SLP 101: Learning Targets {with Freebie}

I'm back with another session in the SLP 101 series! Today's post is all about learning targets. More than likely your school building has adopted learning targets as a building so these are nothing new to you! 

Learning targets make a ton of sense. Your students should definitely know what they are working on when they come to you. If you're building is already doing 'I can' statements it's an easy carryover to the speech room. 

This year I made a simple sheet that lists an 'I can' statement for most of the areas we are working on. 

This is the bulletin board in my office. 

Then each student made their own sheet with their specific goals. 

This my board before the year started. 

This is where we posted all of our goals! 

I posted these documents as a freebie on my TeachersPayTeachers site! Just make sure you select 'follow me' while you're there! 

Do you use I can statements? How else do you have your student's know their speech and language goals?

SLP 101: Working Folders

During my first few segments in the 'SLP 101' series, I've mentioned 'Working Folders'. I thought I'd explain what that means to me! I actually have 3 different systems this year because I'm in 3 buildings with different needs.

I have regular student files that stayed filed in the filing cabinet. I also need another folder for my groups so that I can easily keep organized. For my elementary students I use a file folder for each group. I made up an example so I could show you! I put my attendance sheet stapled to the left hand side.  You can find my data sheet for each student included in this packet.

In the file I keep these Student Information Sheets from my friend Amy at Major Speech Minor Girl. 

I also keep the file review sheets I completed at the beginning of the year. Throughout the year as I get to know my students better, I will add packets of homework to easily pull from. 

At the middle school, I have a bit of a different system. I use binders because I travel out of my room! 

In the front I keep my daily schedule and my caseload sorted by IEP Due Date and ETR Due Date. 

That's the teacher list on the left side (still trying to learn names!) and each student has a divider with a pocket. The binders are divided by what time of day I see the students (am/pm). 

Lastly at my last school, I don't have a lot of my own 'space'. I'm using this accordion file from Target. 

Each student has a file space within it! 

PS - It happens to match my cup, which makes me happy! 

So, those are my different systems this year! It's always changing! Do you use anything similar?!

SLP 101: Scheduling

I'm back with another post in my SLP 101 series. This series is meant to get you started if you're new to the field or moving to the schools from another location. I'm hoping these tips and tricks for getting started are helpful. We've done SLP 101 for interviewing and salaries, getting you started, welcome letters and attendance and today we're tackling scheduling! Scheduling for speech language pathology can be a dreaded event and I haven't found the solution to make it work perfectly each year!

Before you start to schedule you'll need to gather the other schedules for your building. This includes building lunch and recess schedules. You'll need each teacher's weekly schedule. You'll also need your intervention specialists schedules. Check with OT, PT, Reading Specialists and ESL teachers for their schedules as well. Once you have everyone's schedule's you will be able to work on yours! 

I start by making a grid on a large file folder. I can adjust the times on the side of the folder as needed to meet teacher's schedules. You can see that I'm in this building for 2 and 1/2 days. I always try to schedule some 'testing time' and it helps if I go ahead and make post-it notes for those before I start. 

As you can see, I've erased some times and re-arranged because that perfect 'every half hour' schedule never seems to work out. Above is an example of what I write on my post-it. I put their grade and names. I start by making my first try for a schedule. Then I go to each teacher and let them give me feedback. 

Once I'm finished I put it into an excel sheet so that I can easily change it as the year goes. I gave you a blurry picture since I didn't want any of my kiddos' names to show! 

At the middle school, I pull each student's schedule and then start by asking the Intervention Specialists when she thinks the best time to pull the student might be. With fewer students it seems to be a bit easier to schedule.

I've heard it done many different ways, but that is what works best for me!

Danielle from Sublime Speech made this hilarious e card that about sums it up! How do you complete scheduling? Is it a hassle or do you have flexible staff?

Next  up in my SLP 101 features, I'll share my 'working folders'.

SLP 101: Welcome Letters,Attendance, Billing

It's Tuesday and the last of you are likely heading back to work today! Don't worry, some of us have been working for an entire month now! I'm continuing the SLP 101 series this week. We started with Interviewing and Salaries.  My last post started getting you settled in getting started in the schools. In that post I told you how I get started. 

•   Find your caseload 

• Gather the student files for your caseload

• Create a caseload list: I make 3 lists: alphabetical, by IEP date, by re-evaluation date.

• Do file reviews: see included sheet below

• Access to IEP Files

• Set up meetings for any immediate needs (this might include transfers into the district - they often need to be done immediately before you can begin services).

