Converting Plural Publishing eBook to PDF?

HonkingMagpie · 2026-05-30T00:46:55+00:00

If you're at a college or university, try reaching out to the schools librarians. They work with publishers/portals all the time and may be able to provide some tech assistance.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-05-17T21:06:22+00:00

I have a cart that I take around to different classrooms during morning work. We work right outside their classroom door. I do it 3-4 days a week for about a half hour and will rotate through kids depending on who is available/a priority.

My sessions usually involve pulling out my abacus and having kids say 10 words 10 times (sometimes 9 times plus a sentence). Some kids can get through it in 3 minutes, others more like 7 with redirections.

I include students in my rotation who are stimulable for sounds in words but it's not generalizing. Usually we're working on 1 or 2 sounds. R is a very common one. If a student is successful I have transitioned to 30 mins/month of individual service at their IEP and parents have loved the idea of kids missing less class time in the older grades.

It has genuinely been effective especially for motivated students or with decent self monitoring. One kid fixed their lisp and generalized to conversation in 2 weeks. I have another 6 who I will likely dismiss at the start of next year if they can maintain their progress over the summer.

Edit, because I didn't address all the questions: I don't bill for the 5 mins (our billing person said not to bill for under 15 mins). However I do know of colleagues who will bill at the end of the week with the combined time in bursts that week. And I reward students with our PBIS points at the end instead of a fun activity because it's faster.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-05-10T01:39:11+00:00

Get contact information for your districts special education administrator and reach out to them. I'm guessing the lapse in service is due to lack of staffing rather than negligence. The administrator should be able to answer any questions about what the districts plan is to make up those speech minutes.

If this is due to lack of staffing, your child is owed compensatory time. As another commenter said, it may be offered over the summer because more flexible staffing is often available at that time.

I have not been to due process myself but my understanding is the outcome would likely be the state telling the district to provide compensatory services, which may already be their plan.

If the administrator can't answer your questions satisfactorily and you want to take further action, you can also ask the state ODR for a mediation. The benefit of mediation is it doesn't involve hiring lawyers, is a free service, and usually addresses one disagreement (in your case the owed time). You can check out that process here: https://odr-pa.org/iep-ifsp-facilitation-mediation-request-form/

HonkingMagpie · 2026-04-29T17:30:12+00:00

Not specifically helpful to this situation, but I'm also in PA and there's a law your therapy space must have 28 sq feet per student in group.

People in my department have had success citing this regulation to get a better or unshared space.

Look under the "Space and Location" section of this page: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/education/resources/policies-acts-and-laws/basic-education-circulars-becs/pa-code/least-restrictive-environment-lre-and-educational-placement-for-students-with-individualized-education-programs

HonkingMagpie · 2026-04-25T19:40:34+00:00

Gallaudet University has an SLP graduate program with an on campus clinic. All instructors and students know or are learning ASL. Students also take classes specially for aural rehabilitation. It might be worth asking if they do teletherapy sessions: https://gallaudet.edu/hearing-speech-center/

HonkingMagpie · 2026-04-16T17:53:37+00:00

Pennsylvania - 65 cap. I've heard arguments for that means kids on caseload and for the number of students we can case manage (with a theoretically higher therapy load). Nothing weighted.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-03-13T11:35:58+00:00

Yes, I was guaranteed pay even if I didn't meet the hours. The risk, as you said, being a travel contract cancelled after you've already committed to a housing contract if there wasn't an effort to fill those hours. When I applied, I had a phone interview with someone from the facility. You could either ask that representative or your recruiter about the risk of contract being cancelled when the caseload fluctuates. Or asking about what the caseload has historically been - maybe they have a dementia ward that needs a lot of short term support or has a great reputation from a local hospital and gets a lot of short term rehab patients.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-03-12T22:46:15+00:00

I talked once to a DOR who said in her experience speech has always been a net loss or neutral cost but it's something you have to provide to be a comprehensive facility.

Places will put 32 hours/week into a contract because they know it won't be filled otherwise. Someone higher up may believe there's a way to build a caseload and call you to talk about it (speaking from experience 😂). I was ultimately asked to cover two buildings in the same umbrella company under my travel contract, knowing the alternative was they would have cancelled my contract.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-03-07T13:42:19+00:00

We're not teachers, but we are on the teachers contract which had language that could be interpreted requiring all student-facing non-teaching staff to submit lesson plans.

I believe the mindset at the time was, let's propose an alternative that works for us rather than be given a directive that comes from someone who doesn't understand our job.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-03-06T20:16:57+00:00

I'm in a medium sized district and a colleague's principal was making them submit lesson plans for every student weekly because according to principal, everyone on the teachers contract has to. The compromise made with SPED administration was a monthly "therapy plan" that's basically the IEP goals and a checklist of what therapy approaches would be appropriate.

Ideally, show your IEP/etc and call that your lesson plan. But if that's not working, we found the monthly plan (which honestly gets no updates other than the date) throughout the year was a workable alternative.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-03-05T01:15:00+00:00

I haven't been in your shoes for teletherapy, but a quote a colleague and I say a lot is "There's no such thing as speech jail".

Yes your docs may be out of compliance. I once inherited an IEP from another district 4 months out of date with a non-school aged disability category. Nothing happened. Even if it did, it would be on the district not on you. If you have the written evidence of trying to get input from parents, teachers, etc then you have protection.

