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OTS 45: Tips For New School-Based OTs From The OTSH Community

Updated: Jun 2



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Welcome to the show notes for Episode 45 of the OT Schoolhouse Podcast.


In this episode, Jayson shares advice from eighteen fellow school-based occupational therapists and members of the OT Schoolhouse Community! We cover each of the following topics:

  1. Getting to know everyone on campus and allow them to get to know you

  2. Building Rapport

  3. Asking Questions

  4. Knowledge Translation - Get trained and train others

  5. Getting organized so that you can be flexible

  6. Advocating for yourself!

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This podcast does not qualify as a Professional Development Podcast. You can learn more about how to earn professional development credits through the OTSH Podcast for your OT/COTA renewal certification here!

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Be sure to subscribe to the OT School House email list & get access to our free downloads of Gray-Space paper and the Occupational Profile for school-based OTs.


Have any questions or comments about the podcast? Email Jayson at Jayson@otschoolhouse.com

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Episode Transcript


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Jayson Davies   

Hey everyone, and welcome to episode 45 of the OT school house podcast. I want to thank you all so much for joining me here today. My guess is you're probably listening to this and not the typical environment that you usually listen to the podcast because of all the Coronavirus, COVID, 19 stuff going on right now, you're probably at home and maybe you're not even listening to this as as quickly as you might, because you're not in the car driving, or you're not at the gym working out, but that's okay. We're gonna get through this today, and it's a great episode. It's actually a very user involved podcast. I should say we're gonna have a lot of input from people that follow the OT school house community members, so it's gonna be really good. But first, I do want to thank the pencil grip for sponsoring today's episode. The pencil grip is the original ergonomic writing aid. Writing becomes easy and natural with the pencil grip. It improves handwriting, helps to get more control and reduces hand fatigue. Its unique patent design gently encourages the fingers and hand to rest in the proper position for gripping the tripod grip, of course, unlike other grips, the pencil grip feels natural because of its ergonomic design and soft, flexible, latex free material. Be sure to use promo code ot schoolhouse, all one word at the pencil grip.com in order to get 30% off your entire order. Alright, so let's Cue the intro, and when we come back, we'll do a quick update on the Coronavirus and myself, and then we'll jump into the episode. See you in a second. 

 

Amazing Narrator   

Hello and welcome to the OT school house podcast, your source for school based occupational therapy tips, interviews and professional development. Now to get the conversation started, here is your host, Jason Davies class is officially in session. 

 

