46: End of the Year & Fall Prep with Melinda Smith
Melinda shares so many helpful, specific tips for end of the year activities as well as tips for preparing for back to school time, ahead of time!
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46: End of the Year & Fall Prep with Melinda Smith
[MUSIC]
D: 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 talking about preparing for the end of the year and the fall with Melinda Smith. Thanks so much for being here today Melinda.
M: I'm so happy to be with you.
D: Can you tell everyone a little about yourself and your role?
M: Yes, I've been an itinerant teacher for well, this is the end of my twenty sixth year. I've been teaching for...
D: Wow.
M: [LAUGH] I've been teaching for 28 years and I'm a multi-district itinerant teacher. So during the time I've been being an itinerant I've had anywhere from like 7 to 8 districts, right now I have 3, but it's always multi district itinerant and I'm in the Chicagoland area in the suburbs.
D: Nice I'm also multi district. So I understand it's, it's an interesting dynamic for sure.
M: Yes, definitely and having multiple districts means having multiple kinds of IEP software, multiple kinds of policies and procedures, that add an extra element to being itinerant.
D: Yes, definitely uniquely challenging. So that being said, where you are in your role, what is the TOD responsible for at the end of the year?
M: Well, we do have to, we're in charge of our own of equipment. Although we do have an educational audiologist on staff. We are the ones that go out and tend to it and care for it during the year and pick it up and bring it in so that's one thing we do is on the last day of the year and again with multiple districts it you know I have multiple ending dates which is a plus and a minus at least not everybody ends on the same day. So I don't have to be you know at every school on the last day but I do have to get there on the last day and pick up everyone's equipment. For certain students I have to uninstall receivers into their um from their implants or their hearing aids. Certainly graduating seniors or kids that are moving, w have to do the uninstall process and gather everything up and then I meet with the educational audiologist to kind of check out and go through each piece of equipment that is um I spend some time in between pickup and checking out with her going through the bag making sure everything's in there kind of cleaning everything up because's usually it's kind of a disaster with cords everywhere and everything so I kind of um, kind of prep in a little bit so that when I do sit down with her to check out um, it goes pretty pretty smoothly. Everything is already clean and ready and then we go through each, each piece of equipment and check the serial numbers make sure everything is accounted for and everything that I put in everything that I put in the bag at the beginning of the year is returning at the end of the year. I also have to check out with vision and hearing secretary, she does a checkout with each of us. We go through each each student's log sheet. We do have to keep track as multi district itinerant. We do have to, we're billing the districts for our time and so I do keep track of every you know all the consult minutes and all the direct minutes. So we do sit down and check out with her and make sure each of our log sheets are in order and all the minutes are tended to and that all of our paperwork is handed in, each IEP and all that.
D: Question about the equipment because in my current role the educational audiologists collect the equipment. I'm not allowed to touch those receivers with the ten foot pole [LAUGH] um the installed ones you know.
M: Yes.
D: But in my previous job I was collecting the equipment. Um, it was before those receivers were a thing, but we kind of had a system where we put everything basically in like these big ziploc bags and we wrote on them with like a sharpie, the children's name, the serial number on the outside. It was all like very very labeled because everything basically got sent back to Phonak for summer service and it was really nice to have the serial numbers were in on the outside because then when like things came back, you would be able to tell like what went to who like it was just really organized. Do you have any like organization systems for when you're doing equipment for people who do deal with equipment?
M: Yes, well we do obviously have when the receivers are installed which is certainly not for everyone, certainly there's still plenty of kids that are attaching their you know Roger 20s to their Nucleus 7s or whatever and I literally have you know I I'm going to actually literally take the receiver with me. Um for the kids that are, whose equipment is installed, she the educational audiologist keeps those and we call them empty shells. You know so the brain of the if you will the brain of the receiver has been taken out of it. She keeps them during the school year and and label with the child's name and the school district to which that child is assigned and so then right around actually last week she emailed and said you know please email me and let me know what shells you need what what graduating seniors do you have, who's moving, and so then I let her know you know this is these are my students who I'm going to need those shells back so that I can do that process of the uninstallation. And she just kind of keeps them all organized at the office. I happen to be in a group of 18 deaf and hard of hearing teachers, so there's a whole, we serve um I think over seventy school districts total. So she kind of has a whole because um, so obviously that makes for a lot of equipment I think we have more than 250 students who are, who have some kind of um, assistive listening device. So she manages to keep all those, all those receivers and other equipment organized for us. Um, and then we just ask for ask for what we need.
D: You have one audiologist for all of that?
M: Yes, yes.
D: We have like 5, we have like, I'm in a similar program but we have like 5 of them. [LAUGH]
M: She doesn't, she doesn't test any kids, I mean so she's not actually seeing students as far I mean as far as she's not doing any educational um audiology as or she's not doing any conventional audiology.
D: Like clinical audiology.
M: Right, clinical audiology. She's not seeing kids, she used to. But in in her current role all she's doing is basically FM and and DM system management for us. Yes.
