Speech-Language Room Makeover

Phew, we are already one quarter down this school year...now that is hard to believe! The last quarter the kids and I have been enjoying our new working space, so I thought it was finally time to post up some details about Operation: Room Makeover!

The project started on a weekend before the kids came back to school in August. Mr. Ludwig and I brought in the paint, paintbrushes, water buckets, and few hanging lanterns, and we spent our Saturday sprucing up Mrs. Ludwig's Speech & Language Room.

A look at before:
the lovely yellow tint of the cinder block walls

During:

There's Mr. Ludwig! Couldn't have done this project without him. 

See that window? Mr. Ludwig is allergic to bees. 

We had a few visitors fly on in, and I mustered up the courage:

Smack, smack (smack, smack, smack....bug killing is not my forte)

Yep, saved his life!

If you compare the above and below photos, you'll notice I got rid of my milk crate bookshelves and upgraded to two 9-cubby bookshelves from Target. One of my kids noticed and told me, "Oh, you got rid of your junky bookshelf!" Ha, aannnnnnd we might be working on social skills...but hey, you know what....I think she's right. :)

And the after:

It was a weekend paint project and then the additional accessories took a few extra evenings to finish (e.g. the corkboard squares covered in fabric above my desk and the curtain in the window).

Also a quick tip: I did some research on the 'net to figure out the best way to hang things up on cinderblock walls....hot glue! I tried it and it worked great!

Was it worth it? Yes, definitely! I figure that I spend over half of my waking hours in this room. It's good for all of us and we are loving our new home away from home.

Happy space. Happy place. Happy SLP. :)

Cheers,
Mrs. Ludwig

Happy New Year: 2013-2014: Calendar & Speech-Language Forms

Happy New Year, Part 2:

I just wrote about my new discbound notebook system, which you can read about here! And here is the follow up post with the sheets I created to put in my new book: 

#1) Parent Contact Log: each kid on my caseload gets a sheet for communication records.

#2) Activity Plan: the key to my sanity as I plan for 70+ kids. I write down each group of kids and the planned activity for the day. If I think of an activity, material, or skill for next time, I jot it down on the note sidebar:

#3) My Evaluation Schedule: I have a sheet for both of my schools to keep a track of requested evals:

• Tracker notes
• student name
• referral source
• eval type (artic, lang)
• date permission sent
• date permission received
• date eval is due
• check for testing completed
• check for report is written
• date of case conference

#4) My Calendar: monthly calendar printed double-sided on 8 1/2 x 11 in. sheets of paper:

August all the way through...

 ...the month of July!

#5) IEP at a Glance Sheets: these don't actually go in my binder, but I'm including them here anyway! They were passed out to teachers at the beginning of the year as overviews of IEPs. It was described as being "not as scary" as the ones that we usually print out that our IEP system generates. I'll count that as a compliment. Ha.

You can download my IEP at a glance sheet for FREE here.

You can purchase and download ALL of the forms & calendar pages in my TpT store here!
Or if you just like the forms and don't need a new calendar you can buy the forms here!

Hope your school year is still off to a great start!


Cheers,
Mrs. Ludwig

Happy New Year! 2013-2014: Discbound Notebooks

Happy New Year, friends!

It's 2013-2014 and I'm refreshed, recharged and ready to tackle another year. I've worked on several organizational materials to set myself up for a successful year....but FIRST...

I'm using a new organizational system this year! I discovered Martha Stewart's discbound notebooks this summer and bought in big time. 

**A quick disclaimer: I'm writing about these just because I like them! Plain and simple. No financial interests or gained benefits here. :)

Okay, here's a top view:

The best way to describe them is as a "notebook/binder hybrid". Flat like a notebook and built like a binder.  It's a totally customizable system. You can buy different parts and create your own binder to fit your own needs.

On the inside front cover is a big pocket & a few smaller pockets (mine has an article to read from our principal & some sticky notes):

A row of discs holds everything together. The binder comes with small discs, which can hold ~60 sheets, so I bought the expansion discs, which will hold up to 150 sheets:

Martha's line also includes pre-punched accessory pages (e.g. calendars, taskpads) that fit in as needed. I went ahead and bought the special hole-puncher so I could make my own pages.

Punch, punch

The pages are punched like this:

And then you just push the pages right into place! 

 That's it, easy:

You can buy dividers and place them to make sections as needed. I labeled mine with my label maker. 

Another nice feature is the pen holder (look below the tabs):

I made my own calendar & inserted a small sheet between the current month as a task pad. For now, it's just a yellow, 1/2 sheet of paper. Eventually, my plan is to design something a little nicer. But, hey it works just fine for now!

I've included my caseload spreadsheets,

parent contact forms, activity idea section, & my calendar.

I will admit, the startup was a little pricey. The hole punch was the biggest investment ($40), but I'm convinced it will be a long-term solution to my organizational needs. It's the system you can just keep using over and over!

You can find the Martha Stewart discbound notebooks exclusively at Staples:

Here's the link to the notebooks: Book.

And the tabs: Divide.

And some other accessories: Accessorize.

And the hole punch: Punch.

So there you have it! My organizational solution for the 2013-2014 school year and beyond.

Hope you're off to a good start at school! 

Happy New Year,

Mrs. Ludwig