Jayson Davies   

All right, so, like I was saying before our catchy intro tune, I still love that. I don't think I'll ever change it, but, yeah, we have a really good episode today where we're actually going to have a lot of user feedback, community members from the OT school house community, come on and actually share some of their tips for a new school based OT. But first, I want to address the elephant that is in the entire world right now, and that is the Coronavirus. And for the most part, I just really want to say that I hope all of you are doing great. I hope you are not well. First of all, I hope you're not sick. But also, I hope that you're doing okay in the house, and that you're not feeling too couped up, and that you're making sure to get out and go for some walks, at least, you know, staying away from people, but getting a little bit of exercise, taking the dog out or whatever you might need to do. We all need to get some exercise, and we probably also need to get away from the people that we're cooped up in the house with every now and then. So, yeah, go for a walk and take care of yourself, because it's hard to take care of other people when you're not healthy. So I hope you are healthy. I hope your family is healthy, whoever that might include, your friends are healthy. And also, one thing that I'm doing a little later today is actually having a zoom happy hour with some friends where we're all just going to jump on and since we can't go out, we're just going to have a drink on Zoom together and enjoy one another's company, maybe see if we can find a game to play or something. Everyone has a deck of cards in their their house, right? So maybe we'll figure out a card game to play or something. But I just really hope everyone out there is doing well. I'm going to try to to support you all as much as I can during this time, but for me, this is also a new experience. I am not a telehealth provider, and we're going to try and get through this together. Many of you have already listened to episode number 22 where I did have a chat with Tracy Davies on telehealth and how to kind of get started. I know many people have been listening to that over the past week or so, and many people seem to find it as a very beneficial listen. It's helped a lot of people so far. It is just an introduction, but I think it can help calm some nerves a little bit as for what I am doing and my district is doing. We're still in the planning phases. We don't know exactly what our sessions are going to look like. I can tell you at first, we are just getting some resources up on our website so that parents can have some ideas as to what to do after that, when we have to get a little bit more in depth with our sessions. We're not quite sure yet, but we are making that plan and trying to figure out what platform to use and what the services will look like. I hope to be able to give you more on that in the coming weeks, as we figure that out. Right now, I'm currently on spring break, and a lot of people are working at the district to get that figured out so that we can get back to work. All right, so let's jump into it. Today. We're talking about the top tips for new school based OT. And this is super cool. It's different. It's unlike anything I've ever done. And this podcast is a direct result, actually, from an Instagram post that I posted. Did ot a few weeks ago that simply asked all of you, all the people out there that follow me on Instagram, what tips do you have for a new school based OT? And from the 60 plus comments that I had from all of you that follow me over at ot school house on Instagram, I compiled them up and I put them together. I'm going to give several of you a shout out for the comments that you left. I did get permission from everyone to use their their words, their comments, so that was super cool, and actually created some new relationships and new friendships out of all that good stuff. So yeah, I've got six overarching themes that we're going to talk about today, and that first one is actually get to know everyone on campus and allow them to get to know you. And for any new school based OT, I can't stress this enough, and so to start off with the first quote from Alexandra at the accommodation station on Instagram. She says, make sure your admin know who you are, and that's important, because you know you're gonna get to know these people, especially if you're an OT you're going to get to know them in the IEP meetings, but you should really get to try to know them before then, because you're going to need them on your side when you're in those IEPs. You're going to need them to know your beliefs, your theories, things like that, that help them to support you, or even when they go into meetings where you're not in the meeting, and maybe ot comes up, you want them to almost know what you would say in that same situation. What advice would you have for that parent or that teacher or something that's having a struggle? So really, as an OT, get to know your admin. Also as an OT a Get to know your admin on campus as well as an assistant. It may be a little bit trickier, because you're not going to be in the meetings necessarily, with the with admin. I know in some districts, ot A is do go to IEPs and so you'll have a chance there, but that's not always the case. So as an OT and an OT a team, you should really strive to make sure that you both know the admin as an OT, you should really make that connection, or make that first introduction, let the admin know that this person is going to be on their campus, let them know who this person is and what their role is. I think there's some misconception that they are like an aid to us and an OT a as an aid to a OT, which isn't exactly the case, as you heard on the previous podcast with Kate and Mary. It's really a team, right? Team effort, and OT A is granted. They're not independent. They cannot work without an OT. They really do bring a lot of their own information to the table. That's