Using Google Drive for session notes, contact logs and more!

A while back I wrote a post on using Google Drive to track student data and more.  I've just wrapped up my third year of keeping track of things this day.  Documentation is still no fun, and I'm not perfect, but Google Drive is my favorite way to do so.  I figured I would share the documents I use now for all to benefit from!

Some of the top reasons I love it?

• As School Psychologists, we are never in one place, so I love this method because it's convenient.  I can enter data from my desktop right after a phone call, on my iPad during a meeting or right after a session, or from home.  
• I can't lose it.  How many times do you write notes down from a meeting and then can't find them afterwards?  Ooomph.

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Structuring counseling and social skills sessions...what works!

I do a LOT more sessions with students individually and in small groups this year than I ever have.  I often go for a few hours without a break in between to catch my breath.  I thought I'd start a resource to share ideas for small groups in schools. To start out, I thought I'd start with the basics, scheduling and structuring groups.  I have been following the same format for 4 years, and I have no plans to change it anytime soon!

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Think Sheets

One of the reasons we started up a large school climate program at our school was to share some tools that teachers could use with their students' behavior.  Think sheets, in my opinion, are a fabulous tool to use when used appropriately.  Although kids don't love filling them out and bringing them home for their parents to review and sign (a necessity), they really are a good tool for turning problematic student behavior into a lesson:

What is a better choice to make next time?

That's really what we want them to learn, right?  That when a similar incident happens next time, they make a different choice, a better choice.

I designed my first think sheet 2 years ago in a pinch when I need something to use for a Kindergartener.  They couldn't write sentences, and I didn't want to have them dictate.  So, I figured drawing out the incident (and a better choice) next time would be a good idea.  I've added and changed it along the way, but this version is the most popular with teachers at my school, even in the older grades.

You can download this one page Think Sheet HERE  from google drive for FREE, or this and another 2 versions on my TPT store for a bargain.  Let me know how these work out for you and your students!

The Check-In

Preparing for, and running small groups is something I am continuing to improve.  They are ever changing, constantly rescheduled, and I'm always trying to find a way to improve them.  I'm found a few things I do help them to be successful:

1.  Planning ahead (I always strive for it)
2.  Making a "plan" and writing it on my whiteboard for students
3.  Check-ins

I start every single group with a "check-in".  It's something my kids have come to expect, and some of them will even fire off their number when they walk in!  If I need the number for data, or when I'm starting to teach this skill, I use a paper form, but after a while, a poster visual is all my kiddos need.

It's super simple to use:  Ask your students to think for a minute and circle (or just keep in their mind) how their day is going so far.  Give them a minute.  Go around in a circle and have them say which number they picked and why.  The why is really the most important part.  It's how I find out things that are going on at the playground, at home, or at school, that my students otherwise might not mention when I ask them "How's it going?"

You can click on the image above, or visit my TpT store for this download.

What do you find effective for check-ins?

Ipad Apps: What I use everyday

iPads are such and amazing tool for our students, and I just love that mine love social skills apps as much as they do.

I use my iPad daily for exciting things like data tracking and keeping track of my calendar, but I also like to pull it out every once in a while to use with my students.  I don't like to use it every session for most of my kids, but for my non-verbal kiddos, technology like these are a lifesaver.

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Special Education Referrals and Meetings: Organization

One of the things I always used to say on interviews was that I was highly organized.  I thought I was, until I started working and realized that my organizational skills were only a fraction of what I needed to survive as a school psychologist.

One of my many jobs is case managing new special education referrals that come in to our school.  With multiple timelines, and multiple referrals at once, I found early on that if I didn't find a system for tracking these, I would be in the trenches faster than you can say "60 day federal timeline".  :)

I came up with a spreadsheet for tracking all referrals, and a cover sheet, I use for my own testing, that I am now on my third year of using (I don't like to share success of things until they have proven effective for a while).

You can find this (Freebie!!) download on my TPT store, or create one yourself.

Here's how and why this has proven a successful tool for me:

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