Mrs. Johnson

Websites update

I have updated the Websites page (left) with websites for stuttering.

Would you like to know some famous people who stutter? Check out stutteringhelp.org.

Want to find a conference especially for kids who stutter? Look at friendswhostutter.org.

Want to know how to talk to a person who stutters? Search stutteringhelp.org.

Please let me know if you have questions or need more information about stuttering.

Summer Practice

The year has flown by and it's already time to think about summer plans. The perfect time to forget about school and practice, right? Wrong!!!

You don't need special homework to practice communication skills. In fact, informal family time is a great time to practice with your child! Here are some wonderful ideas:

Articulation:

• Play games, such as "20 questions" or "Eye Spy." Choose an object that has your child's target sound and located in your neighborhood, home, or car, depending on where you are. When it's your child's turn, have him or her choose an object with the sound.  

• Let your child use the camera and take pictures of objects or activities with the sound. Make a photo album of words you can practice.  

• Make collages with pictures from magazines or newspapers that have the sound in them. 

• While watching t.v. make a list of the words you hear with your sound. 

• Make a new recipe together. There are many ways to practice the sound from making the grocery list, to shopping for the ingredients, to making the food.  

• And here's my favorite because you can practice your reading skills, too. Pick an article from the newspaper or a magazine. Let your child go through and highlight, underline, or circle words with the sound in it. Go back and practice each word. Then go back and read, being very careful to pronounce your words with care. This can be used during the school year with homework and reading assignments. 

Fluency:

• Take time out of the day when you and your child can talk undisturbed. Try to listen without interrupting, judging, or correcting. Make eye contact and encourage your child to look at you even when he or she has a stuttering moment. Model a slow speech rate. 

• Find out all you can about stuttering. There are some famous people who stuttered at one time in their lives. Can you find 10?

• Practice ordering a pizza by phone with your child and then the next time you want to order pizza, encourage him or her to do it.

• Let your child be the teacher. Let him or her teach you how to stutter! You would be amazed at what you will find out. 

 

Language:

• Let your child pick a book, then you both read it, but separately. Talk about the book, chapter by chapter. Ask each other questions, such as Who is the main character, Where and When does this book take place, Why do you think something happened, What do you think will happen next, What would you have done if you were in their place?  

• Read aloud together. My family still enjoys this and my children are grown up! It's a perfect time to discuss vocabulary and look up words, talk about the story, and iron out misconceptions. Make sure your child has a chance to read, too.

• Vocabulary, vocabulary, vocabulary! I can't say it enough! Children with language weaknesses usually have difficulty learning, retaining, and using vocabulary. Don't always assume your child knows the words you use. Check for comprehension by asking them if they know what words mean. Do they know what a buckle is? What do you use when you clean up the leaves off the grass? (rake) What is the opposite of loud? (soft) What is the meaning of bank? What is another meaning for the word bank?

 

Reading is to Language just as Walking is to Fitness. The more we do, the better we get.

I hope you all have a wonderful, enjoyable summer. Come back rested and ready to go in the Fall. It'll be here before you know it!

Mrs. Johnson 
  

Challenge: Saving paper / Benefit: Learning computer skills

On Thursdays, in Mrs. Rand's and Mrs. Conger's Social Studies classes, we have been reading the News-2-You current events newspaper. This is our combined social studies/speech-language/occupational therapy/assistive technology lesson.

News-2-You is a web-based paper that we have printed for each student. Each paper is typically 20 plus pages, so you can imagine the amount of paper and ink we use each week for this project. The School District has recently requested that we all conserve paper and toner, so we began to problem-solve how we could continue to use News-2-You.

We have a solution that we think is a good one. Each of the children has been assigned a laptop on which we will download the weekly paper. The children will have the opportunity to use their computer skills while also reading the current paper.

Today was our first attempt and the children were awesome! They learned the Page Down and Page up keys and it was amazing at how well they were able to follow directions and keep up with where we were. The children were great about helping each other, too. One advantage they have of reading the paper on the computer is being able to view it in color, which really helps hold their attention. We will eventually be able to put the worksheets on the computer, too, and the children will be able to circle answers and do the crossword.

