oh, to be forgotten by all

I just went to go pick up a student for speech. As I walk up to the classroom she comes out. I'm thinking, "Great! She's remembering to come to speech". But no, at this point the student informs me that she really did forget, she just came out of her class to use the bathroom. So, instead of patiently wait for her (she's a 6th grader, she doesn't need me to wait), I decided to write this blog post. Oh, there she is now.

Rants of /r/ articulation therapy

Oh, I just want to rant a little bit. I'm sick of /r/ kiddos not progressing. My younger kids make some good progress, but my 6th graders are making no progress. I don't know what to do short of grabbing their tongue and putting it in the right spot. Errr... (or rather Ehhhhh). Anyway, who's still in the schools? Anybody have any good ideas for /r/ articulation therapy for older students?]

Is anybody out there?

I actually know you guys are because I still get hits for this site, so I'll just posting. I try to do that a little more often. If you would like to post something and you forgot the email, please contact me. I don't want to post that email on the web (don't want just anybody to post), but email me, I have the same email from college (the gmail one that is).

Happy New Year!!

Fellow SLPs!  It's been TOO long!  I miss you all.  It is time for a blog entry from each of us.  I know Linds had a baby since I last saw her, Rachel moved, Bob's wife is pregnant again (right?) and I need to know more!
I'm still working at UofU Hospital and I love it but sometimes I think about doing traveling therapy.  Have any of you ever thought of that?  Good money, lots of adventure?
I get my very first student on Monday- she's straight from our beloved USU, and I am excited and a little nervous to share my incompetence...er, knowledge with another.  :) 
I heard Gantz isn't teaching anymore, and that Chad still is, and also works for Prenke-Romich AAC company.  I saw Gillam at ASHA, and that PhD student who's name escapes me right now.  Anyway, let's reunite and eat good food soon!  That last party at Fat Cats was fun.  Love y'all!
Kristin

grammar errors

So, I had to write this real quick. I don't know why, because its pretty embarrassing. Okay, so as a speech therapist people hold me to a higher level of speaking. This is the frequent joke when I accidentally say something that doesn't make sense and everybody laughs. ha ha ha ha... (almost like that what about bob joke that never dies......) So, in an IEP (Individual Education Plan) for a student that really has some serious issues with verbal grammar to the point where its hard to understand him... so on the part where I write what the student needs to do (so and so needs to be able to produce grammatically correct sentences blaa blaa blaa). I apparently made a big grammar error when writing this sentences to the point where it didn't make sense when you read it out loud. When do I catch my mistake? As I'm reading it to the parents of the student in question. I'm just really inspiring the confidence of that parent that I can really help her son.

pros and cons of school speech therapy

So, since any excitement has died out for this blog (not that I think it was ever there), I'm going to use this blog more to talk about my endeavors at work, seeing how you people would understand better than anyone else.

So, what are the pros and cons for deciding to work in schools instead of the hospitals?

Pros:
June July Aug,
better benefits (because you are technically a state employee).
you see progress with younger kids (as oppose to working in a nursing home)
lots of vacation days
you can leave earlier (if you don't have about a million things to do which we normally do)
no weekends
kids are cute

Cons:
pay is less (but when you consider summers off and all the holidays off its actually pretty close).
high high high caseloads
usually you have to see kids in groups
lots of paperwork
a closet for an office
kids with behavior problems
teachers that won't work with your schedule.

hmm, is it worth it? I don't know, June July and August is a pretty big motivator.

Bob Bateman
http://bobbateman.blogspot.com

♠ ´¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•` (¸If at first you don't succeed then, sky diving isn't for you!

Isn't it ironic

I saw this pic on one of the blogs I follow and I had to add it here. The irony...

♠ ´¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•` (¸If at first you don't succeed then, sky diving isn't for you!

get together

Hey, a few of us met for lunch on June 28th in Salt Lake. It was great to see you guys! We had Kristin and spouse, Lindsey and spouse, Genna (spouse + baby boy), Stephanie, and myself (plus my family). We went to Fat Cats Pizza Factory in South Salt Lake. Hopefully we'll be able to do something like this again sometime.

So, Janet said that she would be willing to host the next party/get together. So, I'm looking forward to seeing you guys again.

Oh, and it was fun to see a bunch of you at the summer seminars at Utah State University. Stephanie, Pam, Linda and I got a chance to go out to eat.

talk to you later for now.

It's a boy!

