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46: End of the Year & Fall Prep with Melinda Smith
804 Plays10 months ago
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!
Resources Mentioned:
- Hearing Our Way Magazine
- Self Advocacy Dice Game Bingo by Listening Fun
- Bingo Games for Cochlear Implants and Hearing Aids by A Mighty Voice Speech Language and Listening
- End of the Year Jeopardy by TOD Times Two
- Teen “Hear-os” Hearing Like Me
- Summer Break Self-Advocacy Scenarios by TOD Times Two
- Summer End of the Year Crafts for DHH Students by MissBTOD
- Listening Fun Student Led In-Service Presentation
- Stacy Crouse: Deaf Education Self-Advocacy Presentation Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants
- FREE! Hearing and Me Template by Phonak
- Listening Fun on TPT
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Toppod Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Toppod, a podcast to support itinerant teachers of the Deaf and Hard of
Guest Introduction: Melinda Smith
00:00:10
Speaker
Hearing, SLPs, and other deaf education professionals. I'm Deanna Barlow from Listening Fund, 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. I'm so happy to
Melinda's Itinerant Teaching Experience
00:00:22
Speaker
be with you. Can you tell everyone a little about yourself and your role? Yes, I've been an itinerant teacher for
00:00:28
Speaker
Well, this is the end of my 26th year. 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 seven to eight districts. Right now I have three, but it's always multi-district itinerant. And I'm in the Chicagoland area in
Complexities of Multi-District Work
00:00:48
Speaker
the suburbs.
00:00:48
Speaker
Nice. I'm also a multidistrict, so I understand. It's an interesting dynamic for sure. 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.
00:01:06
Speaker
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
End-of-Year Duties and Equipment Management
00:01:15
Speaker
year? Well, we do have to, we're in charge of our own 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, you know, I have multiple ending dates, which is a plus and a minus.
00:01:36
Speaker
at least not everybody ends on the same day. So I don't have to be 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 from their implants or their hearing aids, certainly graduating seniors or kids that are moving. We 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, I spend some time
00:02:05
Speaker
in between pickup and checking out with her, going through the bag, making sure everything's in there, kind of cleaning everything up because usually it's kind of a disaster with cords everywhere and everything. So I kind of kind of prep it a little bit so that when I do sit down with her to check out, it goes pretty, pretty smoothly. Everything is already clean and ready.
00:02:22
Speaker
Then we go through each each piece of equipment and check the serial numbers, make sure everything is accounted for.
Organizational Systems for Equipment
00:02:28
Speaker
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
00:02:39
Speaker
Each student's log sheet, we do have to keep track as multi-district itinerant. We're billing the districts for our time, and so I do keep track of 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.
00:03:02
Speaker
question about the equipment, because in my current role, the educational audiologist collects the equipment. I'm not allowed to touch those receivers with a 10 foot pole, but the installed ones, you know, but in my previous job, I was collecting the equipment. 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.
00:03:29
Speaker
It was all very, very labeled because everything basically got sent back to Phonak for summer service. And it was really nice to have the serial numbers written on the outside because then when things came back, you would be able to tell what went to who. It was just really organized. Do you have any organization systems for when you're doing equipment for people who do deal with equipment?
00:03:52
Speaker
Yes, well, we do obviously have when the receivers are installed, which is certainly not for everybody. Certainly there's still plenty of kids that are attaching their Roger 20s to their Nucleus 7s or whatever. And I literally have, I'm going to actually literally take the receiver with me. For the kids whose equipment is installed, the educational audiologist keeps those
00:04:12
Speaker
and we call them empty shells. 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 labeled 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 graduating seniors you have, who's moving. And so then I
Preparing for the New School Year
00:04:35
Speaker
let her know
00:04:35
Speaker
These are my students who I'm going to need those shells back so that I can do that process of the uninstallation. She just keeps them all organized at the office. I happen to be in a group of 18 deaf and hard of hearing teachers. We serve, I think, over 70 school districts total. Obviously, that makes for a lot of equipment. I think we have more than 250 students who have some kind of assistant listening device.