fantastic. So yeah, just make sure that you really know your admin. And so the next quote is actually from Amanda at your school OT and she says, Let administrators know who you are and when you'll be in their building. Again, another key point, let them know when you're going to be there. You know, no one likes surprises. Let them know that you do jump around from school to school or how it works, you know, let them know if you're going to be there, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or whatever day. And as she says, let them know who you are. Just as it is important that you get to know them, you also need to let them know who you are, and let them in on your strengths and weaknesses and how they can support you, you know, let them know if you're feeling the pressure of being at too many school sites as OTs and CODAs, we're in this weird position where the school site admin are like a pseudo boss, you know, like, what I mean by that is that we are often, quote, unquote, supervised by the department of special education, as opposed to the school site admin, like a teacher might be right? So while the school principal is who we report to regarding like school site matters, it's often the the department of special education that dictates our case load and our school site. So it's a weird dynamic that by knowing and by letting your admin know who you are, it can help you. I've had admin fight for me to stay at a school site because they enjoyed me as a person. They knew that I was going to get things done, and so they were willing to speak up to the special education department on my behalf to keep me at the school site, as well as to also fight for my caseload too. So you want to have that good connection with your admin. I have two more quotes here for you regarding getting to know people on campus, and that is from Trisha at Tan 23 OT, and she says, to become friends with the custodian slash janitors. They know the rooms, the spaces, places that can be useful to you. And Sarah from the everyday ot says, Make friends with the custodian. You never know when you'll need to borrow tools hardware or have them rig something up for you again another must. Not only can they help you find a space to work in or a place to keep your stuff, but they also have access to the rooms when you forget your keys, and they might be able to help you find chairs or desks that are more suitable so. Size for the kids that you have. You know, sometimes you walk into a kindergarten classroom and all the deaths are just way too big. Sometimes the janitors custodians will know where to find different sized chairs and tables for you. You know, I want to give a big shout out real quick to one of the custodians at my school. His name's Pat, I swear he's like, the first person to show up, the last person to leave. Every day, he's amazing. He helps me out. I get him some coffee every now and then. And it's just really cool to have that other person on campus to be helpful. You know, every now and then, he, like, finds a stash of paper, and he's like, Hey, you want some paper? I'm like, Yes, please. You know, paper is a commodity around the school, so, yeah, get to know your custodians. Definitely. All right, the next quote that I have here, we're still working on that communication, slash, getting to know people on campus. This is from Ray gene at Ray gene 84 and she says, in addition to making friends with building secretaries on the janitor, befriend the gym teachers also don't forget to provide support to the specials like the teachers, art, gym, music, computer teachers, those types of non core curriculum, or whatever you want to call it. She says, These teachers a lot of time get little support and aren't quite sure how to meet students needs. Art and gym are often great classes to push in for OTs, and I definitely agree with that. For you, those of you out there looking to push into classrooms, I will often work very closely, not as much with PE because we don't have PE teachers, but with adaptive physical education teachers in my schools, they're one of my go to people often because I know that I don't necessarily have the time to get as much sensory integration, bilateral integration, coordination, whatever you want to call it in and so I often will coordinate with the apes and say, hey, when you're doing some stuff, can you just try to incorporate, you know that crossing of the midline, the two handed use motor planning stuff like that. They are fantastic. I love working with my AP teachers. Shout out to Joanne and Justin and all the PE teachers a PES that I have worked with in the past. They are amazing. And then she also mentioned secretaries, absolutely, absolutely, get to know your secretaries and the clerks, if that's what they call them up in the front office, just like the custodians, they have a relationship with the admin, and they know how to get things done for you, to support you again. Oftentimes, they control the keys, the paper, the master schedule on campus, so if you're unable to get a hold of your admin, oftentimes, the Secretary has has the key to it. And before I move on to our second official tip, I want to share a little story. It's kind of embarrassing, I guess, in a way, but I think it might be more helpful for many of you, and some of you might even use this tip. I don't think I'm the only one who does it, but when I was at a district where I had 13 schools to kind of attend to, I would actually keep a note in my phone that had the names of, like, the Secretary, the front office staff. That way I could reference to it before I walked into a school and just be like, All right, you know, just until I got to know their names, it was just a quick reminder that I could peek into my phone as I'm walking into the building. And that way I could, I mean, I don't know, everyone likes to hear their own name, right? So being able to just remember names, when you have a lot of people to remember, it's worth a little bit of a