Well, I'm at a hospital computer, so I can't post pictures yet, but our baby was born last night. Logan James was born at 7:14 last night, 8 lbs 6 oz, 21 1/2 in. Everything went really smoothly. We're really excited. Once we get home we'll upload some pictures.

Congrats Genna and Alex!

Genna Sent this to everybody. I asked her if I could post it on the blog and she said that it would be okay.

 

I just accidently had a baby 4 weeks early (at 36 weeks). So...Yea, everything is good he was born May 13, at 14:59 weighing in at 7 lbs, 4 oz, and he is 19.5 inches long. Just imagine if I had actually gone full term...Ouch.

 

Genna

What it takes to be a speech language pathologist

Stephanie emailed this to me, she would have posted it her self, but she feels to inept with the computer. Stephanie, don't worry, we all feel that way from time to time. Here's what she sent me:

 

She found this quote on ASHA's website:

 

"To enter this career, one must have a sincere interest in helping people, an above average intellectual aptitude, and the sensitivity, personal warmth, and perspective to be able to interact with the person who has a communication problem. Scientific aptitude, patience, emotional stability, tolerance, and persistence are necessary, as well as resourcefulness and imagination. Other essential traits include a commitment to work cooperatively with others and the ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing."
 
Stephanie: "Thinking about graduate school, that just made me laugh.  It also reminded me of Dr. Blair's Ed Aud class.  I know, I have an odd sense of humor." 

a party a party, yay!

Hey everybody, we're trying to plan a party to celebrate the end of our CFYs. Yay!!! Anyway, I know there are several people outside of you :( so we know not everybody will be able to come, but we're not sure what day to schedule the party.

 

Here is an email I got from Kristin about the whole thing. So please le me know what day you guys would prefer. As always, someone will have a conflict with everyday, that's just how it goes, so will pick the day that has the least problems. Give us your input on which day.

 

~bob

.....

Bab,

   Lindsay and I planned the party and we want you to help get the word out to the other SLPs...

Let's party at her parents' house one of the next 2 saturdays before she has the baby and it's too late.  What do you think?  Bring your own meat and side dish.  Yes?  17th, 24th or 31st? 

KM

some anyone want to swap something?

So, now that we are old pros, do we want to swap ideas or literacy units, or share our goal banks (even if they are bad)??? You'll see below this post it says "Comments" or "Post a comment" or something like that. If you click on that you'll be able to leave a comment to the blog, thus making me feel like some one care ;)

 

I want to figure out how I can post documents to download here. Anybody have a clue? Then I could let you guys download my excel files that I have made specifically for keeping track of your caseload and stuff.

 

I'm serious people, we should take advantage of each other to get better ideas and resources. Even if we are spread out all over the place. So, lets start sharing!

 

~Bob

Howdy people

So, I only have 3 more IEPs this week then only 7 next week. Almost done, as long as our baby doesn't come in the middle of all of that. Lindy has been having a really hard time with this pregnancy (the two little girls don't help much). Our little girls are too young to yet be helpful. At least Sydney is mostly pretty independent. Savannah isn't though, she's a handful. She was absolutely crazy at church. What can you expect from a 15 month old that you are trying to get to sit still? The next couple of months are going to be challenging. Sure, I work for the school district so I'll get time off this summer, but I work at a year round school, so I won't get time off anytime soon. But we have family that will help us out, so we should be just fine.

May the month of IEPs

I hope you are all enjoying your many many IEPs (except for those not working in schools, I know you have too much paperwork too!). I think I only have one more to schedule. I'm in sort of a rush to get them all done because my wife, Lindy, is due at the end of May and I would like to spend a few days with her and the baby (and my other two daughters). How's everything going for you guys? Have you kept up? Are you drowning? I hope someone is reading this, or I'll feel really silly.

A movie to see

I'm going to try write more on this blog, since I know there are at least a few readers. I came across an article talking about the stories of people with communication disorders. They talked briefly about a movie that I didn't know about (I rarely keep up with movies these days unless its a disney princess show - that's what happens when you are the parent of little girls). Anyway, the movie is called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, based on Jean-Dominiques Bauby's autobiography, same title. This man had a brain stem stroke which resulted in lock-in syndrome. He dictated the whole book with someone pointing to letters and having him blink to select one. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I saw the preview. It is in french, but there are english subtitles (so if you don't like foreign films then this isn't for you). I just thought this might be a cool thing for us speechies. The website is http://video.movies.go.com/thedivingbellandthebutterfly/main.html. Of course there's ton of information on the web about it. I'm sure some of you were already aware of it and I'm the slow one (which is the case 9 times out of 10), but I just thought I'd share.

