School is hopping for me!! Whooo else is HOPPING Back to School?

Welcome to another great BACK TO SCHOOL SLP Blog hop!!
Here’s your chance to get some back to school ideas and freebies from ME {and lots of other awesome SLPs!} as well as win some fantastic prizes!  

I hope you’ve been having fun hopping around all of the speechie blogs! 
In case you’re just joining us, let me bring you up to speed… 

Just hop through all of the Back to School blog posts and collect the letter clues along the way.  Unscramble them to reveal a phrase that will give you access to the raffle at your last stop!  
Look at the cool stuff you can win! …

More on how to enter later.  Let’s get on with my back to school tips and freebies!

I’ve been back in school for 3 solid weeks now.  

So far, I’ve made exactly 10 different schedules!! Can anyone relate? 

That’s GOT to be the worst part about back to school!! 

Our school is running different class and PE schedules on Monday/Wednesday, Tuesday/Thursday, and a whole different schedule on Friday!! 
I only THOUGHT scheduling was tough in the past! 

I”ve now survived a whole new level of scheduling nightmares!

ahhhhhh !!

Neither I nor the kids can remember when the heck I see them for speech so I did something I hadn’t done in years- I made notes for them to know when to come to speech. 

The best part about back to school?  The kiddos! 

This year I have lots of fun planned for their therapy sessions both IN and OUT of my room! 

If you’ve read my previous BACK TO SCHOOL post you’ll have already seen my new classroom and the activities that I used to start the school year with a bang.  You can read more about them HERE and HERE 

I’ll admit that the first 3 weeks of school have officially kicked my bootay…. and made me realize I needed to get better organized AND tweak a few things! 

Here’s what I’ve been tweakin….
not to be confused with twerking (ewwww)

I  tweaked my student behavior system

This year my students will be able to save up our school currency {colt cash!} to buy prizes in my room simply by following my 4 simple rules that I talked about in my previous back to school post. 

I found these cute paper pockets on Etsy and put magnets on the back.  I used to have an entire prize store.  This year I have narrowed it down to 2 choices- a little prize or a big prize.  

I found a cute owl treasure chest on Oriental Trading that went perfectly with my owl theme.  At the end of each session, if students followed my rules, they earn 1 colt cash.  They can stash the cash in their pocket (to save up for a prize) or spend spend spend (if they have enough cash).  Of course, extra sweetness gets ya more Colt Cash! 

While it’s back to school time, you can grab the Behavior to Hoot About sign HERE  

Sidenote: My latest obsession: these sweet peel and stick chalk labels and chalk markers from Hobby Lobby that I used to embellish the little paper pockets 

I’m sticking them on everything!! 

I’m tweaking the way I recognize student achievement! Even the smallest achievements!

Seriously y’all, school is hard- much harder than when we were kids.  
I see stressed out teachers and beaten down kids everyday.  
Who better to spread some positive vibes than us? 
We work in a care centered profession in a not-so-care-centered world.  I’m on a mission to boost self-esteem and make kids feel proud of every little success 
(Let’s face it, most of the children we work with struggle). 

Since this is my first time EVER with a hall bulletin board, 

I’m excited to be able to give my kids shout outs for the whole school to see!! 

Due to confidentiality I will only use first names but the kids will still know it’s them that I’m praising when their name is on my bulletin board, and I think they will be excited to “make the board” as either hardest worker, most responsible with homework, most improved speech, best behavior, or GRADUATION!  You can grab the components to this bulletin board HERE.  Hurry! If you miss this freebie, you can still find this HERE.

I’m also excited to have already started dishing out some certificates for awesomeness. I’ve got a stash of certificates all ready- for everything from returning speech homework regularly -to reaching to goal -to mastering a sound, and more and more and more.  Even losing a tooth or having a birthday are great reasons to celebrate! And what I really can’t wait for is to start handing out speech diplomas!! 

I’m tweaking my shabby old coarticulation binder and giving it a facelift

It was time to retire it. It was tattered and torn.  Man oh man, I should have taken a photo of it before I chunked it in the garbage.  Sadly, I have no photo of it.  I will miss it.  It was a good sidekick – circa 1995- may it rest in peace. 

You see, when I was a graduate assistant at LSU in 1995 , a professor assigned me to create a list of all phonemes in every context in every length of utterance – using the coarticulation environments. It was all the lists you’d ever need to do articulation therapy.  If you haven’t read my post on coarticulation, you gotta check it out.  Coarticulation is good stuff! 

Anyway, from that assignment,  my coarticulation binder was born, and it’s still alive and kicking today,  but now the lists are more current and more extensive.  I’m updating the old list one sound at a time.  You can find lists with /r/, vocalic r and /r/ blends, voiceless and voiced th, /l/, /l/ blends, /h/ and /j/ in my TpT store. More lists are being added all the time 🙂 

So now it’s shiny and new and organized- along with a snazzy cover you can  download HERE if you want one of your very own.  
My previous post about coarticulation has a voiceless th freebie list for you and now you can also grab voiced th RIGHT HERE  {free only during this blog hop!} or in my store. 

Finally, I’m making a system for managing my forgetfulness!

I turned 40 this year.  I tell people that I used to be a computer but now I just feel like  an adding machine.  I need sticky notes everywhere and reminders jotted on my board OR I WILL LOSE EVERYTHING – possibly including my mind! 

Well,  if you follow me on Instagram,  you’ve seen my secret weapon to make sure I don’t lose all of my loot this year (and I’ve heard your pleas for my borrowed materials sign!)  

Yep, I’m keeping track of borrowed materials.  Let’s face it, SLPs have the coolest, most clever and most fun stuff! Everyone is jealous 🙂 This check out sheet posted on a bulletin board in my room will help me get my goodies back…
because I know darn well I will not remember who borrowed what! 
You can grab it HERE for a short time if you {like me} need a little help in this area 🙂 
If you missed this uber cute form, catch it here. 

Now that you’ve snatched up a few freebies {and possibly some ideas you can use}  let’s get back to blog hop business…

                                                  

Happy Hopping and Good Luck!