00:05:02
Speaker
So she managed to keep all those receivers and other equipment organized for us, and then we just asked for what we need. You have one audiologist for all of that? Yes, yes. She doesn't- We have like five. I'm like in a similar program, but we have like five of them.
00:05:17
Speaker
She, she doesn't, she doesn't test any kids. I mean, so she's not actually seeing students as far as, I mean, as far as she's not doing any educational, um, audiology, um, or she's not doing any conventional audiology. Like she's not seeing kids, right. Clinical, 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.
00:05:40
Speaker
It's nice to have that as a resource, someone to 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 for us, 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.
00:05:58
Speaker
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. 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? When I sit down with the educational audiologist, I am literally checking it into her because we buy, we buy all the equipment, um, the co-op I work for.
00:06:24
Speaker
buys all of the equipment in a big kind of clearinghouse kind of a way. So the districts do rent the equipment from us on an annual basis, but they're not purchasing the equipment for a specific student. So 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.
00:06:50
Speaker
Nice. I never heard that system before, but that sounds like it would be nice to actually be in charge of all the equipment as opposed to me helping the districts be in charge of their own equipment, which is what we have to deal with. 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 buying it ourselves is such a huge plus because
00:07:13
Speaker
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 stock, we can just assign it. We don't have to, you know, then go to the school district, ask for them to initiate a PO 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.
00:07:34
Speaker
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 a lot of reasons.
End-of-Year Student Activities
00:07:46
Speaker
But off topic, anyway, I was just curious. I'm always curious about the little nitty gritty stuff and how people do that, because just finding a place to put that box of equipment at the end of the year is so annoying, because I want it to be safe, but I also want it somewhere accessible that I can get to it.
00:08:00
Speaker
Okay, 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. Well, I would say, and obviously every teacher, every teacher and especially itinerant teachers are very different. But the reason I was considered doing this topic
00:08:18
Speaker
is because to me, the end of the year is completely married to the beginning of the year. 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 while I'm already in the school thinking and school mindset,
00:08:45
Speaker
I can do a whole bunch of preparation for fall. And so I actually prepare my student materials for the fall. Once we have our caseloads, because again, I'm in a big group. So once we have our caseloads, I spend a great deal amount of time preparing student materials and student in-service materials. So the things that I bring out to each of the schools to provide in-service for all the students that I serve. What specifically does that look like for you?
00:09:11
Speaker
So as far as the student materials, what I do is I prepare. What I do is I go to Teacher Pay Teachers. There's several of these that are available. They're just free kind of templates for printing onto Post-It notes. And so what I do is I take each student's objective. So let's say a student has two goals and they have three objectives per goal. I print onto little Post-It notes.
00:09:36
Speaker
each of the objectives that are going to be ones that I'm working on. So if it's a consult objective, things that I'm observing in the class and those kinds of things, I don't print that. But following direction goals or learning about their hearing loss, anything that I'm actually going to be working on during the one-on-one lessons, I print those onto little post-it notes. And then I put them on files and so on file folders so that a student, in my example, with two goals, with six objectives,
00:10:04
Speaker
I end up having six little file folders with the post-it note right on the outside of that folder. And then I fill them. And so that at any point during the school year, whether it's October or February, I don't need to go searching for materials. And what is the kid's goal? I don't know. I can't remember. I've got too many kids in too many places and all the IAPs.
00:10:24
Speaker
I have, of course, every itinerant program is different, but we can run up to 50 kids. And so I've found that on years I didn't prepare these materials the whole school year.
00:10:35
Speaker
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? That's just unmanageable. If I've pre-made these folders with the post-it note right on the front that has materials in there that go with that objective, then literally no matter how crazy it is, all I have to do is grab it.
00:10:56
Speaker
Melinda in May or June will have prepared that for herself. And I know that 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 26th year being itinerant. So I've changed many, many, many times how I've done this. I've really settled on giving 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,
00:11:24
Speaker
There is no way for me to prove that I told you something when I have anywhere from 10 minutes that they're going to give me the in-service to an hour sitting down with someone. And I don't want to hear back from someone in October that I never told them that they needed to turn on captioning.