 

~Bob

CCCs Almost here

I'm excited to finally get my CCCs (not so excited to pay ASHA dues). Are any of you guys going to start doing private practice right away? I want to do that, but I'm nervous about it. I'm afraid I don't think to highly of my skills (I think I'm getting better, but I still have a long way to go). I had an SLP here in Davis County say that there is actually a pretty high demand for private pratice in Utah (people are willing to pay to some degree). Not as good as other states, but like I said before, what am I going to do? Get my whole family to move with us somewhere. Bring the state that I grew up in with us? Besides the crap wages, I really do like living in Utah.

 

Anyway, I know people are checking this from time to time, so I'm trying to give them new things to read. Remember you can leave messages yourselves if you use that email I sent you guys. If you need another copy of the blog email then let me know.

I know you are there now

I know you are reading this blog because I've seen the hits. I'm not sure which one of you live in Arizona. Where did everybody end up? I haven't heard from Steve in a while.

 

Anyway, I'm really enjoying working in the schools. I'm probably get paid the least, but what do you do when you want to stay in Utah.  I have a year-round school and I've had an interesting time with the ever changing schedule, but next year my school is going traditional. But in my school district I always work on the regular schedule and get paid extra. I don't think it worked like that in some of the other districts (Melia, what is it like over in Jordan school district?). I work at an elementary school and a jr high. So, I have kids from K-9. Lots of fun. Anyways, I'm going to leave more messages about speech stuff here because know some of you at least glance at this website.

 

Talk to you later,

Bob

 

 

Hey you guys

So, we need to have a party soon. Lindsey has again voluntaryed her parents house. We can consider it a celebration for getting (or almost getting) our CCCs! Yay!!

 

Anyways, if you would like to leave a post to this lovely website email me and I'll send you the email address you can use to post lovely messages.

 

Have a good day!

54 days, woot!

So I feel bad for the people who don't have gmail. If you don't you should get it, that will make the constant emailing less annoying. If you still need an invite. I can throw you one. My baby is due June 10th. So today is March 10th, welcome to the third trimester. For those of you who are so concerned about me finishing my CFY, there is no longer need to fret, or stress me out with zillions of Job offers. The private practice I worked for over the summer wants me back as soon as I'm ready, so that's what I'll be doing. I will only need 8 weeks of the minimal 15 hours per week, so that should be doable with a baby (not that I'd know). But anyway, that's the good news.

The headaches are annoying, they say you can sleep them off but that's a bunch of crap (in my case anyway). I end up needing to take tylenol. That's what they say is safe during pregnancy. I don't do it a lot, but I do it when I know I'll need it. Later all! I'll be back in the inter-mountain west in 54 days, WOOT!

-Genna

Baby Pooloza

AWESOME!!!! Go Genna, Lindee, Lindsey, and Arianna/Janet. Anyone else keeping a secret? All these babies coming are awesome. You would really think us Mormons are single handedly trying to populate the earth. So what if we are????? Both of my brothers just had babies. My two best friends  from high school are having babies this summer. My sister in law is also due this summer and Luke's cousin is having twins this summer. Oh and there are 3 people in our branch besides me who are having babies this summer. If "Saturday's Warrior" is true, then that baby sending station in heaven is totally booked for this summer. JK!
Go Genna for getting pregnant first. That is quite a feat! It is too bad about your CFY though. You will get done! Luke and I had to wait until our insurance kicked in to be covered which was one December 1st. The doctor predicted that the baby was actually conceived on Dec 1 or maybe even on Nov 30. Oops! What can I say? We didn't jump the gun at all... NOT! Good thing insurance can't count back that far!!
So when is everyone's due date?
Mine is August 25. And get this. Luke and I met each other at 8:30 in the morning on Aug. 25, 2003 (that is when we all had our first class with Sonia and she made us go around and meet 10 people and get their signatures). Then we got engaged at 8:30 AM on Aug 25, 2004 because Luke planned it that way (so sweet). And now our baby is set to be born Aug 25, 2008. Crazy how things work out huh? It probably won't come on the right day but you never know.
Congrats to everyone. I have to go make some dinner. Is anyone having constant headaches? HELP!
Hope work is going well.
Hollie