task to put in your phone and make it meaningful for you, and actually remember those people's names and and start to build a rapport with them. And that actually brings me to our second official tip, and that is building rapport. So Shay from kids coping labs, she actually had a quote, a great one, and she says, always start with building rapport with your clients. You'll be able to more efficiently meet your goals once your students have a solid trust in you and your relationship. And I think this not only goes for the kids we work with, but also the parents and the teachers. Of course, you know, you got to take the time to sit for the entire the entire IEP sometimes, if you need to talk to your admin about the possibility of sending home an OT newsletter to your parents for a few semesters, I sent home a summer and a winter newsletter. And it was very simple. It was just kind of, you know, different apps on the iPad that you could potentially use to help with handwriting, different websites that you could try the parents could go to to help the kid with typing, different fine motor activities that might go along with a theme, whether it be summer or winter, and just kind of that type of thing can build a rapport, Along with staying at IEP meetings and really fully understanding the concerns that the parents have, you may be able to even attend a back to school night or an open house and wonder about the classrooms which many of your kids attend, like the special day classrooms or or academic specialized academic instruction classrooms. That's something. Could do. Maybe, if there's parent teacher conferences going on, ask your teachers if there's any conferences that they would like you to sit in on, so that way they can get to know you and the parent. You can provide suggestions to the parent without having to wait maybe until the next IEP, if it's not for a while, all those types of things building a rapport. Just can't stress it, whether it's with the kid, the parent or the teacher. And we already talked a little bit about the admin getting to know your administration. All right, so Topic number three, another great tip for new school based OTs, and that is asking questions. And this comes from Alicia at I'm sorry, Alicia, I can't pronounce this, H, A, E, P, I underscore F, T is your Instagram handle, and she used the hashtag year two school, coda. So apparently she's been at this for about two years, and she says, Don't be afraid to ask questions. Along with that Michelle from Michelle Marie five, says, ask questions. Ask where the bathroom, gym, nurse's office is, rather than wandering about or wandering around until you find it. Ask for help. Ask what people mean by acronyms. You get smarter and better at your job when you ask clarifying questions than when you pretend to know what people are talking about. Yes, and I know all of you are in the business of trying to find out more information. Otherwise you wouldn't be listening to this podcast. But I can only give you so much. The guests on this show can only give you so much. Every school, every district, is very different. So ask questions in your setting. I really struggled with this one when I started out, to be honest, I still struggle with it sometimes today, but I know I often feel like I don't want to burden others, and that's kind of on me. I kind of want to be able to do things on my own, and so I do kind of still struggle with this. Sometimes even simpler questions like, How do I use the copier? Do I get so many copies a month? Do I get paper, or do I need to buy my own paper? Simple questions like that, they help. I know you don't want to ask them. You don't want to sound want to sound stupid. Maybe you want to wait until you get a rapport with another teacher and ask that teacher. But you know everyone understands that when you're new to school, you need to figure that out, and so don't be afraid to ask questions. All right, before we move on to number four here, I want to take a quick break for all of you out there listening. Maybe put down your phone. Just stretch your arms, stretch your legs out a little bit, unless you're driving, keep your hands and eyes you know where they should be. Or if you're in a place, a safe place, to do this, shoot me a quick Instagram message and tell me what your tip is for a new school based OT, or maybe something you learned from your first year that you would like me to share with the community. I will. I'll put those out on Instagram again, once I get a few of those in while you send me that direct message, I want to go ahead and say thank you again to the pencil group for sponsoring this episode of the OT school house podcast. The pencil group was designed by a doctor and is widely used in classrooms at home and in therapeutic settings, the unique shape is designed to be a one size fits all to help the hands of kids and adults and work for both righties and lefties, the pencil grip can be used as a training tool and then permanently for added comfort. The pencil grip fits on pencils, primary pencils, pens, crayons, markers, paint brushes, whatever you might use in your therapy setting. So it benefits can be widely enjoyed. A comfortable hand has more control and shows improved handwriting. The pencil grip guides the hand into an ergonomic position. It relieves hand pain, reduces fatigue and improves comfort. Consistent use teaches and reinforces the pencil grip and stops problems like fist grips, thumb wrapping and white knuckling. Parents, teachers and OTs widely recommend using the pencil grip. Get yours at the pencil grip.com. Using ot school house for 30% off your entire order. All right, so our break is over now. And number four tip for new school based OTs is knowledge translation. Get trained and train others. Tara, from at Tara DP on Instagram says, take advantage of all the mentorship you can get, watch and learn. She even used the wandering eyes emojis. So yes to this, you know, take the time to watch other OTs and