00:11:43
Speaker
So there's 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 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 kind of closing up for the year for every student. And they're individualized for that student and their individual needs and individual accommodations.
Transition Materials for Students
00:12:06
Speaker
I print, I literally print out the accommodations page from their IEP or 504 plan that's in the packet.
00:12:12
Speaker
I have made up a page one year about the dangers of YouTube captioning. I have all kinds of stuff in there, but I prepare the packets and I also scan them in so that I both 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 five minutes email you the in-service packet at any point during the school year.
00:12:41
Speaker
That's a very organized. I won't lie to you. I'm usually doing that the first day of school.
00:12:51
Speaker
But that's, to be fair, we find out our caseloads the week before school starts. I don't know my caseload at the end of the year. So I have an idea. I have a sense, but I don't know for sure. So you can prepare for some kids that you know you're going to have again, but it's not guaranteed 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.
00:13:16
Speaker
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. Right. You get enough 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 moved 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.
00:13:45
Speaker
Yeah, that does make sense. Is there anything else that you like to do in the at the end of the year to prepare
Using Google Surveys for Feedback
00:13:52
Speaker
for fall? Well, I also prepare if I know that I'm transitioning a student away to one of my colleagues, either because I don't serve that next, you know, they're moving like sometimes some of our students, they're in a K eight 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.
00:14:10
Speaker
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 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 going to talk to to get turned on for the IEP software.
00:14:37
Speaker
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 IEP. Or I also sometimes share 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 teacher that's receiving the my student, hey, you can do whatever you want, but I made it to page 28. Feel free to start on page 29.
00:15:05
Speaker
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. I also, I prepare my parent letters again, you know, at the beginning of the year, it is completely chaos and I want to, 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
00:15:32
Speaker
whatever the first Monday in August 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 different times but it's all ready 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 goals is by surveying so I will
00:16:00
Speaker
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
00:16:16
Speaker
typical advocacy type things that our students will do and make it, you know, a check off 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 themselves of opportunities to redo assignments or assessments. 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?
00:16:44
Speaker
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, occasionally. And then the last two are rarely slash never, and should be doing so more often, and rarely slash never, and doesn't seem to need it. Because 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,
00:17:14
Speaker
you know, should I be concerned about that? And then so now I've created that those kind of that duality of rarely 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 prepared 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.
00:17:34
Speaker
And if I need to be making it times, you know, 40 kids, when am I going to do
Time Management for Itinerant Teachers
00:17:39
Speaker
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 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. Theory of question, though.
00:18:02
Speaker
When do you have time to do all this at the end of the year? I'm frankly doing it on my own time. I'm doing it after the school year's over. This year, my last day is May 31st. 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. 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 thinking I want to do it. That kind of thing. It's really hard to get rolling.
00:18:32
Speaker
But 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 mean, I'm still in the mindset, right? I'm still rolling. And so, yes, 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
00:18:55
Speaker
a week or so before I start. But again, I'm preparing for that's when I start emailing people and 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 certainly we have kids that 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.
00:19:20
Speaker
So, I try to just do as much as I possibly can so that I'm able to manage what comes at me at a blast in early August. Yeah, that makes sense. We have like two or three days at the beginning of the year that are not, like we're not going out. Like we're meant to be in the office, like in our home base doing like this kind of stuff. And like, it probably takes more than that amount of time.
00:19:45
Speaker
I try to be diligent when I know I want to chitchat with my colleagues and stuff, because I haven't seen them until the beginning of the year. But I try to use that time to actually get this stuff done. And then, like you said, I reuse a lot of stuff year to year. So it's not totally working from scratch, so I can try to squeeze it in. And I almost feel like not knowing at the end of the year is a blessing.
