My SLP Journey.

Here's my new blog about my journey to become a speech-language pathologist! The site took a TON of work, and I experienced a few technical difficulties with the layout and logo, but it was so worth the effort! I'm thinking about using this blog later as I go through graduate school, and especially as I start doing work that's more relevant to my career rather than just introductory classes. The plan is to document the things I learn and share activities with other SLP professionals and students. I found so many amazing blogs through the process of creating mine, and this project has probably been the best learning experience for me so far out of all of our class projects.

Creativity and Innovation.

My entire childhood was consumed with drawing. I would sit for countless hours at my kitchen table, drawing animals and trying to make them look absolutely "perfect". If I didn't think it looked exactly like a dog, a horse, a person, or whatever elaborate mural I was imagining in my head, I would shred my paper up into a million pieces and start all over, because I refused to draw with anything but a pen.

One of my favorite shows as a little kid was Pappyland, which I had completely forgotten about until I sat down to think about ways I expressed myself creatively as a kid. I would run and grab my paper and Sharpie every weekday afternoon to draw whatever Pappy did exactly like he drew it. Even though Pappy is obviously extremely cheesy, I learned a lot about cartooning from him as a little girl. Here's a video of Pappy Drew It drawing dolphins! Pappy says that you don't have to draw just like him to be a good artist, but I didn't believe him.

In the next video, Pappy colors his dolphins! Pappy even has his own YouTube channel, where you can watch HOURS AND HOURS of Pappy drawing. Has anyone else ever heard of this show, or am I the only one weirdo who has a collection of Pappy drawings? ;)

Reflection: Learning and Leading May 2011.

Creativity can be described in four dimensions according to J.P. Guilford--flexibility, fluency, originality, and elaboration. The author begins by saying that the world needs creative thinkers--people who come up to original ways to solve problems, scientists, engineers, and great leaders. Flexible people are not bound to one way of thinking about the world and are able to "think outside the box" to come up with solutions from a different, more "creative" angle. People who are great at fluency have a knack for coming up with lots of ideas in a brainstorming fashion. Original people can come with ideas that no body has ever thought of before, and those who are gifted in elaborating can add onto others' ideas and fill in the gaps. I think I struggle with flexibility the most, as I often have trouble coming up with more than a couple of solutions to a problem.

I think that Flickr would help me to come up with some more creative ways to do photography. I love taking pictures, and I love browsing through others' photos of landscapes, nature, people, and animals. Maybe looking at the pictures of some really gifted photographers would inspire me to come up with my own original ideas for a shot, and maybe I can use Flickr to brainstorm some ideas for a photography project.

I checked out the tool Picasso Head, which allows people to elaborate on Picasso's style of art to create their own version of his work. This way, even people who don't consider themselves great at coming up with original artwork can play around with Picasso-style features to create a face on a "canvas". I think it would be really cool to get my kids to express themselves artistically in therapy, so maybe I'll use a tool like this as an SLP one day.

Creative thoughts.

When I woke up this morning, I decided to do something a bit creative. I've had so many tests lately, it's felt like I haven't really had a break to do anything fun, creative, or relaxing. I'm a super creative person, so whenever I decide to do something artistic, I can get a little bit carried away. For instance, last Halloween, I spent 3 or 4 hours carving a pumpkin, which included a graveyard scene, a hissing cat, a spooky moon and stars, a haunted house, and an eerie tree. I had a picture to look at, but most of the carving was improvised from the image I had in my head. The end result looked pretty incredible, but I spent quite a bit of time carving a picture into a vegetable that would rot in a couple of weeks!

Another "short" project that I attempted when I was feeling artsy was a painting of a deer for Father's Day. A fun painting afternoon with the girls I was babysitting turned into a week-long, self-commissioned piece for my dad that turned out nice but turned out far different from just an afternoon of playing around with watercolors. Here's the finished product, which can also be seen on my Google Site.

This morning, since I knew I had hours and hours of studying ahead of me, I just had a cup of coffee, listened to a song, looked at crafts on Pinterest, and lit a candle. Here's to the next little art project run wild!

Horizon Report 2012 Reaction

What I found most interesting about the Horizon Report for this year were the key trends in the relationship between technology and education. The list of trends were very informative, and I definitely noticed how accurate the report was in describing today's learners.

First, learners are as impatient and busy as they ever were. These days, we want things quickly and easily accessible, so it makes sense that learners should want to study whenever and wherever they want. Students are definitely more mobile than they ever were, with laptops to carry their infinite possibilities of research with them wherever they go. Also, learners want to be able to easily collaborate their ideas, and technologies are becoming increasingly cloud-based instead of bound to a single device.

In the classroom itself, I find it interesting how much more interactive learning has become. Learning has become a lot more student-centered than it ever was before, with instructors utilizing technologies in the classroom to engage students in active learning, rather than simply standing in front of the room, delivering boring lectures.

I believe that the smart use of technologies to get students excited about learning will cause many of the stale, traditional manners of teaching to be a thing of the past. Now that learners have so many tools accessible to them, students can use these resources to help each other learn, and teachers can take advantage of new technologies to get students excited about learning.

My floorplan.

As a speech-language pathologist, I will not have a traditional classroom. Instead, I will be working one-on-one and in small groups with children in my office. I wanted my office to be comfortable and inviting, so I included lots of comfortable chairs both for parents and the kids. I also included bright colors and plants to make the room feel lively. There are lots of windows to let in the sun, a bookcase with children's books, lots of storage by the windows with fun toys, a play area with a pretend kitchen and washer/dryer, and a little kitchen table and chairs. Another corner has a little rug with stuffed animals, a train set, a puppet theatre, and blocks the kids can stack and even climb on. I even threw in a mini trampoline! For when it gets cold in the winter, I put in a brick fireplace to add to the warm and inviting feel of my office.

I chose this design so that I can observe children's speech patterns as they would naturally interact with me and each other. Adding fun games and activities for the children to participate in will help me assess what kind of speech disorder a child might have. I'd love for the parents to be able to observe everything that I'm doing with their kids. Hopefully, everyone who spends time in my office will feel comfortable and welcome in therapy.

Chapter 1 response

In the reading, I found that it is most important to me as an educator that learning is more than simple fact memorization. Collaboration, creative problem solving, and simply making learning fun are absolutely

 necessary to a meaningful learning experience. I think the author made an excellent point in mentioning that teaching children to memorize facts and pass a standardized test really does very little for a child's education. Teachers who are forced to teach by the standard set by federal regulation often have little room for creativity in their lesson plans. I believe that students learn best when permitted to think creatively, work together, bounce ideas off of each other, and help each other find solutions to problems. This way, students can learn to appreciate different points of view while developing their own ideas. 

As the daughter of two educators, I have learned firsthand what works best in the c lassroom to make learning meaningful. My mom frequently has her 4-year-olds come together in reading groups and center time to help each other with little projects and learn certain concepts together. My dad, as a high school principal, has the opportunity to observe learning in dozens of classrooms, and he knows that the really great teachers allow students to collaborate and think creatively together. As a speech-language pathologist, I plan to let my children either work in small group settings, or I will come up with creative and fun ways to help children master sounds.