D: Yeah, it's nice to have that as a resource so you know someone to like check in with. Where do you store the equipment that's not being sent out because that was always a big thing for me because like for us like the equipment belongs to the district. So I don't physically take it with me. I have to find somewhere in the district to store it over the summer and that like varies like sometimes it was like special services, sometimes it was just like the principal's office in the building I knew they would be in next. So like I had to kind of like case by case, figure out the best place to store this equipment so that I would be able to find it again in the fall. But it was always annoying to find like the right place to put it. Do you have like a system for that?
M: When I sit down with the educational audiologist I am literally checking it into her because we buy, we buy all the equipment, the co-op I work for buys all of the equipment in a big kind of clearinghouse kind of a way so the districts all the districts do rent them rent the equipment from us on an annual basis. But they're not purchasing the equipment for a specific student.
D: Got it.
M: So when I when I check it in, she's taking care of summer service for us and organizing it and then literally she just has big giant bins with each of our names on them and as she's checking them in she's organizing it again for fall after she does the summer service and cleaning.
D: Nice. That's it I never heard that system before but that sounds like it would be kind of nice to actually be in charge of all the equipment as opposed to me like helping the districts be in charge of their own equipment which is kind of what we have to deal with.
M: Oh oh, it's actually fantastic. Part of my role is also to be a supervisor in another co-op and they do buy their own equipment and and buying it ourselves is such a huge plus because if a kid moves out tomorrow or a kid moves in tomorrow and we have something we have we already have you know whatever touchscreens in in stock, we can just assign it. We don't have to you know then go to the school district ask for them to you know, initiate a P.O. and all that kind of stuff we have all kinds of stuff that we already have because we're such a large group. It's a big plus. Frankly.
D: Yeah, that's an interesting thing for people to consider maybe starting at their programs. If they have the capacity like if it's a big enough program because I feel like that could be really helpful for like a lot of reasons, but off topic. Anyway, I was just curious I'm always curious about like the little nitty gritty stuff of how people do that because like just like finding a place to put that box of equipment at the end of the year like is so annoying you know, because I wanted to be safe. But I also want to it's somewhere accessible that I can get to it. Ok so that was what you do at the end of the year, oh but I interrupted you there's more that you do at the end of the year.
M: Well I would say and and obviously every teacher every every teacher and especially itinerant teachers are very different. But I the reason I I was considered doing this topic is because to me the end of the year is completely married to the beginning of the year.
D: Right.
M: Tons tons of what I do, I mean other people would you know like can't wait to hit the door as fast as possible for the break which I totally get that and I can't wait for the door as well. However, I always found that it's much easier to keep on rolling than to start getting rolling and so and so while I'm ah while I'm already in the in the school thinking and school mindset, I can do a whole bunch of preparation for fall and so I actually prepare um my student materials for the fall. Once we have our case loads because again in a big group. So once we have our case loads I spend a great deal amount of time preparing student materials and student in-service materials. So the things that I bring out to, to each of the schools to provide in-service for all the students that I serve.
D: What specifically does that look like for you?
M: So um, as far as the student materials, what I do is I prepare, what I do is I go to Teachers Pay Teachers, there's there's several of these that are available, they're um, they're just free kind of templates for printing printing on to post it notes. And so what I do is I take each student's objective. So let's say a student has 2 goals and they have 3 objectives per goal I print onto little post-it notes each of the objectives um that that is are going to be ones that I'm working on. So if it's if it's a consult objective things that I'm observing in the class and you know those kind of things I don't print that but things you know following direction goals or learning about their hearing loss, anything that I'm actually going to be working on um, during the one on one lessons, I print those onto little post and notes and then I put them on files and so on file folders. Um, so that a student you know, student in my example with 2 goals with 6 objectives I end up having 6 little file folders with the post-it note right on the outside of that folder and then I fill them. And so that so that at any point during the school year whether it's October or you know February I don't need to go searching for materials and what is the kids' goal I don't know I can't remember I've got too many kids in too many places and all the IEPs I have.
Of course every itinerant program is different but we can run up to 50 kids and so I found that on years I didn't prepare these materials the whole school year I was chasing after myself trying to find materials. What am I going to do with Billy tomorrow? What am I going to do with Juan next week? And that's just unmanageable. So if I have if I've pre-made these folders with the post it note read on the front that has materials in there that go with that objective then literally no matter how crazy it is I literally all I have to do is grab it because Melinda in May or June will have prepared that for herself.
D: [LAUGH]
M: And I know that what what's in there is what that student needs for me to work on. And then as far as in-service, I prepare like as I said this is the end of my 26 year being itinerant. So I've changed many many many times how I've done this. I've really settled on giving a pretty a pretty significant packet of information. I've been through you know, slimming it down and making it big again and everything and frankly, you know there is no way for me to when if there is no way for me to prove that I told you something when I have an a anywhere from 10 minutes that they're gonna give me to in-service to an hour sitting down with someone. And I don't want to hear back from someone in October that they never told I never told them that they needed to turn on captioning so there is going to be a page in my in-service packet that shows them exactly how to do captioning and there's going to be every every single thing I need them to know is going to be in my in-service packet. And so I prepare the in-service packets in May or June as I'm as I'm kind of closing up for the year for every student and they're individualized for that student and their individual needs and individual accommodations. I print I literally print out the accommodations page from their IEP or 504 plan that's in the packet. I have made up a page one year um about the dangers of Youtube captioning. [LAUGH] I have all kinds of stuff in there. But um I prepare the packets and um and I so and I also scan them in so that I have I both have I make make photocopies but I also scan them in so that during the year at any point, if I need to email it to somebody I've already pre-scanned that in I just go to my little digital file under that student's name and I can literally in 5 minutes email you the in service packet at any point during the school year.