00:20:09
Speaker
go forth, be done. There's nothing more you can do. We'll see you in, we start in September. So it's like, see you in September, like after labor day. So like, you know, so I feel like I try to squeeze it in those first two like prep days. Can't always do it, but I try,
Reflecting and Setting Goals with Students
00:20:27
Speaker
but.
00:20:27
Speaker
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. Well, and just like, you know, just like if I was a classroom teacher, you're going in in August or early September.
00:20:45
Speaker
to set up your room, right? I mean, that's our equivalent. 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 one or two in-service days. And some districts don't give you any free time. You know, 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.
00:21:13
Speaker
Yeah, makes sense. Okay, 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, especially like with like the survey, like, you know, rarely, but it's fine, like such an important caveat, like, you know, and that's the kind of thing where like,
00:21:32
Speaker
you can really only learn by experience by getting these surveys back and be like, yeah, but it's fine. How do I reflect that? So I appreciate you sharing those little tidbits because that's exactly why I like to do a podcast because I feel like when people are talking, they share these little tidbits of information that are like, oh my God, that's so helpful. So I really appreciate all of those specifics.
00:21:52
Speaker
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 with your students?
00:22:18
Speaker
Well, I try to and I'm kind of getting into that too, because right about now, because again, I'm done the end of May. So the last, you know,
00:22:28
Speaker
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 I really try to keep it as fun and kind of different by the time I get to the last couple, three weeks because they've really had it and we've all kind of had it. So I try to keep it, I do a lot of games, for example, I'll just give some specific examples. I love your self-advocacy dice game bingo games.
00:22:58
Speaker
No, really. The kids love them too.
Interactive Learning Activities
00:23:01
Speaker
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 the one with one on vocabulary because there's multiple topics that can be used over multiple age groups. So I love those. Yeah, I ended up making a lot of my games in the end of the year because I'm like, oh my God, I'm bored. 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.
00:23:28
Speaker
Yes and then 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 and really making it fun and they think isn't this great?
00:23:41
Speaker
because they really enjoy it and it's so much more interactive. So there's also a set of bingo games that I like that a mighty voice speech and language and listening created. 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 to scrim because you know, B E C D. I mean, those sound all very similar, right? So, um,
00:24:10
Speaker
and you can add noise if necessary or whatever. So you're still working on auditory to scrim, but they think we're playing battleship. One of my favorites. If you don't have battleship or you don't want to carry it around, there is a free iPad version. If you search battleship, it pops up even though it's not called battleship. I use it all the time because I'm not carrying around battleship, but I will play it on the iPad.
00:24:34
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I've also I also just recently found a color forms version. If you're older, 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 that is just a little small version of the game. But you also can do the color forms battleship, which is literally just, you know, like a cardboard card.
00:24:59
Speaker
with these little color form stickies. They're like magnets, kind of, right? Yes, kind of. Yes, exactly. I mean, 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, literally, were a dollar at the dollar store, a dollar 25. What a great find. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was going to keep my eye out for that. Not that I need any more stuff, but...
00:25:24
Speaker
Yes, very light, easy to carry, and a lot of fun. So I also have become quite a fan of, there's a new author, she doesn't have that many followers. So I would just like to give her a shout out. Miss B T-O-D. I don't know her at all. I don't know her personally in any way. I've never talked with her, but my gosh, she's got some great stuff. Miss B T-O-D is her... I've talked with her on Instagram. She's super nice. Yeah. And she has these set...
00:25:53
Speaker
of holiday and seasonal sets. And they're just amazing, because it'll have multiple goal strategy, goal targets in there. So 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
00:26:13
Speaker
The thing is that's great about 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 the kids like them. They're fun and interactive to do them together. And they're kind of crafty. They're kind of like, you know, craftivity, I guess is the word right now, right?
00:26:33
Speaker
Yeah. And also for everyone listening, I will link all of the things that Melinda is 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 you, if one of them catches your ear, you can go ahead and check the links. Absolutely.