Let's keep moving on that list! Here is what we have left:

• Create a Welcome Letter and gather any other information to send home and make folders. 
• Develop an attendance system
• Develop a medicaid billing system
• Check on FM systems
• Check on 504 students
• Create Data Sheets
• Create Schedule
• Develop lesson plans for the first week. 

Folders: I use a speech folder for every student at the beginning of the year. Some students will return them weekly and some folders will never make it back into my office. I don't stress about it, but do encourage kids to bring their folders. I start the year I included two forms in that folder. 

Writing a Welcome Letter is an easy way to introduce yourself. Especially important if you're new to the district this year. 

Since I'm new I included some basic information about myself. Parents often really want to know their child's speech time, but especially when new to a district, your first pairings in groups might not work out. So I include information about gathering baseline data to determine the best fit for groups. Once I have a more finalized schedule I write their times on the folder. 

I also use a Communication Log

This is a super easy way to communicate with parents. You can download it for free in my TpT Store. 

Attendance/Billing: I keep attendance in two ways. Both quick and easy in order to facilitate billing and monitoring  serviced minutes.   In my district I am required to bill Medicaid for every service I provide. In Ohio we are not allowed to know which students receive any medicaid money, so we bill for every student. To keep attendance for billing, I print my weekly schedule and highlight names to indicate a student attended that session. I make notes if they miss or I miss. Once I enter the billing information into the computer, I slash through that group with pen. You can see I billed some of last weeks groups already. Check with your district for their billing requirements. It's easier to bill as you go, and not get way behind! 

I also monitor attendance with this quick yearly calendar. This helps me monitor IEP minutes. I have the student's name at the top. I circle the date to indicate attendance for the full time. I write other notes to indicate absences. So in this example the student 'Jenna' attended 3 session and was absent once. At a glance when I open the student's working file I can check the minutes of service for that month. 

You can grab the Speech and Language Attendance Calendar for free on my TpT Store. It includes the template name at the bottom if you want to customize it different that I did. 

504 students/FM systems: Every district is different, so check with the other SLPs to see if you are responsible for any 504 students or students with FM systems. Sometimes the SLP is the person to get the FM system set up, a critical things to take care of before the first day of school for students! 

Data Sheets: A while back I shared my data sheets with you! 

Just follow the link to grab the Free Template for yourself! 

Ok! That was another jam packed post! We're almost through the 'to-do' list! Next up, I'll share my scheduling system. 

SLP 101: Getting Started in the Schools

I'm back with the third installment of SLP 101. We've already discussed Interviews and Salaries. If you're in a school based position it can sometimes be overwhelming once you get back into your office after those first professional development days.

Where do I start? What should I do first? What should I be doing that I'm not!

Since I'm in a new district this year some of those things that are usually automatic have taken a lot longer than usual! This is my personal to-do list. I put them in order for how I tackled them!

• Inventory your materials
• Find your caseload
• Gather the student files for your caseload
• Create a caseload list: I make 3 lists: alphabetical, by IEP date, by re-evaluation date.
• Do file reviews: see included sheet below
• Access to IEP Files
• Set up meetings for any immediate needs (this might include transfers into the district - they often need to be done immediately before you can begin services).
• Create a Welcome Letter and gather any other information to send home and make folders. 
• Develop an attendance system
• Develop a medicaid billing system
• Check on FM systems
• Check on 504 students
• Create Data Sheets
• Create Schedule
• Develop lesson plans for the first week. 

Let's dig into a few of these to get started!

Inventory your materials: This is one thing you should really do when you move into a new space. You likely won't think about it until the end of the school year. At that time the administrator will probably ask you to turn in your inventory. If there is every a busted pipe or fire, the school needs to know what was in your office. I make an inventory in an excel sheet. That lets me email it to myself for safe keeping (an inventory stored in your room isn't much help in case of emergency!)This is also a great way to sit and take the time to really see what your building already has!

Caseload: Every school has a different system for keeping the caseloads listed. Generally speaking the special education clerks are the go-to people for this! I gather a caseload list and compare that to the actual files I have in my cabinet. Then take that list down the intervention specialists and have them identify which students they are the caseload manager for. I always ask them if they know of any move-in students that get special education services (sometimes those get left off the lists.)

Gather Files: Check for files for each student. Do you have to email other district SLPs to find current IEPs? Make sure you have a file for each student.

Create Caseload Lists: I use excel to create caseload lists. I use a different excel document for each of my buildings.  I enter my students' name, DOB, eligibility category, case manager, IEP due date, re-eval due date, grade, teacher, minutes per week and location of service. Once these are entered I copy/paste them into 3 different sheets. I sort them alphabetically, by IEP date and by re-evaluation due date.

