How do I organize my speech binder?

Everyone is getting their areas ready to start the year and now that I have my schedule pretty much set, I finally did my binder for the year. I have one binder for each junior high that I am at this year and I set them up identically.

Here's a peak inside!

First I have my schedule in a sheet protector (which I didn't show because I couldn't get a picture that remained confidential)

Second I have my consult checklist in a sheet protector. As I see my consult kids each month, I response record and take attendance like all my other students. I also put a check mark in a box next to their name so I can keep track of who I have seen and who I haven't for the month. 

Next I have all my tabbed dividers. I have two tabs for each school period. I keep all my response recording sheets in the front and my attendance records/goals and schedules in the back of the divider for each student. On my attendance record, I indicate if the child was seen for therapy by an X, absent by an A, SLP absent by a TA, school program SP, stayed in class for test/special reasons SC and holiday H. This helps me see if they didn't come to speech why they didn't come to speech. I also have a NS for a no show if I'm trying to hold my junior high students accountable. 

This has worked out awesome for me and I have use this technique ever since I started in the schools. It is essentially my working folders in a binder. THEN at the end of the year, all I need to do is staple all of the info together, put it in my real folder that i stored in a filling cabinet and send off to the next SLP or for me to have next year. 

How else do people organize their records?

Speech Communication Signs to Visitors!

Today you can grab the speechie freebies freebie by clicking the image below. This consists of two of the signs in the package.

If you would like to purchase the remainder of the signs (all 10) then you can click on the image below (which only previews 6 of the signs) and it will take you to the full product on my website. The price of the full product is only $2.50! I have used these signs repeatedly this year already and it has worked wonderfully for communication for all the people that show up on my doorstep everyday!

I hope you enjoy!

Free Space Friday

Instead of Free Space Friday, yup I took a little bit of space for myself to catch my breath! I have been SOO busy lately, that unfortunately my blog and Facebook page has had to take a lower priority. I know this is a busy time for all of us, so I know you all understand. My sister is getting married soon, the end of the school year stuff (testing, IEP's, transitioning student files etc) AND trying to keep up with life all at the same time has been challenging to say the least. I was a swimmer for a long time and a strong swimmer. Right now, I feel like a weak swimmer trying to keep my head above water, so please bare with me as I try to keep myself afloat the next few weeks =D In the next few weeks, I have a review coming up of a very special item and some Tangled Tuesday's to finish out the school year and some other fun blog posts =). I am going to be working at a rehab facility all summer covering my friend's maternity leave, so I get to go back to using my medical brain =D I feel like my medical brain keeps me on my toes! Anyways, I just wanted to let you all know that I haven't just left yall!

Free Space Friday: Super Duper Storage Tins!

I was perusing the Super Duper Website yesterday when writing my blog post yesterday and I came across this wonderful item! Storage tins! There are two different sizes- seen below.  Click on the images below to see the tins on the website.

                           

This might be an answer for all of you looking for ideas for storage for TPT cards purchased! 

For the small tin, you get 10 tins for 19.95 and for the larger tin you get 10 for 21.95.

I am SO excited about these and I am going to do some investigating with my card tins and TPT purchases to see if they can accommodate some of my cards from those activities!

Thanks for reading as always! Amy @

Free Space Friday-Bookshelf Curtains

                                               

Bookshelf Curtains!

                                               

I took this picture from here to show you all. This is a cheap and easy way to give your speech room a make-over! I know if my materials are easy to see then the students are more likely to drift off in to "I wish we were playing....." mode. All you have to do is take a glue gun and some heavy duty fabric with a fun print to your speech bookshelves and go! If you take the time to measure and make them even- they can really bring a lot of color to your speech room!

How do you like to bring color to your speech room? Or how do you decorate your speech room?

Free Space Friday: Organizing your students!

I know some of the students on my junior high caseload have MAJOR organization issues. What do you do to help keep your students organized?

At our school our students are only allowed to wear those string bags throughout the day. All backpacks and bag are required to stay in their locker all day. This has made it somewhat difficult for my students to stat organized. SO we came up with a solution. We designed a card that had 4 questions on it:

1) Do I have my homework to turn in?
2) Did I do my bell work and turn in my homework from last night?
3) DId I place my notes/work in the appropriate section of my binder?
4) Do I know what I need to put in my locker and what to get out for my next class?