00:26:50
Speaker
And TOD times two has a couple of fun things. They have a brand new Jeopardy. I have to say that people are always telling me like I'm the materials queen because I've been doing this gig a long time and I would say the two hardest things about being itinerant in my view, organizing, managing, spinning all the plates and having kids in so many different places.
00:27:11
Speaker
At so many different levels, we have kids who are profoundly deaf with a capital D all the way to a kid with a mild unilateral hearing loss. And for us, they're 3 to 22. So it couldn't be more varied. And then the other part of it is the fact that we don't have a curriculum, per se,
00:27:30
Speaker
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 to work on those in an engaging and progress-producing way. And so over my many years, I just am constantly on the search for new stuff. And also, many of us, including myself,
00:27:52
Speaker
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 also a big fan of the TOD times two teacher author. They have a new, I haven't used it yet, but I just purchased their end of the year Jeopardy game for this year. Cause again, I got, you know, want to keep it fresh with the kids and kids love Jeopardy. So,
00:28:20
Speaker
I'm going to give that a whirl. And then, of course, I also, depending on the student, of course, and their goals and the age and all that, I also will have them create some kind of in-service either for their peers and or for their teachers.
Reviewing Student Achievements
00:28:34
Speaker
So I have a couple templates that I use, or I invite the child to start it from nothing. And I've got kids that pick both. Just yesterday, I started one on a student who has a bilateral nucleus sevens. And I showed him a template from Stacey Krause that I love, that I've used for many years. And it's just a fantastic template for student
00:29:00
Speaker
student-led in-service. And then I also have one, I have yours from Listing Fun. And then I also have one that Phonak created. And the neat one about Phonak is that they have both implant and hearing aid in there, even though they're not really an implant company, although they do have a cooperative relationship with Advanced Bionics. And that's free. So I show the kid, I show the kiddo,
00:29:28
Speaker
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 60 40 that the kids choose a template.
00:29:44
Speaker
But like yesterday, that student said, hey, I just want to start with blank Google Slides. And I was like, OK, let's go for it. So we can do that. And then they prepare it here in the end of the year. And then we can actually kind of perform, if you will, for their receiving class in the fall so that we make it in April or May. And then in September, when we really start rolling, I will have them practice.
00:30:10
Speaker
See if they wanna 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. And then we do it together for the class.
Inspiring Students with Role Models
00:30:22
Speaker
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 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,
00:30:39
Speaker
it went great until they got to the question part. And then the peers 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. Yeah, I'm sorry, I was just saying 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
00:31:04
Speaker
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
00:31:32
Speaker
did not hit that year or for some reason 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? We've talked about this. So it's just helpful to...
00:31:53
Speaker
reveal to you what what you still need to work on and then also just to help the student realize like what is important for 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 year 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
00:32:21
Speaker
is important to know but maybe not important to tell everybody else. 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 a
00:32:41
Speaker
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 Yale. This is your presentation. I do not care. But let's at least make sure we're hitting the main points. And that's why I have 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. Absolutely.
00:33:02
Speaker
And two things came to mind when you're talking. One thing, you're absolutely right about catching things that you might not have ever noticed. For example, that student yesterday when we started making it, he wrote, he said, I have cochlear implants because I have hearing loss.
00:33:18
Speaker
And he wrote L-O-S-T, right? And maybe he said that to me before, but I didn't hear it. I didn't quite hear that T. But when he typed it on the screen, I was like, OK,
Conclusion and Contact Information
00:33:28
Speaker
let's talk about the difference between hearing loss. It's hearing loss, L-O-S-S. And I might not have caught that if he hadn't have typed that on that slide. The other thing is, even the kids who I'm not, and certainly it's only a small portion of the kids that are actually getting up and making the presentation, I do want them to make
00:33:47
Speaker
And that was like a peer presentation. But I do want them to make a presentation introducing themselves to their receiving teachers, which is actually a completely different kind of vibe when we're making that. What I do for that is I have the student, 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.
00:34:08
Speaker
And so, and then we will go through after they do that, then I'll have them pick at least three to five at minimum three, but sometimes even as many as eight, they feel are the most important.