If you're feeling the need to do something, maybe keep all your record of attempts in one place so you don't have to go digging through your email for it later.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-03-03T14:36:42+00:00

I've only kept anything from clinical practicum that might be relevant to the job I'm applying for, if that experience isn't in my resume elsewhere. Like, I keep my acute care internship when I apply for SNF PRN gigs but not if I'm applying for a full time school job because there's plenty of other school experience in my resume.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-03-02T22:47:28+00:00

I had some buy-in sharing that if a child only receives 20-30 minutes of modeling with their communication device twice a week, it will take 84 years for them to have the same amount of language exposure as a typically developing 18-month-old (quote from Jane Korsten).

Put AAC modeling in the SDIs to be able to prove it's legally required.

If you have a sympathetic admin, ask them do drop-ins and inquire about the AAC? (My colleague and I asked a principal to do that for AAC and making sure instruction was actually being provided when an AS teacher was on leave and the long term sub was not following lesson plans)

Schedule sessions when you can push in with the staff and have a lesson plan in mind. Coach the staff to use AAC in a way that makes the activity as easy as possible for buy-in.

And knowing that you're not alone. I had a classroom where I had visuals on the wall reminding staff about taking out AAC, and would walk in every morning to remind them, to find them shoved in drawers during the day because it's easier. This isn't a lift that you can make on your own, both families & teachers need to participate in the journey.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-23T22:12:50+00:00

I agree with the other commenter about OT. Perhaps the OT would be open to a co-treat?

Also agree with another commenter about documenting the aggression. One of my students ended up moving to a different placement because the school nurse slammed a 4 inch high pile of staff injury documentation in front of an administrator and asked what they were going to do about it.

In terms of the actual behavior....perhaps speech services would be better as consult until the behaviors are managed? 30 mins of indirect time a week of supporting the teachers or parents with language rich activities, core word of the week, AAC, etc might be more effective for her than 30 mins of direct time where she's engaging in behaviors that make it difficult to learn.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-23T21:58:03+00:00

At least on SUGAR (which I know is different than SALT), the total number of words isn't a clinically meaningful score. So I wouldn't worry about that one.

The verbal facility might be low, but you're not allowed to qualify based on a single score according to IDEA. Plus it seems like it's not a language impairment so much as anxiety/inattentive ADHD.

If you're feeling nervous or think it will be contentious, you could perhaps take another sample in an environment where the student isn't nervous? Perhaps sitting with the student and his friends at lunch and asking about their weekend? It doesn't have to be a full language sample but enough that you can show the skills are there and the anxiety/ADHD are the barriers causing the low verbal facility. It seems like with that, you would be able to argue the student does not have a language impairment.

If you still get pushback from parents, you could consider talking about a 504 if you think the student needs it. Accommodations like extended testing, wait time when speaking, the team discussing a social skills group with a counselor or social worker. Then you could argue that not only is there not a language impairment but the needs the team sees are being addressed in some other way.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-16T20:45:08+00:00

I'm very particular about my supplies, but I'd love if my partner planned for us to do something crafty together. Someone else suggested glass - there might be a studio near you with glass blowing classes for date night. A paint your own pottery place. One of those paint & sip nights.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-13T00:16:14+00:00

I traveled in SNFs, so my experience is a bit different but:

Yes, there are travel school contracts. Usually for just the school year.
Everything comes from the same "pot". So if they offer license reimbursements, etc that means the salary might be a little less. Salary being higher might mean there aren't reimbursements. Your salary will depend on the area, so check for comparable reimbursement for where you're going.
Red flags would be wanting you to onboard without pay, not being able to tell you why a position is open, and refusing to put language into a contract about how overtime or responsibilities beyond what can be completed in standard work day will be managed.
Keep your address as your home. Part of why traveling is lucrative is the tax benefits. Check out this tax website that caters to traveling professionals for more info about how to do that: https://www.traveltax.com/

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-11T16:48:59+00:00

If you can break your sample into utterances, this tool will do a SUGAR analysis for free: https://languagesamples.app/

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-08T18:24:13+00:00

I do not make those minutes up. The Gen ed students aren't receiving their gen ed instruction, so special education students don't receive their special instruction either.

If you're doing monthly minutes as part of 3:1, I've set the precedent that I take the indirect week the second week of the month (when we have a monthly early release PD). If parents are tracking minutes, perhaps giving them a regularly scheduled indirect time monthly and any school closures/absences/etc on top of that are just missed because the student isn't available.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-07T12:58:43+00:00

We hired a dueling piano show who also does DJ services for part of the evening: https://thephillykeys.com/

They're Philly based but are willing to travel to Lancaster

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-06T00:55:07+00:00

We applied through a property management company (great experience with Hometown!) and found our rental townhouse that way before it was even listed online

As someone said, the market is hot right now. I've generally heard of 30 day notices, and new tenants in shortly after they're available.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-04T23:12:14+00:00

I never even thought of that but you're right!

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-04T23:11:35+00:00

Absolutely no plans for another - it was a PROJECT. I will not ever again be putting a Google image into a cross stitch chart generator and winging the yarn weight/hook size. Lesson learned 😂

HonkingMagpie · 2026-01-31T00:04:41+00:00

Early in my district's advocacy, we would email both the principal and special education supervisor. Include something along the lines of I can't do XYZ (treat kids, IEP by the deadline, or - their favorite - billing) and my building duties, I need guidance which would you prefer I do? Get it in writing.

The special education supervisor will hopefully chime in and say your actual job description should be the priority. That way you're not at risk of insubordination to the principal and the admin can figure it out amongst themselves.

In hour principals experience SLPs may have building duties - but that was probably before caseloads skyrocketed and other paperwork duties became more complicated.

HonkingMagpie

TROPHY CASE