D: That's a very organized [LAUGH] I'm very impressed. I won't lie to you I'm usually doing that the first day of school [LAUGH] but that's, to be fair, we we find out our caseloads the week before school starts. Like I don't know my caseload at the end of the year. So I have an idea like you know like I have a sense but I don't know like for sure. So you can prepare for some kids that you know you're going to have again but like it's not like guaranteed and until the school year starts. But I feel like if you know or if you have a sense of kids that are returning to you especially and you know them, preparing those packets ahead of time is probably really nice. Right now I am in more of like a slim in-service era but like I do like the idea of covering yourself in the sense that like I gave you all this information. So I definitely think you could do it both ways.
M: Right, you get you get enough um either either for myself or hearing from colleagues hearing enough times that they've had challenges with that or been burned by that you tend to get really get move towards you know what, I'm going to give it to you and then I know I gave it to you kind of philosophy. Frankly.
D: Right? Yeah, that does make sense. [LAUGH] Um, is there anything else that you like to do in the at the end of the year to prepare for fall?
M: Well I also prepare if if I know that I'm transitioning a student away to one of my colleagues. Um either because I don't serve that next and you know they're moving like sometimes some of our students they're in a K-8 district and so I don't and I don't necessarily serve the high school district or whatever. Or we're moving caseloads around, I certainly prepare ah transition materials for that teacher and so that they so that I really, it's really about the kid. I'm trying to make sure that that student be be as well cared for as I possibly can and so if I if I can prepare if I can prepare a little bit of transition report with some inside scoop either on the school if I'm handing the school off. You know this is the parking, this is the you know, this is this is who you're gonna talk to to get turned on for the IEP software, this is who you're gonna you know this is who can help you find a room to work in, that kind of stuff or. Things about the student things that wouldn't necessarily appear in the in the IEP or I also sometimes share what I what I'm actually working on. So let's say I'm making my way through a certain program or book I literally I can say to that that teacher that's receiving the my student. Hey I'm I don't you know you can do whatever you want, but I made it till page 28 feel free to start on page 29 I mean that kind of thing. So I certainly do whatever I can to prepare the receiving teacher via a transition report, just informal, but I do my best to do that.
M: Um, I also I prepare my parent letters again, you know at the beginning of the year it is completely chaos and I want to um I don't want I want to be able to get everything ready that I possibly can so I send a little, it's very simple but it's a little introduction letter. So I prepare those. And I just put you know, August whatever the first Monday in August is is is usually what I put for the date. And that way I'm ready to send it whenever whenever it's time to send it because again my district started at different times but it's already um and I just need to put it in the envelope and get it out the door. I also prepare a Google survey for most of the students. Especially certainly certainly every high school student definitely because that's how I gather a lot of my data for updating consult, updating consult goals um is by surveying so I will if I've made one before I'll take a look at the goals that I've written and do any tweaking to that Google survey or if I'm making one for the first time I'll ask questions like I have a giant list, well not so giant, but anyway I have maybe 10 things I guess of things that I'm that typical advocacy type things that our students will do and make it you know a checkoff box like you know, does Deanna do this in your class and then hoping that they'll check off the ones that the student is doing, like ask for noise reduction, asking for captioning, availing them themselves of um opportunities to redo assignments or assessments. Um, those just to name a few that are on there. I also ask a question about how often does the child or the student ask for clarification and this is one thing I've tweaked a lot over the years. I've pretty much settled on recently, consistently, from time to time, um occasionally. And then the last two are never slash or rarely slash never and should be doing so more often and rarely slash never and doesn't seem to need it because I really need because I you know we have kids that are not asking for clarification or confirmation or repetition and they check that box that says rarely or never. And then I find myself like you know should I be concerned about that and then so now I've created that those kind of that duality of really and never but hey that's okay or you know what really that they need to be doing that you know that kind of thing. So anyway. So I prepare that Google survey again. That's one of those things where I'm going to be needing to send that out multiple times during the school year and if I need to be making it times you know 40 kids when am I going to do that I'm running around like a nut all day. I mean so if those things are the more I prepare for myself I mean I'm doing this for the students and my own sanity right? All of these things and so even though it's, it seems like we're I know we're talking about end of the year but to me end of the year is preparing for the following year and so that I can so my my life while teaching and my in my general work life is manageable. Um, yeah.
D: Serious question though, when do you have time to do all this at the end of the year?
