I miss my normal!

Why does something that you are expecting coming still feel like a kick in the gut?!?!  I believed in my heart of hearts that Governor Pritzker was going to close Illinois schools for the remainder of this acadmic school year and for good reason!  I 100% agree that this is what is best for our students, staff, and community.  Yet hearing him say this out loud today had me sobbing.  I mean UGLY crying people!

I MISS my students. I MISS my coworkers. 

In some ways, I miss my overwhelming "regular" workload...I miss my dumb commute and all the accompanying tolls (not really but kind of).  I miss hearing about the "I forgot table" which is something my buiding staff can completely relate to lol.  I miss bus duty.  I miss having to wear a walkie talkie and hearing or asking for somoeone to repeat themselves again and again.  I miss my 730 special ed meetings on Thursdays.  I miss the clutter of my shared office... (no I really don't but that's just because I'm type A) because I love my office mates.

What I really miss is hearing "Mrs. Edge!".  I miss finding two specific students who hide in the EXACT same spot before each session so that I can be "surprised". I miss the arm squeezes from one of my students who does that to show his love and excitement.  I miss all of the one liners that I always swear I'm going to write down but never do because I'm too busy.  I miss those firsts...the first requests, the first independent use of a coping strategy, the first spontaneous peer interaction....So many of these firsts which are WHY I love my job.

This is so different and SO MUCH harder!  I'm working 10-14 hours a day.  I really wish I was exageratting but I'm not. :(  Having to learn all the tech so that I can create individualized lessons for each of my students and then linking them in order to remain confidentiality.  ALL of the zooms...soooo many zooms lol.  All of the emails...sooo many emails.  Lastly documenting everything that I'm doing is just so time consuming.  I really wish it wasn't necessary but I get it...it is what it is.

This is all just so sad but I'm not going to allow myself to stay here for very long.  My students need me.

Becky

all the tech...

Hi All,
Just another stay at home Saturday here...;)  

I wanted to share one of the things I learned this week among the 100 other tech things I've had to figure out since beginning to teach virtually.  I've been trying to problem solve how to use my ipad with a split screen of my desktop when recording my lessons.  I made a quick video tutorial on how to screen cast your ios device when video recording.    If you have as well then this might be helpful to you. 

Let me know if you have any questions.  What important tech hack have you learned to teach via remote learning?  I'd love to hear about it!

Becky

YouTube

I have LOVED using YouTube during parts of my lessons in order to provide some explicit instruction, reinforce a skill, etc.  Unfortunately earlier this year YouTube had to change it's policies which has directly impacted a teacher's ability to create a playlist for students.  As I've been utilizing YouTube for quite some time and have compiled many, many, many playlists to target so many speech-language skills, I thought it might be helpful to share my channel but more importantly a sample of my playlists as this may be useful during this crisis for those who don't have have playlists already created.  

bedgeslp72/playlists

The skills I target include social skills/social thinking, functional life skills, classroom themes, speech-language targets and of course "core vocabulary".  As YouTube playlists can be frustrating to navigate I typically put my core vocabulary words in quotes so that I can more easily search them in my channel.  I apologize if that's cumbersome but as I created this for me...If I find people finding my channel helpful, I may change this but it's what has worked or me. 

One quick YouTube channel hack that I love and use daily is a google extension that you can add titled "Playlist Sorter for YouTube".  This extension will let you sort your playlist videos by title, in ascending or descending order. 

I really hope you find them helpful!  As I'm able, I'll continue to add new videos to the playlists and begin to create new playlists. :)

Becky

e-learning: sharing lessons and resources

E-Learning isn't easy for any of us!  Parents, students, teachers, and related service providers are finding it overwhelming.  In this post, I'll share from my perspective as a related service provider.  

YOWZA!  This has been a challenging process for SLPs and other related service providers as we are not only responsible to provide services and resources,  we are expected to do this while continuing to be HIPAA compliant.  I have no problem with either of these expectations but I do feel it's important that administrators, general education staff, and parents be aware of how much extra time this is requiring above and beyond an upload of a single lesson. Any lesson developed is individualized to each student's needs.  Additionally these lessons must also be uploaded individually as well as any of the links within the lesson to maintain student confidentiality.  This takes time...so much precious time.

Here are a few hacks I've learned as we move forward with remote learning.  

1. Whenever possible materials should be tured into a pdf and then linked as this requires less individualized linking.  
2. Create a google doc with a table to share with your team for "team times scheduling with parents".   Students, parents, and team members really appreciate the connected time with one another.  Additionally this allows for greater collaboration in finding ways to support the student and family in his or her elearning plans
3. Use signup genius to create your teleconferencing schedule for individual times.  This significantly reduces the amount of time needed to reach out to your caseload and find a time that works for them.
4. Create a choice board with linked materials to work toward their goals with their parents assistance.   Materials may be youtube links, boom cards, pdfs of graphic organizers, materials in their boardmaker players, video of read alouds, or videos of yourself explaining and coaching on any number of skills.  Many of these choice boards can be repeated with some simple tweaks or changes which will make it more manageable for all involved.

AAC Speech-Language Board

As my team moves from e-learning to remote learning, there will undoubtedly be many new changes and challenges.  What I have learned over the last few weeks is how grateful I am for health, family, friends, food, employment, my team, and my students.  We can overcome anything as long as we continue to extend grace, compassion, and kindness to one another.  

Be well!

Becky

I'm back...a vent

It's been a long time since I've posted...This school year has been a TOUGH one.   My caseload and workload are at all time highs.  Behavior support calls are also frequent and intense.   There just always seems to much to do and never enough time.   I've really been struggling with all of it.

and then this week happened...

Oh how I'd rather be back to my crazy typical work week with too many meetings, behavior support calls, no plan time, eating lunch at my desk as I respond to my emails, and bringing way too much work home.  To be honest the only thing difference this week is that I'm not responding to behavior support calls.  Of course this was replaced by trying to figure out how to teach students with complex communication needs via e-learning.  Anyone else in the same boat?  

In all honesty I think I've worked more this week then ever but on the plus side I "think" I have a framework in place to provide my students with lessons and support.  I'm feeling a bit better but still have quite the to do list.

The challenge of trying to support students and parents with individualized lessons while maintaining confidentiality has been challenging and time consuming but I think it looks good and functional.  What do you all think?  How are you sharing your lessons and resources?  

I'll share some of the resources and links in my next post.  Stay tuned!

P.S. I realize my vent is a first world problem.  Just needed a place to let it out. ;)  Please forgive me.  I generally do my best to be positive.

SO grateful for all of those on the front line: nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, grocery store employees, restaurant employees.  I"m sending lots of prayers and postive thoughts to all of them.  I realize I'm also blessed to still have a source of income with the ability to work from home.