SUCCESSES!!!

Success doesn't seem to come along often enough. There are times when we get discouraged because it seems that things are status quo with our students. Then, out of nowhere, a light will come on.

I have a 5th grader who has been working extremely hard on idioms this year. Her mom told me they were talking, and her daughter said, "Hey, that's an idiom!" A couple of days after that, this student said that "under the weather" was on a test, and she knew what it meant. She was so excited & so proud of herself!

One of "younger" SLPs in the system where I work sent this email:

I had a great session this morning with my social skills groups! A fellow teacher in XXXXX County gave me an idea a couple of weeks ago. There is a book called “Have you filled a bucket today?” by Carol McCloud. It is amazing! It is illustrated for little kids and talks about being a “Bucket Filler” or a “Bucket Dipper.” The book gives lots of examples on how to be a good “Bucket Filler.” I read the book to them this morning and made a poster to hang in the class with lots of examples that the students can look at throughout the day. Then my CDC teacher and I acted out skits and the students had to tell us whether we were being “Bucket Fillers” or “Bucket Dippers.” I also had worksheets for the students to sort “fillers” and “dippers” into buckets. My CDC teacher and I decided to make each student a bucket that they have to fill up every day. They have to get 10 warm fuzzies to get a prize. The students are responsible for putting the fuzzies in their buckets when their teacher tells them they did something nice or did well on their work. At the end of the day, they have to count them and tell their teacher. If they have 10, they get a sticker, 15 for candy, and 20 for a big prize or Ipad time. After we finished today, the kids were walking around saying nice things to each other and throwing away trash. One student came up to me and said “I’m going to be a bucket filler, not a bucket dipper.” I was so proud! The teacher implemented it today and so far, it is going well! A couple of students have been dippers, so they had to take out a warm fuzzy.

Funny story- Ms. Teacher just came in and said one of her students was cheating on his test. She asked him if that was something a “bucket filler” or “bucket dipper” would do. He said he was being a “bucket dipper” and another student starting saying “Dipper, dipper, you’re a dipper. Ha ha!” Then Ms. Teacher asked him what HE was doing and he said “oops. Sorry” and went to take out a fuzzyJ  It’s working!

Thanks, Megan, for sharing this with all of us!!!

What successes have you had lately?