Here is an example. I had to use myself as an example student but you can see the different sheets labeled at the bottom. Using excel makes it really easy to sort the sheets when we add kids to the caseload. If you don't know how to sort quickly in Excel, here is a quick explanation.

Next I sit and complete a File Review.

I use this sheet (available for free in my TpT store) to complete a file review. It helps me start to get to know the students. I find if I make myself write things out I remember them better. This becomes the first sheet that goes into my 'working folders' for each student. Grab the worksheet for free using this link. 

Access to IEP Forms: My district requires SLPs to have student sign off on Access to IEP forms. This sheet has teachers verify that teachers are aware that the specific student is on an IEP. I suggest you develop some type of system that has teachers verify that you have given them a copy of each student's IEP.

Transfer Meetings: In most districts transfer students need to have a meeting right away to begin receiving services for special education. Check to see if you have any students who moved-in over the summer and get those meetings schedule ASAP.


Are you hanging in? We made it through the first 7 bullets on my 'back to school' to-do list! My next post will delve into more of that list! Check back for the rest of the SLP 101 series! 

SLP 101: Salaries

Welcome back to SLP 101. Today's SLP 101 is the reason you just went to school for 6 years to earn that Master's Degree.

Salaries. These are really going to vary by state, city and settings. I can't tell you exactly how much to expect to be compensated, but I can tell you where to look for that information.

You're best tool leading into a negotiation is knowledge. If you're looking for a school job, keep in mind that you can find out the salary of your position before you even interview if the position is hired through the district teacher contract. Most schools publish their contract agreement which includes the salary. Try searching for 'XX district teacher contract'. You should find a salary schedule. In my state, I even found a comparison document that listed all the district in my state. 

Try out these different sources to find salary information for your location and setting: 

ASHA (includes salary surveys for different settings)

•  Healthcare Surveys

• Schools Survey 2012

Advance (includes the 2011 salary surveys) 

US Bureau of Labor Statistics  

Other SLPs - Be sensitive, but if you have the appropriate relationships don't be afraid to ask your colleagues. They know the local market the best. 

Thoughts to consider:

• Benefits - these can vary a lot between jobs
• Vacation Time
• The cost of working holidays and weekends
• Your preferences: Job happiness means a lot. 

Keep in mind that school based positions only give you credit (usually) for your years of school experience. So if you work for 3 years in a clinic and then go to a school, you may lose your years of experience and therefore need to accept a lower pay.  In a clinic, you're bringing your years of experience with you. 

PRN (hourly as needed) jobs at clinics and hospitals are great ways to increase your salary. When you're hired as PR, the employer isn't responsible for your benefits and therefore your hourly wage is higher. Supplement with these jobs, especially while you're trying to find your favorite niche!

SLP 101: Interviewing

I've been chatting on Facebook and Instagram with so many of you getting ready to start your Clinical Fellowship in different settings. It's a little overwhelming to get started sometimes! The good news is that we've all felt like that at some point! I'm obviously NOT a CF this year, but I am starting a new job. With that in mind, I'm having to ask all those questions you ask when you're new. Many of the skills I'm going to highlight in my SLP 101 series are pertinent to the first job or a new job. They become familiar once you're settled in a job.

SLP 101 is a series to help you get started if you're new to the field or new to a position as a speech language pathologist in the schools.

Up first, I want to give you some ideas and tips for interviewing to be a speech language pathologist. You might be a stellar clinician but that won't matter if you can't land your dream job!

Many of these thoughts and ideas come from our :::SLP CHAT::: held several times a week on the SRN facebook page. Of course I work primarily in a school, so my POV is school based. Feel free to add any comments that apply to hospitals or clinics.

Locating Job Openings:

• State education departments (ie: Ohio Department of Education)
• State SLP organizations
• ASHA
• Contract Companies 
• indeed.com
• schoolspring.com
• Edjoin.org
• Advance
• School district websites (this tends to be the best in my own area, schools have enough applicants and don't need to advertise outside of their own websites.)
• Often a state is divided up into Area Education Agencies or Education Service Centers
• Newspaper
• Some states have a consortium where all schools post jobs 
• Word of Mouth

Sample Interview Questions:

