A Speech Room Tour!

One thing I love to read about is how people organize their classroom space and materials. Like most SLPs, I have an incredibly strong compulsion for list making, laminating, and labeling. Nothing makes me feel better than having an efficient and organized space to work in! However, don't think for a minute that I am able to maintain my room to that standard all the time....there plenty of those days where the organization takes the backseat to writing IEP's and monitoring progress! Anyways, I decided that in an effort for you to get to know me a little bit better, giving you a peek in to my "home" would be a great idea. It's not very big, but I make do with what I have! Here it is!

This is the view of my room from the door. As you can tell, my love of cupcakes became the theme of the room for the year. My bulletin board is actually a mirror I covered up with fabric. While I loved the idea of having a mirror in my room for therapy, I was concerned it would just be too distracting for many of my students. On the wall behind the therapy table in the hanging shoe organizer, I keep my objects which are organized by speech sound. I bought this great ABC objects kit last year off of Ebay and doctored it up to work for speech sounds. 

Here's a closer look at what I keep next to me during daily therapy sessions. In the teal bin I keep log book sheets, clipboard, full page visuals (wh-questions, Expanding Expression, talking "toolboxes"), a quick drill articulation folder, and dry erase boards. The clear bin has three drawers for the following: daily preschool materials and visuals, elementary visuals and quick games, and markers/crayons. The last thing you'll see is the file box tub which is next to the wall. I keep my theme box close to me at all times. Right now I have out my January/February tub, so I hold all of my related books and activities for winter, Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, and President's Day in there. Last year I felt like I had a lot of wasted space by housing all of my theme materials for the entire year in my filing cabinets, so I like that I can change them out a little bit easier this year by keeping some at home. 

This is what the back wall of my room looks like. The cabinets on bottom hold all of my games, testing materials, and craft supplies. The shelves on top hold all of my resource books organized by category and card decks. I also keep my stash of wind-up toys in there....those things always save the day! 

Here is the wall that is closest to the door and opposite of my bulletin board. Just some extra storage and a nice white-board space. 

A view of my desk and filing cabinets. I keep some "quick-reference" binders in a crate on top of the cabinets and then have letter sorting trays on my desk with the categories of "to do," "upcoming," and "file/put away" on them. 

Here's the inside of one of my game drawers. I really wanted an easier way to find my materials outside of alphabetical order, so I decided to group them by target area. I cut some colored file folders so they would stand taller and laminated them to divide things up. It has REALLY helped me find and store things a little more efficiently. 

The last thing I'll show you is the hanging file organizer behind my door. I saw this idea on Speech Room News last year (yes, I'm sure you all know that blog...it's FABULOUS) and knew it would be really useful. I snagged some great articulation practice pages from mommyspeechtherapy.com and also added some articulation sound scenes from a book I own. The finishing touch was adding a cover to each of the folders. I labeled each folder with a sound name and description of how to produce it. Last I added some pictures from a website (http://www.rachelsenglish.com/) and supplemented with some photos of one of my speech graduates. They are SO useful! 

Anyways, that is the grand tour! Like I said, at times it can be neater/messier than what was shown here, but above all I think it's really about finding something that is functional and makes you more successful from day to day. What are some ways that you have found to make your space work better for you?