These have been wonderful guides to help our students get organized on HOW to think ahead and plan.

All we did was go into Microsoft Word and type up the 5 questions. We printed them on card stock and laminated them. THEN we hole punched a couple holes at the time and used a rubber band to tie them onto the string bag.

So this post is how to organize your students instead of how to organize your room! I hope you found this useful.

Is there any particular way you have found that helps your disorganized students stay organized??

Amy @ Major Speech Pathology Fun by a Minor Girl

Free Space Friday: Interesting Game Containers

I am a huge  fan! Who isn't these days! I always find the neatest products there that I cannot find anywhere else!

Today, I am showing you some neat alternatives to packaging of card games. With this post though you have to buy the game this way. I'm not sure about you- but I can't stand the flimsy boxes those card games come in.
This is how you buy them: 
 and this is how they end up after a while because the box fell apart:




Although there are other homemade options like this one: 


I found this alternative at Target one day while shopping around! Card games packaged in non-cardboard containers! SCORE!



Here are all the mod versions of my favorite games!

The games come in these cool containers! Why do I like these versions as a organization tool? I like them because you can easily stack them. They are the same size and a simple way to store the cards. No more having to fit all the cards back into the cardboard box, having the top of the box rip or losing the directions. I have had these games for over a year and they still look brand new. I use these games in therapy as a bonus day or as a supplement to my therapy task. I try not to spend any more than 2-3 minutes on the game during the session because the students are only in the session for a short time and I want them to be doing speech stuff!  So if you have room in your budget to buy these games instead of the box card games- you will be doing yourself a favor by saving more in the future as you will not have poor packaging of the cards anymore and a neater way to store the games!

If you were using your Ipad for the session, you could even use the apps for games like these! Seen here:


I love the way these games are packaged in small containers and they are totally worth the money so your card games don't end up looking like eye sores in your speech room! I'm telling you I don't know how much money I spend on things to help me stay organized!

Thanks for reading!



Free Space Friday: Cord Labels

I know in my classroom there are limited amount of plugs due to limited amounts of outlets! When I need to unplug something, I often have to play the guessing game as to which electrical item I am unplugging. Here is my answer. Bread ties! Keep your bread ties for a little while and then label them according to the plug's electrical appliance owner!

Be Happy and Be Organized!

Free Space Friday: Storing Book Units

I am not going to do this very often I hope, but I found a neat idea on another blog on how to store book units. This is going to be a short and sweet blot post as most of the information is in the blog post link that is featured below! I am going to direct you over to Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas!

Check it out her post here : Book Unit Organization Here is a picture from that blog to give you an idea about how she stores the book companions/book units!
You could store the book, the TpT items, flashcards and construction paper all in one area! That way when you go to grab "March Activities" you have it all together in one tub!

As book companions and book units become more popular in speech rooms and on TPT, I figured we needed a good way to store all of the items in an organized way. I am lucky enough to have an adequate amount of storage for all of this, but some aren't so lucky! Anyways, have a good friday and be organized!

Free Space Friday: Large Plastic Drawer Sets

Some of us do not have that much storage area in our rooms. I am lucky enough to be at schools that offer a fairly large speech space compared to others. For those that have small rooms, I saw this idea on pinterest and thought I would share. The idea came from Fabulous in First!

She placed her every day items in these large plastic drawer containers. See here:

My horsehoe table looks more like this and my students are junior high size, so the only things that fit below the table are their feet! I don't have room for containers down there! I could probably-maybe do one just for easy access items like pencils, pens and other items we might need.

I have used the plastic drawers just as regular storage space in my speech closet and around the walls of my speech room. There are many plastic drawer set to use and all shapes and sizes!

      

here is a link to a DIY mod podge craft to make your plastic or wooden storage items look prettier:

Crafty thing to do for make your speech room prettier!

You can see how Sublime Speech uses her plastic drawers in this picture:
Sublime Speech Post

Thanks for reading as always and I hope this helps to make your speech rooms as organized as possible!

Free Space Friday: Tupperware Containers and Their Many Uses!

Check out this post for an easy way to store items in your speech classroom! Also there is an idea at the bottom of the post that I am sure you will use in your therapy room once you read it! It's a way to answer the dreaded question "Can I go first?"

