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

School Bells are Almost Ringing

School starts up in about 2 1/2 weeks here in Virginia.  Looking forward to sharing more great ideas from teachers, therapists and families.

In the meantime, invest a little time this summer getting ready for a busy year at work.  If your home or office needs a little organizing, take a peek at my other blog:

LifeSpace

Frugal Medical Device

Power to student creativity!
Medical Device Cooked Up at Home

The Vast World of Educational Technology

Haven't read more than a few posts from this high school principal, but the ones I did read about using educational technology are interesting.
http://esheninger.blogspot.com/

I'm hardly familiar with more than a couple of the applications he discusses, and this makes me feel like a tech newbie.  There's so much more to technology in schools than the little I've gotten to know through working with assistive technology.

Baking Adaptation

Homemade sugar cookies make great gifts for family and friends, but beating the batter when you add the last cup or so of flour makes for quite an UE workout.
I often use my newer serving spoons for stirring the batter, but their cheap metal handles often bend with the force required to plow through the mixture.  My older spoons are untiring soldiers and never bend, but their handles are skinny and slip around in my hand when I'm working hard to mix the thick batter.

What to do?  Do what I use in schools to aid students in grasping their feeding utensils--wrap a paper towel or clean kitchen rag around the handle and secure the temporary aid with a rubber band.  You can see that I folded my paper towel too wide and needed to push it up away from the bowl of the spoon.  However, it worked great and made the stirring easy.
I did remove the contraption before I gave the leftovers on the spoon and in the bowl to dear hubby to enjoy.