31: Q&A Episode
I answer your questions from Instagram: all about my caseload, case managing, service minutes, and more!
Resources Mentioned:
Allison Fors Hearing Loss Clip Art
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transcript episode 31: Q&A Episode
Hello and welcome to the TOD POD, a podcast to support Itinerant Teachers of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, SLPs, and other Deaf Education Professionals. I'm Deanna Barlow from Listening Fun and today we're doing an ask me anything episode as our last episode of 2023. I figured this would be a fun, chill way to end the year answer some questions and the POD will resume on January first with new episodes. So I'm just going to jump right in, I got most of these from Instagram.
How many are on your caseload?
Right now I have 14 on my caseload plus I facilitate our baby and toddler groups which is 3 hours a week. So it's on the lower side because it's all 1 hour long direct service mostly weekly. But also some 2 and 3 times a week kids. I have a lot of early intervention on my caseload. So the kids age out during the year and I pick up new ones. So I have room to maybe pick up 1 or 2 right now depending on their frequency. I'm very lucky to work in a state with like a strong teachers union who advocates for strict contract hours. So a full caseload for us is probably like 20 to 24 hours of service a week ish, depending on like how close everything is together. Two years ago my schools were so close so I could see a lot more students like within my contract hours. But this year with mostly EI I am so spread out. There's way more travel time than I've ever had before and I just can't physically see as many. I'm super grateful to work where I do because I feel like my workload is manageable. Before working here I worked for a small private agency that specialized in hearing loss and I really liked that it was like tight knit and there was a lot of independence. But the hours were a little unsustainable for me. Even though I never had more than like 17 or 18 students I think a lot of them had like higher service frequencies like I had two kids that I saw five days a week, which is like a whole other thing. But I hear stories of people with like 40 to 50 or more students and I just like don't know how that works as an itinerant. Like is it consultative? Do you not have contract hours? Like if this is you please the DM and if anyone wants to come on the POD and explain how they manage this I would love to hear it because it's totally foreign to me.
How is your caseload determined?
It is determined by my supervisor who manages all of the TOD's caseloads. I'm on a team of over 20 TODs, so she's one doing it. It's by location and availability. Mine personally is a little different because of all the early intervention, only like 3 of us really do early intervention. So sometimes we can coordinate amongst ourselves if someone's aging out and someone has availability in certain areas like as kids pop up throughout the year but like I'm not actually in charge of my caseload.
How many students am I the case manager for?
Zero [LAUGH] um, in New Jersey the TODs are not the case managers. I know different states do this differently but here the school psychologist or the school social worker is the case manager, like case manager is their job. So like special ed teachers aren't case managers, TODs aren't case managers. The the case manager is the case manager [LAUGH] So they run the meetings they do the paperwork I just report on my own goals and give input regarding like accommodations and placement and things like that. If you're a case manager and, like a TOD case manager, and you want to talk about it, let me know. I can only talk about things that I have done myself [LAUGH].
Alright, the next one is do you work for state, county, private? In PA we work for intermediate units not districts.
So I work for a special services school district which is similar to like an IU in Pennsylvania. New Jersey is weird because it's made up of like a million tiny towns all of which have their own school districts and are run completely independently of each other. So a lot of them don't have the numbers to support hiring a TOD. So if they need one they can contract with my special services school district to come in and serve as the TOD. So like I work for the special services school district and through them I am personally placed in 4 different school districts. So I am a public school teacher I get benefits and a pension and all that. My district is just tied to the county not to a particular town. Although that's a little misleading too because towns in other counties they can contract with us too. The counties in New Jersey are not that big [LAUGH] um like I'm actually in 4 different counties through early intervention and the schools. But they're all like relatively close together. So I like this setup because I have the benefits of working for a school district in the terms of like the benefits and a union but I'm not like the only TOD, like I'm still in a specialized program. My district is huge and they cover more than just deafness. They have like autism programs like, multiple physical disability programs, a bunch of different continuums besides hearing loss. And the hearing loss continuum itself has like us the itinerant TODS, and like I said there's like 20 of us so it's great to be on a big team. But there's also the school based program. So there's a signing program, there's an auditory oral program. So it's nice that we as itinerants don't get stuck with kids that are misplaced and need a lot more support than an itinerant can provide like there is a placement option for those kids, whether signing or oral. And it feels very comprehensive. So anyway I like it I think it's good if you have any plans to move to New Jersey feel free to DM me [LAUGH]. It's expensive to live here and the taxes are very high but great place to work. So highly recommend.
Next is what program do you use to get pictures/cartoons of hearing aids, cochlear implants, FMs, et cetera?
So I make a lot of my own graphics for my TPT products. I make them in PowerPoint or on the iPad app Procreate. I also buy clipart on TPT. And there's two clip artist sets I can recommend to you. There's one from Allison Fors of hearing equipment and there's one from Stacy Crouse of like hearing aids and CIs and BAHAs and all that. I can link them in the show notes. They're not free. But they're very high quality images. There's also plenty of Google images if you just want them for like personal use. For TPT though I need a license to use them in my products so... when I started making resources, um neither Alison nor Stacy had made their clip art yet so I just learned how to draw them. But honestly, theirs are probably better.
Alright, next is how often do you assess students?
In early intervention we assess every six months. With school age kids I do more informal progress monitoring throughout the year. I probably take data at least once a month or so depending on how often I see the student. Formal assessments are not a part of my role in the schools. The SLPs do the formal assessments that include communication and I just give input as necessary.