M: I'm doing it I'm frankly doing it on my own time I'm doing it after the after the school year's over and so um, usually usually I'm like once I'm once like this year my last day is may thirty first and so I've pretty much planned that that first week of June I'm going into the office every day and this is what I'm doing. And that because again I'd rather keep going because in August or even late July I'm like oh I don't want to go I'm like I want to do it like you know that kind of thing and it's really hard to get rolling and and but if I'm so if I'm going if I'm already going in every day you know and this year happens to be I'm done on a Friday. Like okay I'll go in on Monday I'm still I mean I'm still in the I'm still in the mindset right? I'm still rolling and so um, yes, I'm I really am doing it on my own time but I would be if I was doing it in August you're doing it on your own time then too you know so I'm just kind of doing it at the end. Not to say that I don't go in I usually you know I usually start up, you know a week or so before I start. But um, but again I'm preparing for that's when I start emailing people and starting you know, starting to actually schedule in services and that kind of thing. But if I needed to make the packets then too I mean not to say that I don't have some of those because I have kids that go for audio over the summer and I have and certainly we have kids that you know have moved in or changes to caseload that happened over the summer because we got a big minute move in and all of a sudden this caseload shift. So I try to just do as much as I possibly can so that I'm able to manage what comes at me at ah at a blast in early August.
D: Yeah, that makes sense. We have like 2 or 3 days at the beginning of the year that are not um, like we're not going out like we're meant to be in the um like office like in our home base doing like this kind of stuff and like it probably takes more than that amount of time but like I try to be diligent when like I know I want to like chit chat with my colleagues and stuff because like I haven't seen them and like you know it the beginning of the year but like I um I try to use that time to actually get the stuff done and then like you said I reuse a stuff lot of stuff year to year so it it's not like totally working from scratch. So I can try to like squeeze it in and I almost feel like not knowing at the end of the year is like a blessing. It's like a go forth be done. There's nothing more you can do. We'll see you, we start in September so it's like see you in September like um, like after labor day. So like you know.
M: Yes. I get that completely.
D: Um, so I feel like it. Ah I try to squeeze it in those first 2 like prep days. Um, can't always do it but I try. But I think it's realistic to hear like how people actually get all that done because people always say like oh work within your contract hours. Don't use your own time and I'm like oh sometimes I got to use my own time. Just sometimes. [LAUGH]
M: Right? Well and just like you know, just like ah if I was a classroom teacher. You're going in in August or or early September to set up your room right? I mean that's our equivalent our ah making in-service packets and preparing student materials is the equivalent of us setting up our classroom. They are not doing that they're doing that before their contracted day they have to because you know they might only get it 1 or 2 in-service days in some districts don't give you any free time you know your in your institute days are literally or your you know startup days or whatever are just filled with meetings meeting after meeting after meeting so they're doing it too. They just have a different kind of you know, different stuff to do than we do.
D: Yeah, makes sense. Ok so that was a lot of very helpful, very specific information about preparing for the fall. I really appreciate that I love when people give specifics like that like especially like with like the survey like um, you know rarely, but it's fine like such an important caveat like. You know and that's the kind of thing where like you could really only learn by experience by like getting these surveys back and be like yeah but it's fine like how do I reflect that so I appreciate you sharing those like little tidbits because that's like exactly that's exactly why like to do a podcast because I feel like when people are talking they share these like little tidbits of information that are like oh my god that's so helpful. [LAUGH] Um, so I really appreciate all of those specifics.
Okay so switching gears a little bit from that was like all the fall prep stuff which is super super valuable and I think if anyone does have time at the end of the year to get started on that like they you just gave them plenty ideas of what they can work on. Before like the end of the year with actually the students like in your sessions do you have any favorite activities things that are like your go to that you do at the end of the year um with your students?
M: Well I try to keep and I'm kind of getting into that too because ah, right about now. Um, because again I'm done the end of may so the last you know three weeks or so I really try to I mean not that I'm not trying to keep it fun all year I am and some of my kids I think they go home and say that you know just play games with Mrs. Smith but, but I really try to keep it as fun and kind of different um by the time I get to the last couple of 3 weeks because they've really had it and and we've all kind of had it so like so I try to keep it, um I do a lot of games for example, um and I'll just give some specific examples I love your self advocacy dice game bingo games.
D: Ah, thanks.
M: No really um, the the kids love them too. I just played one yesterday and I didn't even think about the fact that I was going to be meeting with you today but I literally did um the one with one on vocabulary. Because there's so there's multiple topics they can be used over multiple age groups. So I love those. There's also...
D: Yeah I end up making a lot of my games in the end of the year because I'm like oh my god I'm bored like like that's when I end up making that stuff because I'm like I can't do another boring activity like I need a game like these kids are sick of me. [LAUGH]
M: Yeah, so and and there and and then you're still I mean you're still working on their goals or still working on an advocacy or whatever it is that you need to be working on without it, you know and really making it fun and they think you like isn't this great like you know because they really enjoy it and it's so much more interactive. So there's also ah a set of Bingo games that I like that um a mighty Voice Speech and Language and listening created. Um, those are those are a set of Bingo games that she has that are about implants and hearing aids and I enjoy doing those with kids. I'll play battleship with kids. It's an excellent auditory discrimination activity for kids with auditory discrim because you know B E C D I mean they'll sound all very similar right? So Um, and you can add noise if necessary or whatever so you're still working on auditory discrim but yet like but they think we're playing battleship you know and so. [LAUGH]
D: Yeah, one of my favorites. And if ah if you don't have battleship. You don't want to carry it around. There is a free ipad version. It's not called that if you search battleship it pops up even though it's not called battleship. I use it all the time because I'm not going to I can't I'm not carrying around battleship but I will play it on the ipad.
