The Frenzied SLPs are excited to announce new discussions, twice a month, designed to help you share your ideas and become #SLPStrong! This week, we are talking about The Best Thing I Learned This Summer!
 The Frenzied SLPs All Y'all Need
I've gotta say, I've learned a few things this summer. How beautiful Colorado is, plus it's a great way to beat the Texas heat. How very painful kidney stones are (my hubby). The Gulf of Mexico is much more enjoyable without the stacks of stinky, dried-up seaweed that have been there for years.

But you want to know about #SLPStrong and what will help you.

Enter Bilinguistics.

They are right down the road from me in Austin. I've heard their staff present, and we've contracted out for evals. But until I spend two days with their staff getting CEUs this summer, I had no idea their website is such a valuable resource.

Free therapy and evaluation resources. Seriously, check out this section. It has sample lesson plans. TONS of stuff for bilingual learners. A goal bank in English and SPANISH.

I bet you probably know that in most states, Spanish is the most-used language after English. Do you know what your state's third language is? According to this map, it's probably a mix.
Although I could have given a good guess at French in Louisiana and German in a few of the midwest states, I did not know Vietnamese was used so much in Texas. And with our world becoming more global and my district close to a huge Army base, our SLP world is looking at evaluating and/or serving more languages.

So you can bet that I will keep Bilinguistics in my Favorites. Tons of information, easy access, a growing website - what's not to love? Be sure to check it out!

The Frenzied SLPs are linking up to make it easier for you to follow the discussions. Just click on the buttons below.

For SLP bloggers linking up - Thank you! We want to hear your ideas! You only need to link up on one host blog, and your link will show up on all the host blogs. Links only to blog posts or FB notes, not to stores, empty posts, or anything else. Visit and comment on the two blogs before and after you.

So, do you remember reading the first teacher blogs and thinking,
"Does this teacher really even exist?"

It was kind of like reading those perfect Christmas newsletters from the perfect family.
The ones where everyone in the family won a Pulitzer Prize,
earned their third Ph.D. and had perfectly white, straight teeth at birth.
Oh, and they won the lottery so the entire family was a on a month-long
cruise for the holidays and were singing Christmas songs
in harmony.

It was impossible for me to relate to those teacher blogs.

I could not even name one of those blogs if I tried.
They were that unmemorable.
Those blogs were stuffy.
I am sure some of those blogs were required assignments for graduate programs.
Now, you know what I am talking about.

But, I did not feel like I had anything in common with those teachers.
I knew what incredible teaching looked like.
I was seeing it in my very own building.
But I was not seeing it online.
I just did not see a real-life teacher who was speaking my language.

Then........a voice said "Hey Y'All!"
Now, this voice had my attention!
I have heard this word two-word combination my whole life.
So have Lisa and Laura.
That is why our name own blog name had to have a "y'all" right smack in the middle!

But the first time I heard it in blogging world was from........


I am pretty sure the first project I saw from Cara Carroll at the First Grade Parade
was her adorable activity about the Tooth Fairy.

Hello!?!
Who does not love a fun tooth fairy activity?
No one I know.
From that point on, I was hooked.

To this day, we remain huge Cara Carroll fanatics!

Disclaimer:  I am positive it was Lisa who actually "discovered" 
The First Grade Parade.
I was just smart enough to listen to her and check it out.
And Lisa lets me copy her.
Because I am much older and Lisa respects her elders.

And then, there was another online voice that was completely irresistible.
And this voice was on YouTube.
How cool do you have to be to have your own channel on YouTube?
I mean, here was a Kindergarten teacher who loved Sonic drinks, 
his dog Butters, glitter and laughter!
We were never disappointed with what new idea Greg was sharing.

Greg is personality plus with his kids.
I mean costumes, technology, glitter, Foodie Friday, a classroom stage....this list goes on.
He makes his students' first school experience unforgettable.
And Greg inspires us to make learning fun every day that ends in -y for our very own sweeties.
Thank you so much for the inspiration, Greg!

These are two teacher voices that resonate online with me (and Lisa).

I hope you will take the time to check out:
and 

And, go ahead and share which teacher you first related to.
We have comments section.
Right down below.
Go ahead and share.
Here are some wonderful people we met during Vegas week.
Do yourself a favor and look at their blogs, follow them on Instagram 
and check out their Facebook pages.
Each one of these new friends are so talented!

Roll Call:
Chris is at Famous in First

Ashley is at One Sharp Bunch


Emily is at Polka Dots Please

We are a little late with the post.
Blame it all on Vegas.

Finally, we would like to thank all of our lovely hostesses for putting together the
TpT Seller Challenge for Summer 2015!



