Dos and Donts for the coming school year.

I reported back to the schools today and students start next Tuesday.  The first week will be spent getting a schedule together, but within two weeks I should be involved in my caseload.  As I get ready for the year, I thought I would share with you my Dos and Don'ts of working in the schools.

© Zsolt Fulop | Dreamstime.com

 

• Do plan ahead.  All the preparation you do at the beginning of the school year will pay off during and towards the end.  One of the first things I do when I get my caseload, is figure out when IEP's are due and if I have to do testing. I start tentatively scheduling when I'm going to start testing and writing IEP's. 
• Don't Procrastinate.  Never ever put off tomorrow what you can get done today.  One of the things I have learned is that despite my careful planning something will always happen that will throw my schedule out the window.  So I do things as early as I can so that I am not rushing around at the last minute with too many things to do. (Of course that happens anyway, but less frequently when I don't procrastinate.) 
• Do be flexible with your coworkers and students.  You aren't the only one who has an intense amount of pressure on you to meet deadlines and provide quality service. Teachers, other related service professionals, even your administration has an amazing amount of work to do while still trying to be positive for the students.  Your students also feel the pressure, from succeeding in the classroom to dealing with social situations.  Many of our students are already struggling in these areas.  The kid who pushes your buttons probably has low self-esteem about his or her own skills.  
• Don't overbook yourself.  As a school SLP you have an immense amount of paperwork that must be completed.  Try to schedule time to do that.  Don't schedule your students 1:1.  Push in to your special education classes so that you can see large groups of kids at a time. Use the teachers and teaching assistants to help you.  Write your IEP's so that you have flexibility.  Most children on your caseload do fine when you miss a session and don't show regression.  I like to write my IEP's by hours per semester, so that I have flexibility.  Remind parents and teachers that for every hour you see their child, you will spend another hour in service of the child, from documentation to preparing for the lesson.  
• Do document everything. Billable or unbillable, document everything. The unfortunate truth is, you can get named in a law suit, even if someone else messes up.  Your documentation will save you.  It will also save you when people just aren't sure what you are up too. As SLP's, we have a lot of autonomy in the schools, but it's not unusual for people to start to wonder what you are up to.  Again, that documentation will make your life much easier.
• Don't fly by the seat of your pants. There's a term I heard recently: R.A.T.  (Random Acts of Therapy).  This is what you get when you don't have a plan.  Even doing play therapy with the little ones, you have to know what you are working for.  If you don't have a plan of what you want and how you are going to get it, as well as how you will know if it worked, then you get R.A.T. .  
• Do K.I.S.S (Keep it simple, sweetheart.) While you shouldn't make it up as you go, you don't have to make it complicated or elaborate.  I like to follow a routine, I do very similar things each session, so my students aren't guessing about what comes next.  My lessons follow a similar format and I just build on the last lesson.  This means that I am not having to make up a new lesson each session, or even each week. I have an easier time measuring progress, and I save a lot of time in prep.
• Don't waste your students time. We like to be fun and entertaining.  And I am not against games at all.  But remember this: That 8 year old only has one year to be 8.  He has a lot of things to learn this year, and every time he's in my room, he's missing out on what the other 8 year olds are learning. I need to make sure his time with me is worth it. 
• Do have a back up plan. In my practice, I use games as my back up as opposed to my standard operating procedure.  Our jobs require us to be "on" the entire time we are working with kids. We don't give out busy work, we don't have free time, or self selection.  But some days, being "on" is really tough. Some days we just don't feel well, but we aren't sick enough to use a sick day.  A good language rich game is a good back up.  It helps keep me engaged with the kids while still not wasting their time. 
• Don't be afraid to try something new.  The worst thing you can do as a therapist is become set in your ways. Inflexibility regarding strategy, scheduling, and service delivery will make for a frustrating life for you and your coworkers, and well as limit your quality of service for your students.  Things have changed drastically since I was in Grad school, and I suspect that it will only continue to change.  Keeping up with and being willing to adapt to the changes improves the quality of your service.
• Do follow the lead of the veterans. When I first started working in the schools, I worked with an SLP who had many more years experience.  I remember watching her, and thinking "Why is she doing that? That's so much extra work."  Turned out there was a method for her madness and that little bit of extra work each day saved her hours at the end of the school year.  
• Don't under estimate your skills. If you are a new SLP, don't worry, you know more than you realize.  I've been an SLP for 16 years, and last school year I had the pleasure to work with an SLP who'd only been out of school for 2 years. I learned so much from her.  She was fresh with the most up to date information.  And she directed me to new places in terms of organization and my knowledge base.  So new or old, you've got a lot to offer. 
• Do learn from other professionals.  And by other professionals, I mean the OT's, PT's, counselors, social workers, PE teachers, Reading Coaches, etc. that you work with.  In the schools, you are going to run into a lot of people with a lot of different skills: behavior management, crisis prevention, classroom management.  We didn't learn that in school, but these are people who can share what they know, and that knowledge will really help you out.

What are your Dos and Don'ts?  Leave a comment. 

