Source: marthastewart.com via Laura on Pinterest
The Pin: While trying to find some freezer meals this summer, I came across this recipe for Salmon Cakes from Martha Stewart. In November, our brand-new HEB Plus! opened, and this land-locked girl decided to buy some fillets.


The Good: Fairly easy to make, recipe simple to follow. I used green onions instead of scallions and Tabasco as the "pick one" extra ingredient. The sauce is perfect. They kept well in the freezer.

The Bad: While my hubby and I enjoyed them, the kids refused to eat them. R said, "I'm just not a fish person". J said, "Mom, you make good things, but I just don't eat those". R ended up with soup-in-a-can, and J fixed the ever-present hot dog.

Summary: I probably won't make them again. Not because I don't want to, but because not everyone in my family eats them.




The Pin: Honey Dijon Chicken from Taste of Home, pinned several months ago when I was looking for freezer meals, but never tried. Until today.

 Source: tasteofhome.com via Laura on Pinterest
The Good: Fairly easy to make, it just takes the chicken a long time to cook since 12 breasts are called for. Sauce is delicious.

The Bad: I would make this again with two variations. First, I would pound the chicken breasts to make them thinner for more even cooking. Second, I would cook ALL of the chicken breasts and place in two pans and THEN make the sauce and pour it over the chicken.

Summary: Smells good cooking, tastes like chicken with honey-mustard sauce, seems like a keeper!
After spending a couple of hours revising my Pinterest, I have a few tips.

Tip #1: Consider setting up a speech therapy profile if you use Pinterest for speech frequently. Because I have a LOT of pins and speech therapy boards, I created a new profile. I thought that my friends might not like all of my speech therapy pins blowing up on their feeds. Also, I wanted a separate place to go for my pins. You can follow me here.

Tip #2: Make more than one speech therapy board. I originally started out with one generic Speech Therapy board and then grew to several. Now, I have 25! I wanted to separate out classroom ideas from language games from apps, etc.

Tip #3: Make the boards functional for you. When you think of an idea for therapy where is the first place you think of for The Very Hungry Caterpillar? Books? Eric Carle? Spring? Preschool/Kg? My pins for The Very Hungry Caterpillar are in my Spring board, but I could just as easily make an Eric Carle board with Do You Want to Be My Friend, Polar Bear, etc. When I think of this book, my word association is Spring. Pin in the first board you associate with for easier location later.

Tip #4: There's no rule against double pinning. Pin The Very Hungry Caterpillar in both Spring and Eric Carle boards.

Tip #5: Follow good pinners. Pediastaff is great. Here are a few more pinners. I follow all SLPs who follow me, so if you want another follower, add your name and Pinterest link to the comments below.

Tip #6: Follow good blogs. ASHASphere recently published a list of best blogs and honorable mentions. I have pinned all of those, plus some more, here.

Tip #7: Clean out and check links. Every once in a while, it's a good idea to see what you are really using. Do you want to keep all your pins? Have you double-pinned? Is the link still functional?

Pinterest has been so valuable to me. It is such a wonderful community where I can easily find other SLPs, doable therapy activities, and inspiration. Got any other tips? I'm sure I didn't cover them all!
The Wall of Fame came from a last-minute attempt to cover ugly walls. This year, we didn't get assignments until after our contracts started. Changes necessitated the licensed assistant, L,  I had worked with for 5 years going to another elementary and supervisor. I originally had a pretty nice speech room. When L started, I left my stuff in the room because she didn't have a whole lot. Over the course of 5 years, she bought and accumulated more of what she needed. Two years ago, we got moved to a smaller room the same day as Meet the Teacher night. L cleaned out and moved most of my stuff to our district speech closet. The "new" room was not only smaller, it was marked with smudges and nail holes by previous inhabitants. L is very creative and used fabric to cover most of it up.

In August, we separated our stuff, and she went off to another elementary. The nail-pocked smudged walls stayed behind. Out of desperation, I went to the workroom. There was a roll of nice blue paper I thought I could live with for a year. My wonderful hubby stapled it on the wall. I found some cute polka dotted border. My old Mary Engelbreit posters got a second life on the top half of the wall.

I needed an idea for for the bottom half. The Wall of Fame was what I came up with. I cut out the circles and letters with my Cricut (Makin' the Grade and Songbird fonts). Speech students who graduate get to sign the wall. 

The big view:
The Wall of Fame has come to serve several purposes. First, as students get to sign it, the other students in the group start asking when they can sign it. It's very motivating for reviewing goals and progress. Second, with 13 signatures, it's a good visual encourager for me. Third, it's so much more attractive than the ugly *white* walls. I never thought that an act of desperation would come to mean so much!

I have considered confidentiality. Since the students only sign first names, I don't think it's any different than having a behavior or birthday chart with first names, both of which have been in the speech room. If other students ask who "Mary" is, I remind them of the purpose of the wall and do not disclose any personal information. My principal is aware of the Wall, and I tell parents their student will be signing the Wall.

Here's a picture of a recent graduate. Face and names blurred for confidentiality. I wish you could see her huge smile. The markings on the right are the blurred out signatures. 
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