Next says as an itinerant TOD, how do you know what to teach when there's no scheme of work?
I stick to the main areas, assuming this is the student who uses listening and spoken language, of listening, language, and self advocacy. I consider that to be my scheme of work. Vocabulary falls within language and vocabulary can often look like supporting academic work. So if a student needs help with like algebra, I can help them with algebra. But I'm focusing on making sure that one, they have the language needed to understand the work, the directions, the instruction, all of that, and two, they have the accommodations needed to follow along in class. Especially if they're struggling. So adding a note taker, getting notes before class, like whatever is needed. So I'm helping them learn algebra but I wouldn't say algebra is in my scheme of work. It's through the lens of why is a student with the hearing loss struggling with algebra and can I address the root cause whether that's through language or acoustics or accommodations. I have a podcast on this episode 20 explaining the role the TOD that goes into more detail about this, especially the accessibility piece and making sure that students have that in place.
Okay, next... how do you figure out service minutes? Is there a correct way to decide how many minutes per week?
So I use the Karen Anderson hearing itinerant service rubric as my main guide, I can link it in the show notes. I can speak very generally on what I tend to see in my area. This isn't like set in stone by any means, there's a lot of individual factors to consider. Where I work we only offer 45 minute sessions because it's unreasonable to travel for anything less. So keep that in mind. But preschoolers they tend to get 2 times a week because they need a lot more like listening, language, self advocacy support, and that's often a mix of push in and pullout services. But it can be more, it can be less. As they get older, it tends to be less as they need less support. So maybe 1 to 2 times a week for elementary. Depending by the time we get to middle school maybe twice a month, high schoolers tend to be once or twice a month. If a child needs more support because of a change in hearing then it would be more. Sometimes if a child gets a lot of other services, it might be less. There are some very young students with very low service frequencies because they only need self advocacy support. I personally like to keep direct usually weekly service until the student is able to demonstrate that they're consistently advocating for themselves if they didn't hear something, using their equipment appropriately and independently, and just generally doing okay or well academically. But like I said it's kind of like a rough rough idea of what I tend to see but it totally depends on the individual and I find that rubric I mentioned to be very helpful.
What app do you use for planning?
I just plan in Google docs. For my school kids I have one doc per kid and then I just like have one little section for each session, like a table. And this also serves as my session notes that I update after the session. So it's just like a running document I can see what I did prior, what I'm going to do next. I also use Google Keep to keep myself organized and I have an episode coming about that in January.
Alright next, do some IEP teams forget to include you and how do you navigate it?
Yeah that's happened before [LAUGH] um obviously not great, but it's happened. When I worked in New York all the IEP meetings were in the spring so around March, February, I would talk to all the teachers and ask about the IEP meeting so they'd remember to include me. In New Jersey the IEP meetings are held all year round so I have to more on top of it. I try to look at when their IEP was held last year and just make sure I touch base the case manager if I think um, they're in danger of forgetting me to make sure I'm included. A lot of them I have like more high contact with so, I know they won't forget me because they hear from me all the time. Because part of my job for especially the older kids is like emailing the teachers different like tips and suggestions and things and the case managers get those emails too. So for the case managers that I have more high contact with I'm not as worried but for the ones where haven't talked to in a long time, I'll try to like see when the last IEP was and try to touch base with them beforehand just so they remember that I'm part of the team. It's not the best system but usually the more contact I have with them the less likely they are to forget me.
Alright, this will be the last one for today. If a student has many areas of growth, how do you prioritize goals?
So I feel like in these cases a lot of times they're probably being supported by a special ed teacher and an SLP. So if that's the case I will tend to focus on what is specific to me. So probably auditory skills or ASL depending on the student and self-advocacy. If listening goals are what they're working on I would just start at the most basic level of the auditory skill hierarchy and work my way up. I talk about this in depth in episode 9. If they're using listening and spoken language, having strong listening skills will be the foundation for everything else. So I would probably focus on that to make sure they don't fall even further behind. For self advocacy I start with them learning some basic information about their own hearing loss, how to change batteries or charge equipment, kind of like the day to day taking care of it what they need to do to have like a successful day that is accessible to them through their equipment. Also I would add in vocabulary even if it's just through like reading books or through classwork I would definitely make sure they have enough functional vocabulary to like get through the day and also to access what they're learning in class. So even if I can't teach them a lot of new things because of like time restraints I at least want to make sure they're accessing the vocabulary in class by previewing, reviewing, stuff like that. Basically in any area I would just look at what would be the most useful and like easiest next thing for them to learn. If something's like too far away I might focus on something a little more functional a little more, something that I can be successful with faster that way I can actually make progress if there's like a lot that needs to be done. But I would probably leave a lot of the academics to the SPED team teacher and even a lot of the language stuff to the SLP outside of vocabulary and collaborate with them, really depends on the case but I would probably try to do what is specific to my specialty and not waste my time doing things like worksheets and things from class unless I am supporting the vocabulary.
Alright I'm going to call it there for today. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast and supporting Listening Fun this year. It means the world to me that teachers like all over are using my resources with their students and listening to this podcast, and I just really appreciate all the support. I'll be taking the next two weeks off from the POD for the holidays. But like I said I'll be back January 1st with the new episode. I am super excited for 2024 and all that is to come. As usual, a transcript and show notes can be found at listentotodpod.com and I'll put all the links I mentioned. Have a great week and Happy New Year! Bye!