I reported back to the schools today and students start next Tuesday.  The first week will be spent getting a schedule together, but within two weeks I should be involved in my caseload.  As I get ready for the year, I thought I would share with you my Dos and Don'ts of working in the schools.

© Zsolt Fulop | Dreamstime.com

 

• Do plan ahead.  All the preparation you do at the beginning of the school year will pay off during and towards the end.  One of the first things I do when I get my caseload, is figure out when IEP's are due and if I have to do testing. I start tentatively scheduling when I'm going to start testing and writing IEP's. 
• Don't Procrastinate.  Never ever put off tomorrow what you can get done today.  One of the things I have learned is that despite my careful planning something will always happen that will throw my schedule out the window.  So I do things as early as I can so that I am not rushing around at the last minute with too many things to do. (Of course that happens anyway, but less frequently when I don't procrastinate.) 
• Do be flexible with your coworkers and students.  You aren't the only one who has an intense amount of pressure on you to meet deadlines and provide quality service. Teachers, other related service professionals, even your administration has an amazing amount of work to do while still trying to be positive for the students.  Your students also feel the pressure, from succeeding in the classroom to dealing with social situations.  Many of our students are already struggling in these areas.  The kid who pushes your buttons probably has low self-esteem about his or her own skills.  
• Don't overbook yourself.  As a school SLP you have an immense amount of paperwork that must be completed.  Try to schedule time to do that.  Don't schedule your students 1:1.  Push in to your special education classes so that you can see large groups of kids at a time. Use the teachers and teaching assistants to help you.  Write your IEP's so that you have flexibility.  Most children on your caseload do fine when you miss a session and don't show regression.  I like to write my IEP's by hours per semester, so that I have flexibility.  Remind parents and teachers that for every hour you see their child, you will spend another hour in service of the child, from documentation to preparing for the lesson.  
• Do document everything. Billable or unbillable, document everything. The unfortunate truth is, you can get named in a law suit, even if someone else messes up.  Your documentation will save you.  It will also save you when people just aren't sure what you are up too. As SLP's, we have a lot of autonomy in the schools, but it's not unusual for people to start to wonder what you are up to.  Again, that documentation will make your life much easier.
• Don't fly by the seat of your pants. There's a term I heard recently: R.A.T.  (Random Acts of Therapy).  This is what you get when you don't have a plan.  Even doing play therapy with the little ones, you have to know what you are working for.  If you don't have a plan of what you want and how you are going to get it, as well as how you will know if it worked, then you get R.A.T. .  
• Do K.I.S.S (Keep it simple, sweetheart.) While you shouldn't make it up as you go, you don't have to make it complicated or elaborate.  I like to follow a routine, I do very similar things each session, so my students aren't guessing about what comes next.  My lessons follow a similar format and I just build on the last lesson.  This means that I am not having to make up a new lesson each session, or even each week. I have an easier time measuring progress, and I save a lot of time in prep.
• Don't waste your students time. We like to be fun and entertaining.  And I am not against games at all.  But remember this: That 8 year old only has one year to be 8.  He has a lot of things to learn this year, and every time he's in my room, he's missing out on what the other 8 year olds are learning. I need to make sure his time with me is worth it. 
• Do have a back up plan. In my practice, I use games as my back up as opposed to my standard operating procedure.  Our jobs require us to be "on" the entire time we are working with kids. We don't give out busy work, we don't have free time, or self selection.  But some days, being "on" is really tough. Some days we just don't feel well, but we aren't sick enough to use a sick day.  A good language rich game is a good back up.  It helps keep me engaged with the kids while still not wasting their time. 
• Don't be afraid to try something new.  The worst thing you can do as a therapist is become set in your ways. Inflexibility regarding strategy, scheduling, and service delivery will make for a frustrating life for you and your coworkers, and well as limit your quality of service for your students.  Things have changed drastically since I was in Grad school, and I suspect that it will only continue to change.  Keeping up with and being willing to adapt to the changes improves the quality of your service.
• Do follow the lead of the veterans. When I first started working in the schools, I worked with an SLP who had many more years experience.  I remember watching her, and thinking "Why is she doing that? That's so much extra work."  Turned out there was a method for her madness and that little bit of extra work each day saved her hours at the end of the school year.  
• Don't under estimate your skills. If you are a new SLP, don't worry, you know more than you realize.  I've been an SLP for 16 years, and last school year I had the pleasure to work with an SLP who'd only been out of school for 2 years. I learned so much from her.  She was fresh with the most up to date information.  And she directed me to new places in terms of organization and my knowledge base.  So new or old, you've got a lot to offer. 
• Do learn from other professionals.  And by other professionals, I mean the OT's, PT's, counselors, social workers, PE teachers, Reading Coaches, etc. that you work with.  In the schools, you are going to run into a lot of people with a lot of different skills: behavior management, crisis prevention, classroom management.  We didn't learn that in school, but these are people who can share what they know, and that knowledge will really help you out.

What are your Dos and Don'ts?  Leave a comment.