand idea to fork over time, money, and energy on something that, so far, has not given anything back?" And the best question: "Why do people spend so much money and time applying to graduate school because, really, you are paying to go to hell."

These are my thoughts on and off every few days. When I applied I imagined that it might be like undergrad. Maybe a little harder and maybe not as sunny but still doable. And yet everyday I feel like I've lost control of something. This is a constant inner dialogue: "Yay, got my lesson plan done! Oh wait, I have a test to study for? Oh what, I have 15 more hours this week of TAing? My lesson plan isn't right? Oops, I forgot about that paper. Shoot, we need to have already started on our research project? Sure, no problem, I'll help with the aphasia study this week. I didn't know we needed to read that. No! I forgot to bill my client. Whoops, didn't realize I needed to be meeting objectives already. Geez, I did really bad on that test. Crap, I forgot to get dressed this morning!"

Well, maybe not the last one but, you get the idea. And here is the kicker-- I've only been in school for a month. Imagine crazy, neurotic me in a few months time. My poor bunny is even feeling the effects. I'm doing that whole "guilty mom" thing where I feed him every time I see him to make him happy.  Poor, fat, lonely bunny.

I can tell you, especially those undergrads that are hoping to apply this year, there are the rewards. Therapy sessions are great, the education is so interesting, and my fellow classmates are awesome. I think my biggest issue is myself. I'm used to being the best or, if not the best, at least on top of things. And the thing is: my life isn't even hard. I go to school with moms and people who work almost full-time jobs. But, here I am, with just school, TAing, research, and therapy to worry about and still can't get it under control. Let's be honest here, it isn't normal to cry (snotty nose and all) during class, right?  I swear I sometimes get the urge to get out all my tests from last year and run around campus yelling, "I used to be smart! I used to be smart!"

On second thought if I ever find little, sweet, innocent Jill-from-past again, I'll hug her and give her a to-do list. Obviously she had the faith and determination to get it done.

First Day!

I don't have much time to write a post because I have plenty of other things to do but I thought I'd do a quick update. The first day went well! I think that my client likes me and responded really well to everything. He especially loved the ball game and science experiment. Best moment: as we were leaving I asked him if he had fun and he said "Can we do it all again on Thursday?"

I left the session feeling a little down because I wanted to be perfect but, luckily, I recorded the whole hour and after relistening to it, I feel like I actually did pretty well. You know when you say things and in your head you get a "palm meet face" feeling? I definitely felt that a few times. One time in particular... we were playing the ball/categories game. We were on the being a kid category and my thumb landed on red (meaning I had to say something I disliked about it). Of course I said "The thing I disliked about being a kid was when grown-ups told me what to do!" I then realized that I, as an adult, expect him to do exactly what I want him to do.

Speaking of being a kid though. We were in the same being a kid category and I joked that I would have to really think back to what it was like being a kid. He looked at me confused and said, "Aren't you a kid?" I said, "No, I'm a little older than kids." And he said, "You don't look like an old lady."

Anyway, to wrap things up: I have a lot of learning to do especially with writing SOAP notes and figuring out my objectives. However, I feel like we really connected and it'll be a lot of fun working together this semester. I got a lot of good ideas about what he likes so I'll try to mold those things into every activity-- yay for "get to know you" games!

We all need a little something to laugh at after a long day of school/therapy

Catch and Tell Me...

So tomorrow is the day-- first day of clinic! I'm pretty nervous which is funny because all week I felt completely confident. I just want my client to like me and respond well to my activities. If he doesn't, I might hide under the table and cry. How's that for an effective practitioner? Tears streaming down my face, making "llama" noises, and snot dripping... it's quite the mental picture.

Anyway, I had two tests today so I haven't had time to post another activity that I worked on yesterday. It is still a little rough... it's one of the ones I'm most concerned about. But, hey, I'll try it and if it goes poorly I'll just move on to the next activity.

I can't think of a creative name for this one so I'll just call it "Catch and Tell Me." It's another get to know you activity. Just to preface: I have been looking for the perfect ball for this game. I wanted a miniature, all-white soccer ball so that I could color each surface. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the perfect ball (believe me, I tried). Mark & I went to the Dollar Tree to pick up (very) random fall/Halloween decorations and I found a semi-perfect ball. It is already colored in, the right size, and it was $1. Still not completely pleased though... ugh, there is that type 1 personality again.

The $1 ball... it looks a lot perkier in person, promise

So, back to the activity, this game involves tossing a ball. Whichever color your thumb lands on correlates with a comment you must make. E.g. if my thumb is on the green, I have to say something that I like about the category, if it lands on red: I say something I dislike, green is my favorite thing or memory about it, and yellow is something I want to do or accomplish in the future... confusing, right? Here is an instruction page:

I'm planning on using a magnet to hang on the whiteboard so that it is easily viewable while we throw the ball

I'm going to do an example so that the child can see how each color works with a category. I wanted to start with summer because it is something that he/she will have easily-accessed schema about (it just happened, summer is fun, and it is a broad theme). I also threw school & therapy in there because I want to find out the things that are motivating and things that are not. The fall/autumn category will help me see what ideas I can use in the next month or so. And we'll finish with another easy one: being a kid.

So it is pretty easy:

• Toss the ball
• Thumb lands on blue: "I like _____ about summer"
• Continue throwing until you get a new color (for instance, if you get blue again, don't go onto school, instead just throw again and hope to get a different color-- this makes it easier for the child to access the schematic knowledge) 
• After hitting all of the colors for a category, move onto the next round and repeat
• I plan on doing two and judging the time & engagement level. If there is time and the child is loving it then I'll keep going. If not, we can always come back to it another time.