We all have those cards, little game pieces and dice that we do not know where to put! An easy and really stackable solution is to use plastic containers by Glad, Ziplock or whichever is your go-to brand.

There are all kinds of sizes. I also get plastic travel containers of various shapes and use them to store little items in my classroom.

 Plastic Toothbrush holders work GREAT for holding pens or tongue depressors. 

A MUST READ: 

Speaking of tongue depressors and toothbrush holders....there is a really easy way to determine who goes first in a game. Use a sharpie and write a number for each student in the group on the tongue depressors. For example, if you have 5 kids you will have a tongue depressor numbered 1, another labeled 2, another labeled 3 and so on to 5. Then place each in  a separate toothbrush holder. The students will each pick a toothbrush holder and open to see which number they each get! The student with the #1 goes first and so on! The kids love being surprised and its an easy and non-biased way of determining "Who Goes First!"

Free Space Friday: Sheet Protectors

Lamination has been costing a lot lately. There are many activities that I have chosen to put in sheet protectors instead of laminating them. Bingo Boards, Title Pages, and Visual sheets etc. I also store these activities in binders for easy access. I have my binders labeled by articulation, language and games. It is a really easy way to store activities and an easy way to save some money on lamination. I hope you all take advantage of this idea =)

Free Space Friday-- I-phone Calendar

Ok my free space friday post is about how I remember all of my appointments, work schedules, bill payments, pay periods and social events. I put EVERYTHING into my calendar app on my iphone via my computer. I COULD NOT live my life without this feature of the I-phone. I have 4 jobs (2 schools=1 job, 3 medical settings) a husband, a house to take care of, bills to pay, 2 pets, a blog and creating materials for my students- so I have A LOT to schedule. I have yet to double schedule myself at more than one facility because of this! Like I said previously in one of my posts, if it were not for my organization skills there is no way I could keep up with everything that I do.

Due to security reasons, I did not want to share a picture of my schedule, but just know it is an amazing feature as to how I keep as organized as I do.

Speaking of my calendar: these are some of the entries that I include on my I-phone calendar:

You can choose to see all of your calendars.....

or only certain ones.....

I used to be one of those people that said "I will never use that computer calendar because I prefer paper version". I will never go back to the paper version- this way is more accessible for me and more convenient.  I hope you all have found this useful-

How do you keep organized during the week?

Free Space Friday: Super Duper Fun Deck Parking Garage

Today's Free Space Friday is featuring the Super Duper Fun Deck Parking Garage. I use it for all of my little decks that I have purchased from them throughout the years. It is great because I have visibility to all of my card decks and they are a reach away for a last minute change of plans.

                               
This is a picture of the Fun Deck Parking Garage from Super Duper Inc's website. Be sure to grab one for yourself here: http://www.superduperinc.com/products/view.aspx?stid=235

Free Space Friday: Storage of Response Recordings

I pride myself on my organization and this is something I started back when I was in graduate school as an intern at my school rotation. I use the Binder Dividers with tabs and pockets. I have a divider for each group session. I place my response recording sheets that includes each student's name, goals, IEP date and 3 year evaluation date in the front section of the pocket. Then, I place the attendance record and any other print out in the back pocket. I usually will have a divider in the back for all of my testing information. I place protocols in that divider for planning. So if I know I want to test Student C on monday- I will put the protocols I plan to use in that tab when doing my weekly planning. I tend to have a divider for each of my consult students, as I have a monthly check off paper included with my attendance record, so I can make sure I see each of them as stated on their IEP. These are some pictures of the items that I use:

In the tab section, I put 1st graders, 4th graders, 2nd graders etc so I know which group of students I will get next in my speech classroom. I hope this sheds some light into how I organize my student response recordings and attendance records. 

How do you organize your daily paperwork?

Free Space Friday: Super Duper Carry All Cart

I bought a Carrying Cart from Super Duper at the beginning of last years school year. I love it! It is great for the traveling therapist that has a lot of fun materials to bring back and forth between schools, between home and school or wherever else you may need your stuff. This is a picture of it from the Super Duper Inc website. I found it on sale for 50% off during one of their summer specials. Today it is 50% off due to overstock; so go grab it now while its on sale =)
Here is a link as well: Super Duper Carry All Cart