We are all excited about this opportunity to help our environment and learn new skills. 

The following link allows you to access a portion of the News-2-You website for games and stories. Please try it.

News-2-You

Conferences

Parent-Teacher conference week will be the week of January 26-30. I will be available to attend conferences for my speech students. Parents who would like me to attend their child's conference or would like to set aside a separate time with me, please let me know as I am scheduling these now. Please let me know by email or by phone.

Thank you and I look forward to meeting with you.

email: nancy1.johnson@cobbk12.org
phone: 770-928-5546 x238

Flat Stanley

Mrs. Lang, Occupational Therapy/Assistive Technology, and I have been working in Mrs. Rand's class on Thursdays. We read the News-2-You current events newspaper and then do activities related to the different stories. Recently, our story had to do with Flat Stanley. Many of you may be familiar with Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley is a book by Jeff Brown. Stanley was a fictitious "real" boy who was flattened by a bulletin board. Flat Stanley was not injured, but once he was flat he could do anything a boy could do, but Stanley could also mail himself anywhere. He had grand adventures!

The Flat Stanley Project (www.flatstanley.com) was created as a literacy, social studies, math, and writing activity for students. The Flat Stanley Project goes something like this: students create their own Flat Stanleys and mail to people in other places. Hopefully the receiver of the Flat Stanley will take pictures with Flat Stanley and send Flat Stanley back with pictures and mementos of the journey. Recently, we were contacted by a middle school in New Mexico and have received their Flat Stanleys. We will be taking photos with their Flat Stanleys around the school.

Teachers have written a letter to parents that will go home in the next few days. The letter contains a permission slip for students to participate in our Flat Stanley Project. There will be other information, too. Please be sure to read, sign, and return these permission letters.

If you have any questions, please email Mrs. Rand, Mrs. Conger, Mrs. Lang, or me.

News-2-You

In Mrs. Rand's classroom, we use the weekly newspaper, News-2-You, for reading about current events. The article this week was about Winter the Dolphin. Winter was injured and lost his tail. Without help, Winter would die, so a very special person made a new tail for Winter. Ask your child if he or she can remember any details about the story. A quick Google search showed several Winter the Dolphin stories that you and your child can check out together.

News-2-You has a link that parents and students can access from home. On this website, you are able to play games, read stories, and even draw on their chalkboard. Check it out!

News-2-You Joey's Locker

Visual Strategies

If you checked out Linda Hodgdon's website, you may have found her article on establishing bedtime routines. I have created a Bedtime Checklist and pictures to go with it. This is an experiment and I'm hoping the quality will be good enough for you to print and use the documents at home. If not, please let me know and I can print a copy from the original for you.

Download bedtime_checklist.PDF

Websites

On the left side of this page you will find a heading called WEBSITES. Throughout the year I will be adding websites to that page that have to do with speech and language. I hope you find them useful or informative.

Email

In case you have tried to email me through the school website and have gotten no response, there has been a problem with that link but it has now been fixed. Email from outside our system also sometimes gets sent to an unrecognized mail file due to the filters in place on our email system.

Email is still the best way to reach me since I am in and out of my office throughout day but I check email often. If you get no response from me through email, please feel free to call or send a note with your student.

Thanks and I welcome all of your wonderful comments and suggestions.

Welcome

This is the blog for the Mabry Middle School Speech and Language Program.

It's been a busy first few weeks of school. I have enjoyed getting to know new faces and new names to go with them. I especially enjoyed Open House and meeting some of the parents of my new and returning students. It's exciting to look forward to a new year and all of the things that we can accomplish.

The speech schedule has been finalized and your students should know what day they have speech.

Please be aware that if you need to email me that my email address is a little different. I have listed my contact information below:

Nancy Johnson
770-928-5546 x238
nancy1.johnson@cobbk12.org

Thank you and I look forward to working with you and your student.

Nancy Johnson