M: Yeah, absolutely and I've also I also just recently found um, a kind of color forms version if you're old enough to remember color color forms they are literally a dollar at the dollar store. And because of course we're always I mean we're always worrying about how much we're carrying around with us. So I try to keep it light so I do have the mini battleship. Um, that is just a little small little version of the game. But you also can do the color forms battleship.
D: Yeah.
M: Which is literally just you know like a cardboard card with these little sticking little card little ah color form stickies.
D: They're like magnets like kind of right like yeah okay.
M: Kind of yes exactly I mean it does it you it uses vinyl. That's how it sticks but it is that same kind of idea just peel and stick kind of a thing and those were um literally we're a dollar at the dollar store a dollar 25 I guess now.
D: What a great find. Yeah oh my I'll keep my eye off for that. Not that I need any more stuff. But... [LAUGH]
M: Yes, yes, um, yeah, yes, very light, easy to carry and um, a lot of fun. So I also have become quite a fan of um, here's a new author, she's doesn't she doesn't have that many followers so I would just like to give her a shout out Miss B TOD I don't know her at all I don't I don't I mean I I don't know her personally in any way I've never talked with her but my gosh she's got some great stuff. Um, Miss B TOD is her is her is her...
D: Yeah I've talked with her on Instagram she's super nice. Yeah.
M: And you and she has she has these set ah in the um of holiday and seasonal sets, and they're just amazing. Um, because it it'll have multiple um goal strategy ah goal targets in there. So. Um, she has a summer one, end of the year one, and so I mean there's things on idioms, there's things on advocacy, I mean so the thing is that's great about her these little sets that she has is that literally I can use them with many many kids across many many different kinds of goal targets and so I I really and the kids like them they're they're fun and um interactive to do them together. And they're kind of crafty. They're kind of like you know craft, craftivity I guess is the word right now right? [LAUGH]
D: Fun. Yeah, and also for everyone listening thing I will link all of the things that Melinda's mentioning in the show notes. So you don't have to write them down I will go through and link them all. So if you're if one of them catches your ear you can go ahead and check the links.
M: Absolutely. And TOD Times Two has a couple fun things. They have a new a brand new jeopardy I am I have to say that people are always telling me like I'm the materials queen because you know I've been doing this gig a long time and I would say the two hardest things about being itinerant in my view, kind of man organizing managing spinning all the plates right? And and having kids in in so many different places at so many different levels we have kids who are you know profoundly Deaf with a capital D all the way to a kid with a mild you know, unilateral hearing loss right? And and they're you know and and for us they're 3 to 22 so I mean it couldn't be more varied and then the other part of it is the fact that we're not, we don't have a curriculum per se. We we get a set of goals or we create the goals. But either way we have goals and then we have to come up with ways ways to to work on those in in an engaging and progress producing way and so um, over over my many years I just am constantly on the search for new stuff. Um, because and also we also many of us including myself have the same students year after year. So I could have a really great activity. But I can't use it with him because I used it with him last year so I need to come up with more I need to keep looking keep looking keep looking so I'm there's an and I'm also a big fan of the TOD Times Two teacher author. They haven't new I haven't used it yet. But I just purchased their end of the year Jeopardy game for this year because again I got you know want to want to keep keep it fresh with the kids and and kids love jeopardy. So um, I'm going to give that a whirl.
And then of course I also depending on the student of course um and their goals and the age and all that I also will have them create some kind of in-service either for their peers or for and or for their teachers. So I have a couple templates that I that I use or I invite the child to start it from started from nothing. Um, and I've got kids that pick both. Just yesterday I started one on ah a student who has a bilateral nucleus sevens and I showed him I showed him um a template from um from Stacy Crouse that I love that I've that I've used for many years and um it's just a fantastic template for student student led in-service. And then I also have one um I have yours from Listening Fun and then I also have a one that Phonak created and the neat one about phonac is that ah is that um, they have both implant and hearing aid in there even though they're not even though they're not really an implant company. Although they do have a cooperative relationship with advanced bionics. Um, and those are and that's free. So I I show the kid like I show the kiddo um, a couple of the templates and I will show them a couple of other examples from other students that have made them and and then also I also invite them, you know like hey if you just want to start with blank Google slides or a blank powerpoint, we can do that too. And I would say it's about sixty forty that the kids choose a template but like yesterday that student said hey I just want to start with blank Google slides and I was like okay, let's go for it. So we we can do that and then they prepare it in here here in the end of the year and then we can actually kind of perform if you will for their for their receiving class in the fall. So that we make it in, we make it in April or May and then in in September when we really start rolling I will have them practice see if I want see if they want to change anything based on what has occurred in the past few weeks as they got started with the year maybe put a fresh picture if they'd like um and then we do it together for the class. Most of the students I kind of stand nearby. Sometimes they'll have me kind of co present with them although depending on the student I try to encourage them to kind of take ownership of it. But I do try to be there because often I've I've had a few times where the kid's like oh it's fine I'll do it myself and then the teacher will tell me like it. It went great until they got to the question part. And then the peer started asking questions that my student couldn't answer and so it is kind of good to be handy to be nearby just so that you can help with the student question part at the end of the presentation. I also will... go ahead.
