Get Organized!

Whew! I have started my CF and it is going great! I am learning SO much! There is so much information coming in, I have to find a way to organize it all!

Firstly, I recommend a planner to organize your life. You can get generic planners from many office supply stores and rummaging through the back to school sections. There are also websites online where you can get more personalized (and more expensive) planners to fit your life. One such company is the Erin Condren Life Planner. Make sure to write down all your important meetings and dates.

As a CF, it is important to keep track of all your therapy hours, evaluations, and indirect and direct supervisory meetings. To find out all the information you need for your CF, visit ASHA's website here.  The speech department at your university will have likely provided you all the information for licensure in that state, but if you're like me, you'll need information for other states. For ASHA's licensure requirements by state, click here.

So once you've got your paperwork, meetings, and dates organized, you will want to organize everything you'll need for therapy! This includes client/student information, reports and/or plans, and your materials. To get you started, I have a great FREE product on Teachers Pay Teachers to help you organize important client/student information without having to dig through their file each time. You can find it HERE. I find it helpful to have all my client's goals in one place without having to find the most current plan in their file each time! As a CF, you may not have a bank of therapy materials and your new job may not have provided you with any or with very few. If that's the case, here are some tips for getting cheap therapy materials. The Dollar Store and the $1 section of Target can be your best friend! From therapy room decorations, to stickers, to sensory toys, you can find a lot! If you are looking for games to use during therapy, Goodwill is a GREAT place to look. I have found memory games, shape games, board games, and so much more in their toy section. You would be surprised how little "used" some of these items can be! It's also a great place to find children's books!  Magazines can also be great for getting pictures for various articulation or language activities! Cheap crafts are always fun to do in therapy too and kids usually love it! Lastly, Teachers Pay Teachers is a great website to find cheap (and free!) therapy materials that you can print off. These products usually require some printing and laminating but you won't be spending tons of money on one therapy activity! And your in luck...there is a MAJOR Back to School Sale happening soon over on Teachers Pay Teachers! Up to 28% off when you use the code BTS13. There was never a better time to get great therapy materials made by other SLP's. The Queen's Speech has a great list of all the SLP bloggers who are participating, CLICK HERE to check it out!

As a CF, we are already stressed out about learning the ropes, being on our own for the first time, making sure we are compliant with all regulations, working with parents and caregivers...and the list goes on! You don't want to be stressing about a piece of paper you can't find on top of that!

Don't forget to reach out to your colleagues and CF mentor during this time. They are also a wealth of knowledge. I have only just started and have learned so much just from them! Ask questions, ask for explanations, ask for clarification, ask for opinions...that is what they are there for!

And don't forget to have some fun! You will be so much less stressed if you take some time for yourself and forget about work (if only for a little while!).

Adventure Awaits! 

                                

So it begins!

It's time! I am about to take that giant leap from an SLP graduate student to a full blown clinical fellow in speech-language pathology! Gone are the days of clinical supervisor's holding my hand and going over every lesson plan and activity. The days of dreaming of independence are over, and it's a little terrifying! Granted as a CF, we still have support from our mentors and fellow CF's, not to mention the abundance of SLP bloggers online offering up great therapy ideas and advice! However, the learning curve is still STEEP and I have a feeling that the CF year will be just as (if not more) challenging as graduate school! 

As I am about to start my career, I can't help but look back at how I got here. Those anxious days of waiting to find out if I got into graduate school, sitting in on those first few classes, working with clients for the first time....it has all been leading up to this. But once graduate school is over and you finally have that degree in your hands, that's when the real work begins! You start stalking combing through job posting sites and applying like a mad-man. You perfect your resume, write individual cover letters, and try to make yourself stand out among all the other applicants. I think that is the worst part! Applying to countless jobs thinking that will be the one, only to never hear from them! If you are reading this and still in graduate school, this probably doesn't sound very encouraging! Stick with it, keep applying and don't be afraid to branch out. You may have it set in your mind which population you want to work with or which setting you want to work in, but explore other options. You never know what you will find! If your anything like me, you may find yourself going in a very different direction! 

Although nervous about finally becoming an SLP, I am also very excited! All those years of late night studying and writing papers has come to an end and it's time to put those skills to the test! If you are still uneasy about starting your CF and need some more encouragement from some seasoned SLP's, I encourage you to check out a post over at Sublime Speech on Preparing for Your CF Year! 

In honor of this big step I am having my first ever giveaway! I am giving away the newest product on my Teachers Pay Teachers store: Out of This World Articulation Challenger Sentences! This is a fun alien-themed activity that includes 32 tongue-twisting and silly sentences for /s/, /ch/, and /l/. It also includes a fun game that can be used with any activity! Enter in the Rafflecopter below! 

                                       

So...here's to taking that giant leap into the great unknown and hoping I grow wings on the way down! To anyone else starting their CF soon, we have been preparing for this for at least 2 years now! You may be new...but you're not alone! 

Adventure Awaits! 


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hello Colorado!

Made it! After a long 3 day drive, I made it to Colorado! The drive was very long and we drove about 700 miles per day! It was nice to see so much of the country. Pennsylvania had beautiful mountain highways but from Chicago to Denver it was mostly farms and windmills! It was cool to see so many wind farms throughout Iowa and Nebraska. But, needless to say, I was happy to have finally reached Denver for more than one reason! 

