I'm at a crossroads.
First of all, I'm not here to sell anything. I think it's fantastic that so many SLPs have found a great resource in sites such as Teachers Pay Teachers. The truth is, I don't use it. It's not that I don't like it (so many cute activities! so visually appealing!) I just haven't found it to be very applicable to my practice. For a long time, I was in early childhood, all of my therapy was push-in, and I was rarely one-on-one for longer than five minutes. Now, my setting and population are just very different from the typical TPT crowd.
Plus, I love making my own stuff.
When I initially started this blog, I thought, "I'm making all of these materials for my students and my coworkers ask me all the time if they can use them too. Why not share the things I make with everyone and maybe I can make someone else's life a little easier? Maybe I can help more kids." After all, there's nothing efficient about always reinventing the wheel. Unfortunately, it's not always that simple.
I make things that are practical and useful to me in my practice. I do it because I'm a perfectionist and I need things to be a certain way and I do it because it feeds my passion for being artistic. My brain just works that way and I realize that not everyone is so inclined. I do it because I can customize things for each of my students and I do it because they enjoy it. However, I am incredibly overwhelmed by all of the legal issues associated with sharing content, namely images. For me, purchasing clipart is just not practical. I already own Boardmaker, I'm not interested in selling my materials for profit, and eventually the cost and time adds up. My students now are mostly over thirteen, male, and on the autism spectrum. Let's be real: they're not interested in cute clipart, and it's not appropriate.
Do you see my dilemma?
This, coupled with some personal change (head back one post), is the reason that I stepped away from blogging for several months. I have so much respect for all of the SLP bloggers out there doing the TPT thing (I may not purchase, but I read regularly!) and I think I have unique ideas and knowledge to contribute. I want to keep blogging. I'm just not sure at this point whether/how I can share the materials that I make to support those ideas.
I would love to hear your thoughts. How can we help each other to help kids?
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"Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life."
One of the wonderful things about being a Speech-Language Pathologist is the immense breadth of our practice. We have the opportunity to serve individuals across the lifespan with a huge variety of needs and in soo many different settings. It's pretty amazing, really. It can also be incredibly intimidating - there are so many things to know! How can one person be an expert on all of it?
From the moment I chose this career path, I have maintained an unwavering interest in autism. It has shaped my education, clinical experiences, and professional expertise. I've loved every minute of it.
Exactly what I wanted within this population, however, has been hard for me to nail down in the perfect job. Did I want to do solely diagnostics? Would I reject any program that didn't do inclusion? Do I want to work directly with kids in a school or do I want something more family-centered? AAC? Behavior? Early intervention? Research? Younger kids? Older kids? The list goes on; there are pros and cons to everything.
And then there are all of the external job factors: salary and benefits (we try to pretend as though it doesn't, but let's be honest, it matters and that doesn't diminish our passion for what we do), geographic location, continuing education, the overall culture of the workplace... Is anyone else exhausted?
The good news is, I think I've finally figured it out! I am so excited about my new adventure and I've spent the past few months reading, researching, rapport-building, reigniting my passion, and immersing myself in learning as much as I can. I am so excited to share, but it will also mean a shift away from early childhood for this little blog.
Thanks for your patience while I get my bearings - stay tuned!
From the moment I chose this career path, I have maintained an unwavering interest in autism. It has shaped my education, clinical experiences, and professional expertise. I've loved every minute of it.
Exactly what I wanted within this population, however, has been hard for me to nail down in the perfect job. Did I want to do solely diagnostics? Would I reject any program that didn't do inclusion? Do I want to work directly with kids in a school or do I want something more family-centered? AAC? Behavior? Early intervention? Research? Younger kids? Older kids? The list goes on; there are pros and cons to everything.
And then there are all of the external job factors: salary and benefits (we try to pretend as though it doesn't, but let's be honest, it matters and that doesn't diminish our passion for what we do), geographic location, continuing education, the overall culture of the workplace... Is anyone else exhausted?
The good news is, I think I've finally figured it out! I am so excited about my new adventure and I've spent the past few months reading, researching, rapport-building, reigniting my passion, and immersing myself in learning as much as I can. I am so excited to share, but it will also mean a shift away from early childhood for this little blog.
Thanks for your patience while I get my bearings - stay tuned!