D: Yeah, the oh sorry I would just say having this I love having students work on a presentation like that a lot of my kids like don't either like they don't really want to present or maybe they don't want to present to their peers but they'll be present for like the in-service to the teachers, kind of varies. But I just feel like just making the presentation is such a nice wrap up activity. I can even tell them I'm like- listen we don't have to present this but like it's just nice to like wrap up everything just to like make sure that we all are on the same page about what is necessary for next year. I feel like it kind of sets them up for success and also just. Shows you if there's any glaring holes in their knowledge that you somehow did not hit that year or like for some reason like just didn't stick for them because I feel like a lot of the kids have a good grasp of a lot of that information by the end of the year but then every once in a while you'll get to a slide about something and they'll be like oh I have no idea what my testing accommodations are and I'm like what do you mean you have no idea what your testing accommodations are? Like we've talked about this like so it's just helpful to like reveal to you what what's you still need to work on and then also just to help the student realize like what is important for what what they will be responsible for if they get older in terms of advocacy like it's important that I let other people know this specific information like maybe we don't have to spend a ton of time on the parts of the ear when they're older but like I need to know my testing accommodations like you can kind of like talk about like what's important to share and what is important to know, but maybe not important to tell everybody else. Um, so I do like doing that even if they're not going to present because some kids just they're not going to present or they don't have the opportunity to present for whatever reason. But I still like to do it I think it's really helpful. And I like that you said that sometimes you give them blank slides because I do that too I'll pull up the template as like ah an outline of sorts but they love picking their own backgrounds and the crazy gradients and the crazy fonts and I'm like listen, you do you. This is your presentation like I do not care. But let's at least like make sure we're hitting the main points and that's why I have like my base one and then for the kids that want that one great and for the kids that want to do their own I love it, put your stamp on it.
M: Absolutely and two things came to mind when you're talking 1 thing. You're absolutely right about catching things that you might not have never ever noticed. For example, that student yesterday when we when we started making it he he wrote, he said I have I have bilateral or I have I have cochlear implants because I have hearing “lost”. And he he wrote lost right? And um and he made maybe he's said that to me before but I didn't hear it I didn't hear it quite hear that t. But when he typed it on the screen I was like okay, let's talk about the difference between hearing loss. It's hearing loss l o s s. Um, and and you know and I I might not have caught that if he hadn't have typed that on that type that on that slide. The other thing is I I even the kids who I'm not and certainly it's only a so small portion of the kids that are actually getting up and making the presentation. Um I do want them to make and that was like a peer presentation. But I do want them to make a presentation in introducing themselves to their receiving teachers which I come which is actually a completely different kind of vibe when I when we're making that. What I do with with those for that is I have the student and to obviously depending on the age. But we go through the accommodations that are on their IEP and I have them write them in their own words and so and then we will go through after they do that, then we'll I'll have them pick at least 3 to 5 at minimum 3 but sometimes even as many as eight are that they they feel are the most important. And then they create then they can create a presentation or a brochure or some kind of way to share that with the teachers because I found that I mean I could get up there and tell them you know you need to do this. You need to do this. The losses. You know it's in the IEP you have to do it. But if my student either by telling them or by making this brochure that says, you know these are the these are the 3 most important things you can do for me. Um, they really that that just really gets right to the heart of that that those teachers like that those classroom teachers. Like it's not just Mrs. Smith saying that that you know this is what my student needs. It is me the student, you know the fifth grader saying please seriously turn on the captioning that really helps me, it helps also kind of help as we're doing as we're going through that process, they're really, um, really learning about their accommodations in in a new way because of course I've got these you know I've got the big fancy, you know, kind of IEP words and then writing them in their own words and do I really need that how often do I use that and am I am I do I get that all the time because the teacher just knows to turn on the captioning for me and then you have a big discussion about well why are they doing that and what if they don't do it and all that kind of stuff it opens to the door to wonderful conversation that although just like you said when right now there's this you know there's this person in the background the itinerant teacher that's kind of stacking the deck to your benefit but sooner or later it's gonna be you that's gonna have to tell them. You know whether it's in the high school or college hey really I need the captioning turned on for me or I'm or I'm not going to really be able to follow or follow along or I'm going to need note taking assistance because as soon as I look down I'm not going to be able to take you know I'm taking notes but then I can't read the captioning at the same time and all that kind of stuff. So um I have kids that make brochures, you know all kinds of different ways to kind of make it so that it's them telling them. I'm still going to I'm still going to say it no doubt about it. But if I can get the student to say it to then it just kind of really underscores that the how important it is.
