Lexi+Doane

Introduction
I'm Lexi Doane. I am a speech-language pathologist and I work at the Early Childhood Special Education preschool center at Logan Elementary. I work with children ages 3-5 helping to build language skills and increase correct speech sound production. I also visit children with speech delays in their homes if they do not attend our preschool. I have worked with USD #345 for 3 years, since graduating from KU in 2008. I live in Lawrence, only a few blocks from Allen Fieldhouse. Go Jayhawks!

Preschool Theme Ideas
Here are ideas for themes for the week and an example with resources. Good site for planning for the upcoming school year!

What is a speech session? This is an EXAMPLE of what a speech session may look like. Please keep in mind that different SLP's will do things differently depending on the children they see and the buildings they work in.

Speech Language Pathology & Autism An example of how a speech language pathologist may assist persons with Autism.

Professional Learning Assignment
I was excited about this assignment because I had been curious about Twitter for some time now, but wasn't sure how to go about setting it up. I signed up for my account (adoaneslp) and look forward to being able to follow people without it being creepy!! More to come...

I LOVE BLOGS!!! I have been reading them for various topics for awhile and it's true...the possibilities are limitless! There is so much information out there (and resources, too), mostly free, through blogs. I have barely tapped into the world of education blogs, so I don't have many favorite ones yet, but I do have lots of favorite food, fitness, and craft blogs. I hope to continue to add educational and professional blogs to this list so suggestions are welcome!

And Kim...I'm with you on the Goodreads! One of my favorite sites. And I haven't even used it for social networking yet. I mainly used it to keep track of books I have read and want to read. It's so easy to organize and by reading the updates from other users, I have found many new book suggestions. My account is under "Alexis Doane". I am eager to start using it as a social networking tool and get more book suggestions.

I have also signed up for Google reader! This will make it so much easier for me to keep up with the blogs and newspapers I read! Thanks for the tip!

Google Tools
I like the idea of having classroom blogs for each of the preschool teachers. This could eliminate the need for weekly/monthly newsletters and could have all necessary documents in one place, making it easy for parents to access these (field trip requests, medical forms, etc.) Parents could also see what activities and themes are planned for their child's class in the future. Videos of programs and photos of classroom activities would be available for all parents. Perhaps there is a technology goal in my future...

I also think the same features could be used by using Google Docs. without forcing teachers to create and maintain a blog. They could post necessary forms, newsletters and photos/videos without having to do much extra work. I know a few teachers would prefer this option over a blog, because of the simplicity.

Web 2.0 Tools
In Preschool, lesson plans are pretty simple, since the things we are teaching need to be very basic. I chose Spell with Flickr for one lesson. I would create many different versions of the letters of the alphabet and have the children match the letters. Sometimes one "A" won't always look like another and having them look for the distinguishing features of each letter will help build letter recognition.

I also thing YouTube would be a great tool for preschoolers. There would be access to lots of videos and short movies to address each weekly theme the teachers choose. I chose a farm theme and picked these two movies: Musical Farm and Farm Video. Both of these videos are geared toward younger kids (age 3) so they would be perfect for our morning classes. The first video is purely musical, so the teacher could talk as the pictures change and describe what the kids are seeing and what happens on a farm. The second video has cute songs that describe life on a farm. These movies could be an introduction to the farm theme and then the teacher can continue the theme with art projects or language activities.

Teacher Webpages
I was glad to have this assignment!! I had been meaning to add things to my page for awhile, but could never seem to find the time. I have added several websites that I like for their literacy and phonological awareness activities that are designed to be fun but to also teach these skills to kids of various ages. Check out my additions at Miss Lexi's Webpage.