00:34:20
Speaker
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 three most important things you can do for me, they really, that just really gets right to the heart of those teachers, like those classroom teachers.
00:34:49
Speaker
It's not just Mrs. Smith saying that this is what my student needs. It is me, the student, the fifth grader saying, please, seriously, turn on the captioning. That really helps me. It helps also kind of help as we're going through that process. They're really learning about their accommodations in
00:35:06
Speaker
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, 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
00:35:35
Speaker
the itinerant teacher that's kind of stacking the deck to your benefit, but sooner or later it's going to be you that's going to have to tell them, you know, whether it's the high school or college.
00:35:43
Speaker
hey, really, I need the captioning turned on for me, or I'm not gonna really be able to follow along, or I'm gonna need note-taking assistance, because as soon as I look down, I'm not gonna 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 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 gonna say it, no doubt about it, but if I can get the student to say it too, then it just kind of really underscores how important it is
00:36:13
Speaker
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 related to that specific student because I have like a lot of anecdotes that I can share with teachers of like
00:36:33
Speaker
you know, like, oh, like if the student asked you something like don't say never mind, 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, blah. But if I have like specific anecdotes from the students 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 that didn't have captions. And he was so confused. And he was so stressed for the quiz the next day.
00:36:59
Speaker
And it was just 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. 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
00:37:25
Speaker
take it all in. But when you hear it like narratively in an example, sometimes it, 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
00:37:47
Speaker
from things they've said and it just makes your presentation I think like hit a little better. Absolutely. All right. Did you have any other, I feel like that was also very helpful. Thank you so much for sharing all of those. It was a lot of fantastic activities and like I said, I'll link to everything. Did you have any other ones you wanted to talk about? Well, the other thing I like to do is spend time kind of talking about what we've accomplished that year and what potential
00:38:16
Speaker
potential goals they may have for themselves, which frankly, I get a lot of crickets back from the kids, but it's still a wonderful discussion to have and going back and looking at what we've learned.
00:38:30
Speaker
And I have a mom too. And if I ask my son what happened a couple of months ago or what they were learning, if they've moved on from a social studies unit or something, if I ask questions from three months ago, he's like, I don't know. And so I'll spend some time saying, I know it's May, but we learned about the parts of the air in September and October.
00:38:54
Speaker
And look at this Play-Doh ear. I'll pull out pictures of things that they've created or things we did together. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The Play-Doh ear or whatever. Just kind of like a year in review kind of a thing. That's pretty teacher-led because oftentimes, like I said, I get a lot of like, I don't know what you're talking about. I remember what we did last week, that kind of thing. But just kind of reminding them of all the growth and all the knowledge and all the skills that we've been working on.
00:39:24
Speaker
it really can kind of put a little kind of gold star, a little explanation point on you've done so much. And especially because we're not giving any grades, right? There's no, I mean, you know, there's not, you know, there's not any kind of prize for going to see Mrs. Smith three days a week or whatever. And so, you know, kind of reminding them of all the wonderful things that we've done together. And then opening the door anyway to things that they might want to learn.
00:39:54
Speaker
And sometimes by using other kids materials, you know, like, let's say I haven't, we haven't done parts of the ear, or I'm just using that as an example. And I show that play to our 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 gonna come up with ideas on their own of what they need to learn.
00:40:11
Speaker
but just kind of putting it out there. Of course, 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 like it when we worked on auditory discrimination this particular way? Did you like doing it on the apps? Did you prefer when I was reading it to you and I was playing music in the background and just learning from them about what they think about how the year went. And then I can
00:40:41
Speaker
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 enjoy and how they perceive the benefit of my service to them. Yeah. I've done that before in a survey, but I do it with them. I make a Google survey, but I talk it through with them, but I keep track in the survey. That way, I have all the survey results.