D: Yeah, and when I was making my template one of the things I put in there is like asking for specific examples of times that they used it or times that it wasn't available. So that I could get like some like really specific examples to share with the teachers I related to that specific student because I have like a lot of anecdotes that I can share with teachers of like you know like oh like if ah, the student asks you something like don't say nevermind because I've had a lot of high schoolers who have told me that makes them feel terrible and like it makes them feel like they are not included and it seems like no big deal blah blah but but if I have like specific anecdotes from the student themselves it just hits a little harder because it's like I can say like Johnny told me last year in history they put on a documentary and it didn't have captions and he was so confused and he was so stressed for the quiz the next day and it which is unnecessary like this the captions had been on he would have had access and he would have been able to take that quiz without all of that stress and I'm saying the same thing I'm put the captions on like that's all I'm saying but like putting like a specific example of it that like came from the student, I have found to be more effective because like at the end of the day most of the teachers want to do right by the students like they want to help, it's just sometimes they're getting so much information it's hard to like take it all in but when you hear it like narratively in an example, sometimes it sticks as to why it's important even though they know what's important. So I feel like doing this little activity at the end of the year whether or not the student presents it or they put it in their own words like you having some of their words is like really powerful when you're talking to them because you can pull from things they've said and it just makes your presentation I think like hit a little better.
M: Absolutely.
D: Alright. Did you have any other, I feel like that was also very helpful. Thank you so much for sharing all of those those a lot of fantastic activities and I guess that all link to everything. Did you have any other ones you wanted to talk about?
M: Well, the other thing um the other thing I like to do is is spend time kind of kind of talking about what we've accomplished that year and what potential potential goals they may have for themselves which frankly is I get a lot of crickets back from the kids. You know, but it's still a wonderful discussion to have and talk and going back and looking at looking at what we've learned because you know and I am a mom too and you know I mean if I asked my son you know what, what happened a couple months ago or what they were learning. You know if they've moved on from a his you know, ah, social studies unit or something if I ask questions from three months ago he's like I don't know? Ah, and so you know I'll I'll spend some time you know saying you know I know, I know it's May but you know we we learned about the parts of the ear, in in September and October and look at this look at this Playdoh ear like I'll pull out pictures of things of things that they've created we or things we did together. Oh yeah, oh yeah, the Playdoh ear you know or whatever. Just kind of kind of kind of like a year in review kind of a thing. It that's pretty teacher led because oftentimes like I said I get a lot of you know like I don't know what you're talking about you know I remember we did last week you know that kind of thing but just kind of reminding them of all the growth and all the all the knowledge and all the skills that that we've when working on. And it really can kind of, it really can kind of kind of put a little kind of gold star little explanation point on you've you've done you've done so much and especially because we're not giving any grades right? There's no I mean you know, um, there's not you know there's not any kind of prize for going to see Mrs. Smith three days a week or whatever.
Both: [LAUGH]
M: Um, you know, um, kind of reminding them of all the wonderful things that we've done together and and then and and then opening the door anyway, to things that they might want to learn um and sometimes by using other kids materials. You know like let's say I haven't we haven't done parts of the ear. Um, or and just using that as an example and I show that Playdoh ear that another kid made you know like oh yeah, that would be cool I'd like to do that you know and because they're not necessarily going to come up with ideas on their own of what they need to learn. But um, but just kind of putting it out there. Of course I'm putting I'm putting it under the context of that particular child's goals. But I want to learn from them about what works for them. Did you, did you like it when we did you know um when we worked on auditory discrimination this particular way? Did you like doing it on the apps? Did you like you know did you prefer when when you know I was reading it to you and and I was playing music in the background and just learning from them about, about what they think about how the year went and um and then I can you know I can plan those things in I can weave that stuff more in because we need to be hearing from them about what works for them and what they what they enjoy and what they how they how they perceive the benefit of my service and my service to them.
D: Yeah I've done that before in like a survey but I do it like with them like I like I make a Google survey and then but I talk it through with them. But I keep track in the survey that way I have all of the survey results like at one spot. You know? But I think it's nice to like get in their own words, especially when they get into high school like what about this this TOD Service was helpful to you like what do you think I should do more of next year what would you wish I did less of like did you like when I pushed in and observe so that I could like tell things to the teachers or would you rather I pull you more and not observe like what, what do you think worked to your advantage like do you think that this is helpful to continue doing next year? I know it's not 100% up to them. But I do like to open up the door of like what do you get feel like you get out of this so that way I can like take that into account because if some kids will tell me truthfully like I don't really think I need this anymore I think I'm fine and I say okay, what if we use our time to do x y and z instead next year because it's already on the IEP like I'm already come back. You know, but like...
M: Right.
