Welcome to 2025.
Man, January is such an interesting time of year! Somehow, 2025 feels like it should be the conclusion to the “COVID years.” Is it just me? It feels like a turning point, somehow.
Welcome to 2025!
From My Desk
I have to admit, I’m a little concerned right now. If you’d like to avoid anything nearing a political discussion, just skip ahead now. My political feelings only come to the surface here when I’m worried about their impact on my job and my students. And right now, I’m worried about my students.
My most pressing concerns relate to my students whose families may be immigrants (I work with a relatively high number of Hispanic students) and my students who are LGBTQ+. Even if there are no tangible ramifications from this week’s executive orders, I know the worry about what could happen can be devastating to students. And with the current administration’s seeming focus on marginalized communities, I’m preemptively worried about things that might be coming down the pipe that could impact students with disabilities and/or mental health concerns.
It all feels extremely heavy and I feel disheartened. Regardless of your political affiliation and who you voted for, I hope you’ll find space for compassion. Particularly if you’re actively working with students or clients: please remember that the people we work with come from all different backgrounds and situations. When I was more religious, I tried my best to keep this in mind:
There but for the grace of God go I.
Whatever your religious beliefs, I think it’s important to remember that we could also have found ourselves in similar circumstances if not for God/fate/privilege/etc…
Just food for thought.
Month’s Most Used Therapy Materials
This month has been dedicated to getting back into the swing of things. Without a doubt, my most used material for January has been one of my own: Comprehensive Language Assessment. Every year, I’m reminded why I designed this. It’s such a convenient way to start gathering data on progress, future needs, dismissals, etc…
If you work with students who are in upper elementary school or higher, I’d love for you to check this one out!
I’ve also been enjoying these Semantic Feature Analysis Charts from Spiffy Speech and Context Clues Stories from Kristine Nannini.
Plans for Next Month
February is kind of the beginning of the end of the year in a lot of ways. February is when many of my IEPs start becoming due and reevaluations are creeping in. Because the majority of my students are nearing the end of their current IEPs and the beginning of the next, February is the time for mega organization!
I’ve spent time in January going through my deadlines so I’m set on knowing what’s coming. Now it’s time to start making my way down the list. As mentioned above, I’ve already pulled out my informal language assessment and started doing baselines and that’s what will continue throughout February.
In addition to a ton of baselining, this is also the time to look at which IEPs are ending so that I can ensure we’ve adequately addressed those goals.
So basically, where January is for getting back into the swing of things and getting everything organized, February is for transitioning toward the end of the year.
What’s Giving Me Life
I’m completely obsessed with Moving Out on my Switch right now. I’ve been playing 1 and 2 since around Christmas and they’re just the right amount of “here’s exactly what to do” and freedom.
I’m really enjoying the idea of creativity right now, so I just started an art journal as well as a list of other creative hobbies that I want to make more of a habit. I’ll probably write more on this later!
I bought three of these jumpsuits in black right before they went away and have started a personal challenge (which you can read about here). So far, I’m loving how easy it is to get dressed in the morning.
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”
I hope your school semester is getting off to a lovely start, my friends.
I’ve made the intentional choice to keep The Calm SLP ad-free. If you appreciate what I do here, there are a couple of ways to support me.
You can check out the products I offer in my TpT store. This will hopefully help you also!
You can also visit my Buy Me a Coffee link, though I’ll openly admit your donation will go to tea and books instead.