00:41:07
Speaker
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 observed so that I could like tell things to the teachers? Or would you rather I pull you more and not observe? Like, what
00:41:30
Speaker
What do you think work to your advantage? 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 what do you feel like you get out of this so that way I can take that into account. Because some kids will tell me, truthfully, I don't really think I need this anymore. I think I'm fine. And I say, OK, what if we use our time to do X, Y, and Z instead next year? Because it's already on the IP. I'm already coming back.
00:41:56
Speaker
But like, OK, well, if you if you feel like me pushing in was not helpful to you, like 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'll just make a note. And I try to accommodate the best I can. I can't always do
00:42:25
Speaker
I can't always pull people exactly when they want to be pulled, but I make an effort so that way, especially at the beginning of the year, that way they know that 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. It was nice to go over X, Y, and Z. And I'm like, wow, thanks. 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. Thanks.
00:42:52
Speaker
Thank you. 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 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.
00:43:16
Speaker
survey type of deal, Google forms, kind of like what you were saying before with surveys at the beginning of the year. 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. 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, uh, year after year, end of the year, beginning of the year activities and get a little sale if you do the same things all the time. So it's nice to hear some different options.
00:43:45
Speaker
I also like looking at exposing the students to successful, not necessarily famous, but if they're famous, great too, but successful deaf and hard of hearing people. So I will leave that in, especially at this time of year.
00:44:01
Speaker
because it's fun. For example, Phonak has their Hearing Like Me branch. As part of their Hearing Like Me YouTube channel, there are videos that say a day in the life for teens. There are little videos and we can watch them. They're short, like 10 minutes, and then we can talk about them.
00:44:22
Speaker
and what kind of experiences the student in the video mentions, you know, and how do they perceive that and what do they have in common 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 school year comes to a close, you know, I just think no matter, and we used to always end in June too, and we've now been starting earlier and ending earlier.
00:44:46
Speaker
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
00:45:05
Speaker
We can just like if the if the child is wearing, you know, advanced bionics implants, for example, looking at their site, cochlear has a lot of a lot of pages about people that are wearing their implants. 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 I use Mrs. Funk's deaf and hard of hearing successful
00:45:31
Speaker
She's now 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
00:45:49
Speaker
I have a couple of students recently, high schoolers, they're going into the medical field. So we pulled up the professional organization for adults with hearing loss. I think it's AAPL, I think, but looking at their website. So just constantly trying to
00:46:07
Speaker
bring things from the outside because our students are often the only student in the whole school or maybe there's just a handful of students and they might not know each other because one's in kindergarten and one's in fifth, right? Or one has unilateral hearing loss 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 me, keeps it
00:46:30
Speaker
keeps it interesting and makes them feel less alone. Just recently, one of my students, 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, I'm going to say that forever. Because she is the only student in the whole K-5 building that was wearing hearing aids.
00:46:50
Speaker
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 you know, my my husband is a special ed teacher also, you know, and but I mean, you know, often his kids
00:47:19
Speaker
graduate out of their special education services. And for our students, they're always gonna have their hearing loss and they're gonna need to live with it and manage it for their lives. And so anything I can do to make them to bring the world into my lesson, especially at this time of year when it's getting a little, when everyone's kind of had it, it's a great opportunity to do that.
00:47:41
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. 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 important. Thank you so much for sharing all of those resources and for sharing all this information on the podcast today. I think this will be
00:48:02
Speaker
super, super helpful for people to revisit when they're getting up to the end of the year and wanting some ideas. And I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today. Oh, it's delightful. And I certainly welcome anyone to reach out to me if I can be of help. I actually have a couple of teachers that I've never physically ever met out in the United States that I've met through Facebook groups and stuff that I've digitally or
00:48:28
Speaker
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. Sure. What's the best way to contact you? You certainly can email me. My email is msmith, for Melinda Smith, at Case, C-A-S-E, DuPage, D-U-P-A-G-E. So msmith at casedupage.com.
00:48:51
Speaker
Awesome. I'll put that in the show notes as well. So thank you again for everyone listening. All of these amazing resources that Melinda mentioned will be in the show notes along with the transcript. And that's all for today. Thanks for listening. Bye. Thank you.