D: Okay, well if you if you feel like me pushing in was not helpful to you like I I get that what if I pulled you during your least favorite period once a month and we just like did stuff to get ready for college or we just like did x y and z like I have a lot of things that I know that we can work on and sometimes you're like yeah that actually sounds great like I'd love for you to pull me from gym or whatever you know or and I and I'll just make a note and I try to accommodate the best I can, I can't always do you know I can't always pull people exactly when they want to be pulled but I make an effort to that way, especially at the beginning of the year that way they know that like I'm listening to them and I'm taking it into account and then some kids who are doing beautifully say no I actually found this really helpful like it was nice to go over x y and z and I'm like wow thanks like and it's just nice because you think sometimes I feel like I'm bothering them the high school students, who are doing really well and they're like no this is actually really helpful to check in like thanks and I'm like thank you. [LAUGH] so it's just nice to like get a pulse on where they're at and then with the younger students I don't so much ask them like do you want me to come back because that's not appropriate for a younger student but like you know, just like was it were these it kind of like what you said did you like these types of activities, do you feel like you got better at this like? That just to get a feel from it. And then I keep them in like a Google survey type a deal Google forms kind of like what you were saying before with surveys at the beginning of the year but... Awesome. Okay, anything else? That was a lot I'm just I don't want to cut you off if you if you have more. [LAUGH] Thank you so much for sharing all of that I feel like it's super helpful like you know, just like some specific activities that people use that they like um because like you said sometimes ah year after year end of the year beginning of the year activities and get a little stale if you do the same things all the time. So it's nice to hear some different options.
M: I also like looking at exposing the students to successful not necessarily famous, but if they're famous, great too. But a successful deaf and hard of hearing people. So I will weave that in especially um at this time of year. Um, because because it's fun. I mean so for example, Phonak has um their Hearing Like Me branch and um as part of their hearing like me Youtube channel there are videos that say and a day in the life and they for teens. And so there are little videos and we can, we can watch them. They're short. You know like 10 minutes and then we can talk about them. And and what kind of experiences they that the student in the video mentions you know and how do they perceive that and do they did they, what do they have in common with with that student. Again, just trying to keep it different and more fun and a little bit lighter because you know we're all you know as the as the school year comes to a close you know I I just think no matter I and we used to always end in June too, and we've now been starting earlier and ending earlier, but it just seems like as soon as you hit the beginning of the last month like whatever that you know what I mean if it's May or June or whatever it is. It's like there's something like this is the last month you know and so you know you gotta you really gotta keep it um, keep it interesting and interactive and as fun as possible and sometimes you know I literally we can just like if the if the child is wearing you know an Advanced Bionics implants, for example, looking at their site. Um, Cochlear has a lot of ah lot of pages about um people that are wearing their implants and and so we'll look at we'll look at those pages and and read about read about people who are who are wearing implants. I used um I use Mrs. Funk's um, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Successful... She's now I had got now a third set of little posters so we can pull up the pull up those pictures and then do a little research on those people and and just kind of exposing them to the fact that you know there there are Deaf and hard of hearing attorneys and athletes and and you know and I have have a couple students recently high schoolers they're going into the medical field. So we pulled up the professional organization for students or for pardon me professional organization for adults with hearing loss. Um I think it's AAPL I think, but looking at their website. So just just constantly trying to bring things from the outside because our students are often the only school only student in the whole school or maybe there's just a handful of students. And they might not know know each other because one's in kindergarten in ones and fifth right? And or one has unilateral hearing loss and and the other and the other kid is deaf with an interpreter. So I mean they're just bringing in as much from the real world into the lesson with with me keeps it keeps it interesting and makes them feel less alone. Just recently ah one of one of my students, ah she's in third grade this year she drew me a picture and it said Mrs. Smith makes me feel like I'm not alone and I was just like that I'm just I'm going to say that forever! I mean yeah because you know because like she she is the only student in her old in her in the whole K-5 building that was wearing hearing aids.
D: Aww.
M: And so bringing you know videos or whatever I can do and this year is this time of year is a great time to do it because maybe maybe it's not directly, it doesn't really have anything, there's no real assessment of it. But it's something that enriches their lives and as I like to say to people all the time is that this is not a school thing for my student. This is a life thing for them. This is not, you know it's not like and I you know my my husband is a special ed teacher also but you know and um, but I mean you know often his kids you know, graduate out of of their of of their special education services you know and for our students they're always going to have their hearing loss and they're gonna need to live and manage, live with it and manage it for their lives and so anything I can do to make them um to bring the world into their into my lesson, especially at this time of year when it's getting a little when everyone's kind of had it. It's it's a great opportunity to do that.
D: Yeah, absolutely that is thank you so much for sharing that I think that's a really helpful thing to remember that at the end of the year. It's a nice opportunity to take the time to do some of those things that we might not have time for at other times of the year but are so so so important. Thank you so much for sharing all of those resources. Um and for sharing all this information on the podcast today I think this will be super super helpful for people to revisit when they're you know, getting up to the end of the year and wanting some ideas and I appreciate you taking the time to talk to with me today.
M: Oh it was delightful and I certainly welcome anyone to reach out to me if I can be of help. I actually have a couple teachers that I've never physically ever met out in like ah out and out in the United States that I've met through Facebook groups and stuff that I've kind of digitally or remotely mentored and it's just really the joy of my life to help other teachers. So if I can help anybody I'm so happy to do it. .
D: Sure, what's the best way to contact you?
M: Um, you certainly can email me. Um my email is msmith@casedupage.com
D: Awesome I'll I'll put that in the show notes as well. So thank you again um, for everyone listening all of these amazing resources that Melinda me mentioned will be in the show notes along with the transcript and that's all for today. Thanks for listening. Bye!
M: Thank you.
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