• Tell me about your background and experiences. Tell me why you chose to apply for our position.
• How do you establish relationships and maintain effective communication with parents?
• How do you incorporate the Common Core State Standards in your treatment and paperwork?
• How will you work with the team to determine transition goals for secondary students?
• How do you implement RtI?
• Talk about a difficult experience with a student exhibiting challenging behavior and what you did.
• If I came into one of your therapy sessions, what would I see?
• How do you plan to use technology in your therapy sessions?
• Talk about your planning process in establishing IEP goals and what you do when a student is not meeting those goals.
• How do you interpret standardized test scores in light of the state eligibility criteria?
• If you received a referral from a teacher, explain what you would do.
• What do you do in your evaluations so you can determine whether or not a student is eligible for services?
• If a teacher doesn't follow through with your classroom recommendations what would you do?
• How do you do therapy with a group including fluency, artic, and language since students have to be grouped by grade? How do you differentiate therapy?
• What assessments are you familiar with? 
• If you go wave a magic wand and change anything about IEPs, what would they be?
• How do you define educational impact?
• Tell about your experiences with assistive technology and alternative communication in the classroom.
• How do you differentiate between articulation disorders and phonological disorders?
• What assessments do you use for the early childhood population?
• What kind of innovative treatments approaches can you offer to our early childhood population?
• What aspects of this job will stretch your professional capabilities?
• How do you incorporate evidence based practices into your treatment?
• How is treating students in middle and high school different from treating those in the lower grades?
• Tell me about a time where collaboration was important.
• What is your experience with writing and implementation of IEPs?
• How do you keep children engaged in sessions?
• What is your experience working with differing populations? (ASD, severe CD, CAS)
•  Explain your assessment plan for a student whose primary language is not English.
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
• What was your most challenging case?
• What procedure would you use in order to determine a starting point for a student with articulation delays?
• What would you say to a parent of a child who is requesting an increase in speech services or summer services but they clearly do not meet the criterion and they are asking you to tell the district their child needs it?
• Share an example of how you've collaborated with special and general ed colleagues to provide service for a student with communication needs. 
• How do you determine how much special education service a student should receive? 
• How do you support students in a general education environment? 
• What methods do you use for data collection? How do you use that data? 
• Tell us about your experience with alternative communication systems and assistive technology. 
• What are the key components to a successful IEP meeting?

Questions You Should Ask:

• Questions you might want to ask in your interview
• What are the caseload averages in the district.
•  How do you handle caseloads that grow during the year? 
• What would my caseload make-up look like (age, disability, etc.)
• Do you use a weighted system (workload approach) so that students who more intense needs can be serviced effectively?
• I know the caseload limits in my state are XX, is there any policy in district that differs from that?
• How often do SLPs change assignments? Is there an expectations to remain in the position I first accept or do SLPs move between schools or groups? Will I be forced to switch assignments if I love what I'm doing?
•  Besides direct assessment and intervention, what other responsibilities will I have? RtI teams? IAT teams? Building teams? etc.
• What is the policy for new teachers/staff (i.e different orientation)? 
• What program do you use for IEPs and will I get training on it?
• What type of professional development opportunities are available specific to the needs of SLPs?
• Do you offer financial incentives for maintaining CCCs?
• I'm a Clinical Fellow, what type of supervision will you offer? Will my CF supervisor be available for more than the minimum requirements? Has he/she supervised before? Will we be located at the same building? Are they available for questions via phone/email whenever they come up?
• What is the policy on SLP absences? (Are SLPs expected to make up therapy time for sick days, IEP meetings, etc.?) 
• How are the minutes of service written on IEPs (minutes per week, month, quarter)? 
• What space will be available for me to use, and is it shared with other teachers/professionals?
• What are the guidelines for RtI in the district? For artic only? Language? Based on the SLP's discretion?
•  For other SLPs/teachers on the panel especially: What do you like about this district/building?
•  If I am in more than one building, do I have dedicated space there, too? 
•  Is there any money budgeted for me for this school year if I get hired? 
• Will I have a district iPad? Computer? 
• Will I ever be told to see students at places other than the school buildings?
• Does the district have litigation with any of the families of students who would be on my caseload? 
• How will I be evaluated? How often?

Portfolio

If you're a CF applicant, the people interviewing you will have less evidence that you're a capable applicant. This might be the time that using a portfolio of your work is especially important. A few things I'd include in that portfolio: 

• IEPs and ETRs or clinical reports
• Letters of Reference
• Examples of activities you created
• Examples of Data Sheets
• Copies of thank you notes from families or students
• Examples of RtI programs
• Examples of  visuals you've created for students or teachers

Keep in mind that employers will be looking for professionalism, client confidentiality, and quality of work. 

The market for SLPs really varies from state to state. You might have areas that really need SLPs and other areas where the market it saturated. The best advice is to use practicing SLPs you meet during practicum to learn specific details for your area. Every job I've ever gotten started from word of mouth. You can't beat those resources.

Have you interviewed lately? How did you find the opening? What questions were you asked? What questions did you ask?