Anyone making videos of class activities?

Have started taking photos of class activities, working with the speech-language pathologist for the high school to expand the photos into videos (using Windows Movie Maker), and to have students type in title text and narrate the action.  Anyone have videos like this to share?  I made extra sure I had photo permissions from the families!

Can you tell what the photo shows--it's a snow cone maker.

Lunch at Big Lots

Found these kids' utensils at Big Lots today--sturdy plastic and sized right for elementary students.  A few rubber bands on the handles would make them less slippery, if needed.  The brown spreader is adorable and what works better than a beaver's tail??? 

Don't know if I'd give too many students the shark knife but for some kids it would be great for cutting food and Play-dough. 

Yep, the price is right.  Just $1 for the whole bunch.

It Was a Picnic

My wild PT friend and I drove up to a home eval this morning, to find everyone outside at the picnic table.  No hot dogs, no pink jello, no ants--just a bunch of Early Childhood Evaluators, a litter of flea-bitten kittens, free-range chickens, a quiet little kid and one unhappy adult who was surprised at our arrival. 

After I had a stand-off with a rooster I was able to observe enough play to give an opinion on the little one's hand skills and we were outta there.  Skimpiest observation I've done probably ever, but I was glad the family member even allowed us to be there.

Photo from Virginia State Fair 2009.

Need a Quiet Space in Your Classroom?

When I was visiting one of my high schools today, the teacher for students with severe disabilities showed me how she had put high shelves in the classrooms for keeping assistive technology and augmentative communication devices handy, yet out of reach of the students when they were not using specific devices.  By using the white, coated metal shelves (usually found in closets) we could see what was on the shelves more easily than if she had just used particle board or another solid material.  That was enough of a great idea for me for one day, then my wild PT friend asked me if I had seen the "sensory" area.

Well, we walked into another room and I saw a square beach canopy set up in the room, with streamers hanging from the horizontal supports and all kinds of electronic aquariums and other electronics to provide gentle visual stimulation during a quiet time.  Last year I thought about placing a large, clip-on beach umbrella over the computer tables to cut down on overhead glare and decrease distractions while using the computer, but this idea was much more effective in changing the whole tone of an area for students.  Will take pictures soon to share.

Need a Little Stress Relief?

Even though the students aren't yet back to school in our county, the teachers are and we OTs are running around from school to school, delivering equipment and tracking down school teams in the 95+ degree heat.  Most of us on staff have at least a few different schools than we served last year, so we're newbies again and memorizing the names of adminstrators and teachers.

Maybe you're in the same boat?  Here's a goofy video recently created by a friend which might help calm those jangled nerves.
Lava Lamp Algae Show

Hope your first day with the students goes well.

Your Order Please

At this time of year we're frequently asked to submit equipment requests, with a short turn-around time to have the request in to central office.

Devote a space in your desk or the "office in your car" to a section of current equipment catalogs, with marked pages where you've noted items you'd like to order, someday.  By keeping the current catalog we can supply our supervisors with the correct company name, 800 number, website address, item catalog numbers and the exact ordering information (right/left, 3 per set...).

Get those orders in fast.  Supplying every detail on the order form or in the e-mail to your supervisor might put your order on top of the bunch.  No kidding.

Leave It To An OT

Who can stay out of the school supply aisles at this time of year?  We can find lots of good ideas for helping students, which we can often duplicate with other materials at a much lower cost than what we see in the store.

At Wal-Mart yesterday I spotted this lined paper series produced by Mead and developed by Toni M. Schulken, MS, OTR/L.  Only allowed myself to purchase one item--RediSpace transitional notebook paper.  Although I don't train students in handwriting on a regular basis, I think this paper will help me suggest ideas to teachers and parents for how to aid students in more functional handwriting.

RediSpace Notebook Paper