It was nice having my mom drive out to Colorado with me and help me get settled into my new apartment. In between prepping for work and getting settled, I have had some time to explore a little bit.  The first adventure was a trip up the Mount Evans Scenic Byway drive. This is a road that takes you up 14,130 ft. The roads are narrow and winding with absolutely NO guardrails. It is a little nerve-racking to say the least but absolutely worth it! The views from the top are incredible, even on a cloudy day like we had! Once you get to the top, you have the option of climbing up another 100 feet or so to get to the  "true top" (14,264 ft). While driving up, my head began to hurt and continued at the top. Luckily, that was the only issue I had with the altitude. I also experienced some slight shortness of breath with walking to the top. Both of these symptoms disappeared while we were descending. 

The next adventure took me quite further into the Rockies. One of my graduate school clinical supervisors had rented a cabin with her husband for a couple weeks and invited my friends and me out. Their cabin overlooked the two tallest peaks in Colorado, one of them being Mount Elbert. Although it rained a majority of our stay there, the views were incredible and it was great visiting with them! We did have some altitude issues while we were there, nothing major though, just some headaches, shortness of breath, and fatigue. We were able to explore the town of Leadville, at 10,000+ feet. 

While driving out to Leadville, we passed many signs for ski mountains including Breckinridge, Aspen, Vail, and Copper Mountain to name a few! This is getting me very excited for snowboard season! I'm thinking the next adventure will be hiking and exploring Red Rocks, the amphitheater right outside Denver! Any other suggestions?

Here is a collage of pictures of my adventures so far! I made this using Pic Stitch. 

I will be starting my Clinical Fellowship year very soon, so stay tuned for posts about that! To make sure you don't miss a post, enter your email in the "Follow By Email" tab at the top right of this page!

Adventure Awaits! 

Taylor

See Ya Later, Maine!

It's finally here! The car is packed and I'm headed west! These last two weeks have been jam packed with cleaning, organizing, packing, and everything else that comes with moving. I have also spent time with friends and family and soaking up everything I love about Maine. I even took a trip up to "the county" (for all you non-Mainers, that would be northern Maine). I got to see family I haven't seen in about 10 years! There are definitely mixed emotions about a leap this big: excitement, nervousness, and a little fear. But to quote a favorite song of mine: "Sometimes the only way is jumping, I hope your not afraid of heights!" However, I can't move across the country without visiting my favorite spots one last time. Here's a picture I've compiled...if your ever in Portland, I highly recommend these places! 

This adventure will begin with a 3 day car trip (as long as nothing goes wrong!) out to Denver. With this being the FOURTH move in two months (me, then my brother, then my parents, and now me again!), we have had enough of loading and unloading U-Haul trucks or hooking trailers up to the car! Therefore, whatever fits in the Jeep goes and whatever doesn't, stays behind! I will have some time to settle into the new place, buy some essential pieces of furniture (e.g. bed), and hopefully squeeze in an adventure or two before starting work! I am beyond excited to start exploring Colorado! 

AND for all you Teachers Pay Teachers members out there, I am going to set one of my PAID items to FREE for a very limited time. In honor of the beginning of this adventure, you can download my "Pirate Language Pack" for FREE from my store (what else spells adventure better than a little pirate treasure hunt!). This will only be free from the time I set out on the road until I make the first pit-stop. If enough people leave feedback, I may keep it free for a little longer! Just click the link above to download!

So, here it is...everything I'm taking out to Colorado, crammed into that! I am so excited to start this adventure! Here I go....Colorado or Bust!

Stay tuned because.... Adventure Awaits! 

Taylor

It's Official!

Hi! 

Welcome to my first blog post ever! I write this as an official CF-SLP! That's right, I have accepted my first position as a speech-language pathologist and I couldn't be more excited to start my career! I will also be moving to Denver, Colorado in order to start this new adventure! After having grown up mostly in Maine and returning to complete my master's degree, you may be asking, why Colorado? I wanted an adventure after graduate school and somewhere new to explore. Plus, those mountains are hard to resist! What better time than when your young right!? Also, I have a couple of great friends who are also moving out there, so we can explore together! 

You might be asking why I decided to write this blog. I started exploring SLP blogs during my second year of graduate school. These blogs provide great ideas for therapy activities, links for free or inexpensive therapy materials from Teachers Pay Teachers (not to mention the giveaways!), and great insights into the world of speech-language pathology. While I don't yet have a lot of insight to share, I am hoping to share triumphs and struggles of embarking on my Clinical Fellowship year. At the very least, I hope others can learn some things from my experiences. I will also post reviews and new products for my Teachers Pay Teachers store, with links. Click on the "Freebies" tab at the top of the page to check out what I have so far! I may be working with adults but I still love the creative process and will post new materials when I can! And because I believe everyone should have a little adventure in their lives, I will be also be sharing some exciting experiences that Colorado has to offer! 

So, if you don't already know me, here is some little tidbits about me: I was born in New York but grew up mostly in Maine. My favorite sports are soccer and baseball. I LOVE to snowboard and have recently caught the "hiking bug" (thanks to a certain clinical supervisor!). Due to allergies, I eat a gluten free diet and mostly dairy free. I will be working mostly with adults who use alternative and augmentative communication. And...I CANNOT WAIT to explore all that Colorado has to offer! 

So the next step...fill out all of that lovely paperwork that is required to work, put money down on an apartment, pack up all my stuff and head west until I hit those Rockies! 

Adventure Awaits!

Taylor