Other ways you can use a colored ball:

• Each color represents a different "shake it out" activity if the child needs a 1 minute break
• Blue: 5 jumping jacks, red: run in place, etc.
• Use for vocabulary words
• Blue: read definition, red: name a word with similar meaning, etc.
• There are a lot of options, just get creative! 

Spelling Slap Jack

Materials:

• Spelling word index cards 

Last night I was trying to figure out my materials and lesson plan instructions. I did the lava experiment to make sure it works, gathered up all the ingredients, and started making a rough "script" for the lesson. Then I started to get stressed out. Even though I have 6 main activities (with activities within activities) I realized that if one thing goes wrong, we would have plenty of extra time at the end of the session. Finally, I just gave up and went to bed. I thought that maybe I'd ask my supervisor for another idea on Monday.

Thankfully, plop, an idea came to me as I was waking up this morning--Slap Jack Spelling! Specifically, long vowel pattern (with silent -e) slap jack. I can't take full credit for it because I remember watching another clinician with a similar idea last year.

Okay so here is the idea of the game:

• I will make 10 index cards with random grade appropriate spelling words
• I'll also make 10 index cards with long vowel pattern spelling words
• Mix them together
• After shuffling the cards, the student gets ten and I get ten
• We will both lay down one card each 
• If someone lays down a long vowel pattern card, we race to slap it first
• The person who slaps it first gets the whole pile of cards (the person also needs to read the word out loud as they slap it) 
• Whoever has all the cards at the end wins

Since I will still be trying to probe for what the child already knows, I will use this game to assess the child's identification of a specific type of long vowel pattern. For instance, I can choose 10 words that have a long u and a silent -e (cute, use, huge, etc.). That way, if the child identifies 8/10 long u words, I know that he/she has a pretty good understanding of the spelling pattern and so I don't need to reteach the concept later. I'm just excited that I figured out a way to test spelling without having to give a written spelling test, so much more fun!

This game can also be used for:

• Recognizing sight words
• A quick way to assess understanding at the end of a brand new spelling instruction (did the lesson actually work?)
• It would also be easy to use this in a large classroom setting: children can pair up and play the game to practice specific word work 
• A way to go over reading comprehension after reading a book 
• If the book was about pirates, mix pirate-themed cards in throughout the deck
• The student needs to recognize the pirate card, slap it, then tell a detail he/she remembers from the book 

Story Structure Mad Lib

For the first session I need to see what my client is capable of and decide what goals we need to set. To do this, I need to probe (I hate that word) various skills. Probing can make for a very boring therapy session. It usually consists of giving informal tests on various things. Meaning that the child would need to be sitting and responding for 50 minutes. As soon as my supervisor told me that I need to probe my student's story structure knowledge I started to brainstorm ideas to make it a bit more fun.

I must admit, I really am not creative. I've never been a great artist, storyteller, or anything. However, I'm lucky because ideas tend to just fall from the sky and land in my head. That's what happened the other night, I was about to fall asleep and suddenly sat up and exclaimed "Mad Libs!"

In other words, a simple but fun story structure probe was born. You all know what Mad Libs are, right? It is a game where parts of a speech (nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.) are cut out of a story. One person has the story and asks for parts of speech and the other player comes up with random words (Player 1: "Give me a noun" Player 2: "Octopus"). I used to play them with my friends in elementary school and got such a kick out of them. Combining silliness and the parts of speech was alway a useful learning experience.

So anyway, I decided to use a homemade Mad Lib see if my kid could identify parts of the story structure. The parts of a story are: character, setting, problem, action to solve problem, and result.

Here is the Mad Lib that I created:

You can click on the image to make it bigger

It's not as exciting as I would like but it works. Since all of the story structures are left out, it might not be as funny as normal Mad Libs. With regular Mad Libs the story structure is there so when you add goofy nouns, adjectives, and verbs the story can become quite ridiculous. I just hope that this is more entertaining that just giving a test and saying "Write down what a character is..."

I'll let you know how it goes next week! 

Favorite Things/Dice Activity

Materials Needed:

• Dice (technically only one)
• Favorite activities worksheet

So since I have never met my client before, the first session is going to consist of a lot of getting to know you activities. Since I want to make therapy as fun as possible, I need to know my kid's favorite things. I decided it would be fun to "play" a game to find out.

For the past week I've been obsessing over using dice, but not just little dice, I want to use big, fluffy dice. I got all caught up in the idea that I forgot that, low and behold, I don't own any dice... at all. I hopped on Amazon.com and quickly ordered some fluffy car dice so that they can be delivered by Monday (thank you Amazon Prime).

My fluffy dice

Since I only really need one dice (am I the only one who hates using the word di for a singular dice?) I told Holly that she can have the other. Works out great!

Back to the activity: I just spent another night doing nothing... aka making a worksheet that probably should've taken 5 minutes. It took me an hour. I know, I'm helpless. Here is the worksheet:

Don't judge the 6: long story short, I had to draw the dots by hand and I'm an unfortunate artist and too lazy/poor to make another

So the rules of the activity are pretty simple:

• Child rolls di
• Child finds the category that aligns with his/her roll (e.g. a roll of a 1 means answer about favorite color)
• Child says "My favorite color is _____"
• Rolls again

I made up extra "rounds" in case the number is rolled more than once. Also, it is nice to have a variety of favorite things in case the child can't think of a favorite in a certain category. I'm thinking that we'll play this on the floor to have a nice change of scenery.