You want to know more about Vegas week?
Here we go!
We were super sad that Laura could not join us as planned.
So, it is Amy writing this post.
Next year we are ALL going!   For sure!
Thank you Team TpT!
We met Karen for the first time.
I sort of yelled, "We love TpT!" to Amy and Adam at the Grand Luxe Cafe.
Adam remembered us when we chatted with him at the Happy Hour.   Wonder why?
We snagged Paul for a photo and a hug.  
We are Texas girls.   
We hug.  
Enough said.
And congratulations to Amy, the heart of TpT.
She has now been promoted to the Director of Seller Happiness.
Lisa and I were happy to see some of our friends from the blogging world.
Hope King of Elementary Shenanigans is adorable times 50!
Miss Kindergarten was wearing one of our All Y'All Need pins!   
Seriously?  Get out!
And it certainly looks like we crashed the Geswein family photo here.
Go and buy KG Fonts License now.
Thank you, Kimberly for adapting one of your fonts to 
IPA language for the SLPs out there!
What happens in Vegas is FUN!
Here we are playing in the Paul Fanatic Fun with 2 Brainy Apples
These girls were soooooooooo much fun all week!
And Courtney from Ramona Recommends is seriously one of our
favorite people on the planet!
Courtney knows books!
We had lunch with the peeps of A Spark of Inspiration.
They were all so sweet to invite us join their collaborative blog recently.
And y'all know we are simply crazy for Suz of Mrs. St John's Small Wonders, 
Dana of Common to the Core, Tracy, Michelle of Journey into TK
Stacy of Simpson's Superstars and the amazing Chris of Famous in First.
We were so happy to meet some of the educators and clip art artists we admire.
Miss Giraffe of Miss Giraffe's Class was so sweet!  We were so pleased to meet her.
Mr. Giraffe even took the photo!
And y'all know we are huge fans of Krista Wallden, right?
And she is gorgeous!
And Lisa, especially, has wanted to meet and thank Kindergarten Smiles forever!
So, Lisa spotted Caitlin Clabby first.
She is so talented.   We would love to be in her class.
We were pumped to meet Mrs. Third Grade.
She won our recent IG giveaway.
She was wearing the darling necklace from the giveaway!
I spotted the necklace right away when she took the time to 
introduce herself at the Blogger Meet Up.
It was not all work and no play.
We checked out the Bellagio Fountains for two hours.
A must see is "Viva, Las Vegas".
On Sunday, I drug Lisa to "Dancing with the Stars".
If you read this blog at all, you know I am obsessed with that show.
Lisa, not so much.
And our friend Kristen of Easy Teaching Tools was so sweet to invite us out
for a night of fun.   It all started with a party bus!
And I won a TpT gift card at the Blogger Meet up.
Winning in Vegas!
Y'all Texas really is the best!
Check out all of these wonderful ladies!
We pray for Amy's sweet family to be reunited soon.
I had the good luck to get to hang out with Farley of Oh Boy Fourth Grade 
at a couple of Texas meet ups.
I love to get the latest stories about her son Bub!
I am a big fan of Farley and her buddy Suzanne of Krazy Town.
We were lucky to meet Heather of Second Grade Swag early in the week.
And then we got to meet Ally of Loopin' Littles a little later in the week.
Can anyone say Texas meet up?
And the week would have been so boring without the Elementary Entourage girls.
They were sweet enough to invite us to part of their blog world.
We met some of them in Indiana over Spring Break.
We met more this week.
They each have a heart of gold.
We love our EE girls!
Thanks to our buddy Greg at The Kindergarten Smorgasboard
we were able to reflect about our #teachertakeaway.
It was a great ending to Vegas week for me.

Be sure to check out who else went to Vegas with the Elementary Entourage Linky!

Two things in my life collided. I was really looking forward to going to Vegas and meeting everyone and learning. But 3 kidney stones decided to make an appearance in my husband's life, two of which had to be surgically removed.

Amy and Lisa attended both SDE and TpT, and they will be blogging soon. I did hear that Amy from TpT mentioned my name in her keynote along with others who couldn't attend, and I am so flattered! And the girls from Elementary Entourage caught it - I WILL meet you one day!

Speech Sprouts was able to attend and has graciously agreed to help me out with the linky. So go visit her page and check out the other reports in the linky as the SLPs get home and are able to blog. See ya next year!


Week 3 of the TpT Seller Challenge was tackled by Lisa.
She is moving to PreK and needed new signage for her room.
And just like that, our Make Your Masterpiece was in the works.

There are 2 versions available in the packet.
One has large photographs and no borders.
Version 2 has a black border and chalkboard letters.

And do not forget to join the fun with the TpT Seller Challenge Hostesses.




By the way, if you are going to be in Vegas next week, we would love to meet you.
Happy 4th of July, friends!




We are linking up with the amazing ladies of Lucky Little Learners and Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd for the monthly #2gether We Are Better linky party! Angie and Ashley are absolutely amazing and I can’t begin to tell you how many ideas we beg, borrow and steal from them. This month, the linky topic is classroom improvements. For me, summer is a time to find all of these marvelous ideas and figure out how to cultivate them into my classroom. Last summer, my focus was on improving classroom data. I transformed my data with Rachelle’s amazing Guided Reading tracker and I kept individual data folders for each child. This summer, I am focusing on parent communication. As most of you know, I am moving to a new town, grade and school. I recently taught in a small town where I worked with most of  my kid’s parents and ran into the rest on a weekly basis.  This year will really be a “trial and error” year for me.

What I’d like to implement:
* Classroom Instagram account

* Use Remind more and take advantage of chat.



Calling “Parent Communication Gurus!” How do you connect with your parents?

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We are linking up with the fabulous Farley from Oh Boy 4th Grade for the July edition of Currently. 

Listening: Bosley had an allergic reaction to some shampoo and is having to take Benadryl. Poor thing! 

Loving: MY NEW CLASSROOM!!! I'm in the process of decorating my new Pre-K classroom! Decorating is a stress relief for me and I absolutely love it! 

Thinking: I have way to things I need to do before I go to Vegas.... Why do I procrastinate?!?

Wanting: I really do need to stop waiting until the night before..... 

Needing: I am so excited for Vegas!!! My cousins and I have a blast each year meeting new people and seeing old friends. I feel that this year is going to be extremely busy with the ten gazillion meet ups. I think having an assistant like Andrea from The Devil Wears Prada would be highly beneficial... 

All Star: I love decorating and I think I'm pretty good at it. My family has also designated me as the "official bow tyer" (Yes, I'm pretty sure I just made up a new word.) I worked in retail throughout college and tied a lot of bows on Christmas packages. Another random talent that doesn't produce income. 

Head on over to Farley's blog!








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