My students are smart, funny and wonderful. They come from all different backgrounds and often have rocky home lives. Many of my students have to deal with adult issues. However, they are the reason that I love my job. I love working with them to meet their speech and language goals. I love watching their faces light up when something "clicks." And I love all of the high fives, fist bumps and hugs that I get each day.
As the speech language pathologist, I see approximately 20% of our school population.
I work on articulation, language and social skills with my students. I typically see preschool and kindergarten students twice a week in a small group and see first and second grade students once a week in a small group and up to three times a week one on one.
My Project
Peaceable Kingdom is a "green" company that uses recycled materials to create cooperative games. Cooperative games are games based on cooperation instead of competition. Either the entire group wins, or the game "wins".
Did you know that most games are more than just a "fun activity"?
In our speech and language sessions, I am able to take just about any game and turn it into an educational experience! Almost all games can be used to target the following skills:
-Following classroom rules and procedures (being quiet, sitting in your seat, listening to the teacher and your peers)
-Turn taking (waiting patiently, reminding your peers when it is their turn, going in the same order every round)
-Playing the game (encouraging your peers to do their best, not getting mad/upset if you aren't doing well, following the rules of the game, asking for help when you need it, helping others when they need it, doing your personal best, the list goes on and on!)
-Winning/Losing the game (if you win, were your actions appropriate/nice? if you lose, did you get upset or shrug it off? Using appropriate responses)
If I were to get these cooperative games, the students and I would be able to practice real life, meaningful situations in our speech and language sessions. We can practice our speech/language skills in a fun and engaging way, we can role-play appropriate behavior, and we can create goals to use these social skills outside of the speech/language room. Targeting social skills with the cooperative games will open up doors between the students that I see with social skill deficits and their typically developing peers. My goal is to see my students interacting appropriately with peers and for them to build and strengthen peer relationships.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Myron and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