OT as if you're allowed to take that time and again. This goes back to asking questions. Ask if you can take a few hours, or maybe there's a minimum day at your school, but not at another school. Take that time to go and observe what another OT is doing, whether it be in an IEP, if that's an area you need some help with or in treatment, you have to help them, to help you, right? You have to ask the questions, can you do this and then let them help you with their response of allowing you to come view them, or maybe you need help with some treatment, planning, developing goals, get all the mentorship you can. And then also ask if you can attend some trainings, whether it be a larger conference, a one day seminar, maybe some online courses. Ask your your administrator. Whether it be your principal or the special ed department staff, if you can go to some trainings, you know, especially if you're a new person, a new school based OT, you don't have that training. And I still feel that some of our school based ot skills are lacking in actually, ot school, or I should guess, I should say that the other way around. I think in OT school, they don't teach us enough about school based ot yet. I've been out for a few years now, so maybe it's kind of a little bit better, but I know when I was in the program, it just wasn't focused on school based ot at all. Right? And so try to find some courses that you can take and get out and go do that. Oftentimes they're on the weekend, so you don't you don't even have to miss a day of work, which I know can be burdensome, when you miss 10 treatments in a day, right for missing one day? So ask if you can do that. Go and get some knowledge. Theresa from kids view therapy says, do a lot of training. Train those teachers. Push in and present, present, present. You have too many kids to see all alone. So instill help in the staff collaborate constantly. Great advice from Theresa. You know Knowledge Translation goes both ways after you attend to trading or you get support from someone. You got to support your teachers by sharing what you learned. This is especially true if you go to any one of the handwriting seminars, Handwriting Without Tears, size matters. Any of those, there's so many little techniques that they share with you that can be so easily shared with your teachers. And you know, what your teachers will love? Would love that information. I mean, just the other day, I sat down with my kindergarten team, who I had never even met. I've only been at the school this year, but we didn't have any kindergarten kids with OT and so this was the first time I got to sit down with them and just give simple recommendations, like using loop scissors or using tongs and and things that are just, you know, everyday items for us, but they don't even know exist, or different types of visual activities, right? So make sure that whatever you get, you also transfer over to your teachers, they will be excited and happy to carry that stuff over with you. They will reinforce those skills with the kids that you will never have the chance to see. So yeah, I suggest you go back and listen to episode 42 if you're interested in some RTI, which includes that training and getting into the classroom. Episode 42 I talked about the three tiers of RTI, and that kind of goes along with knowledge translation, using your knowledge to help teachers. So have a look at that, or listen to that going along with the knowledge translation theme. Christine from Mama wells, 329, says, collaborate and create alliances with your case carriers and specialized academic instruction teachers. They will be your eyes and ears for your students every day, even if you physically can't be on the school campus. And this goes right along with what I was just saying, right? You know, I didn't have a specific tip for this, but this is, this fits under Knowledge Translation, you know, even if you physically can't be on the school campus, and this goes right along with what I just said. I didn't have a specific tip for this, but I think it fits under this knowledge translation, as you will quickly learn that it's imperative to rely on your classroom staff, right, to share the progress or potentially lack thereof they are seen in their students. Obviously, you're not there every day, right? And the teachers are, the parents are, and so after you share tips with them, check in to see what's being incorporated and also what's working and potentially what isn't. Christine says it really well. I mean, I can't really say it any better than what she said. They are your eyes. They are your ears, and so you need to listen to them, because they know what's going on in the classroom, whether it's good or bad, whether the teacher and the age are telling you, yes, this kid cut a complex shape for the first time in class, they're able to attend to it, and everything is fantastic. Or, you know, so and so still can't cut out a circle. We need to listen to that, because even if we see them cutting out a circle in that one on one setting, does it really matter if they can't do it in the classroom setting? So listen what is going Listen to what is going on in the classroom. Another comment by a school based ot follower from Ashley at ash Menzies. She says, push into the classroom. Let the teachers see you working with the students. It will help create rapport with the teachers and buy in for interventions you want to implement. Also make sure what you might be working on in a pull out session transfers into the everyday environment. Again, exactly what I just said right after I talked to those kindergarten teachers that was after school on a minimum day, we kind of sat down for about an hour and talked the very next day, I took my lunch time, and while the rest of the school was all at recess, kindergarten wasn't. And I took those, I don't know, about a combined 30 minutes between those two periods, and I just went in and gave them some cool materials and said, Let's go at it. And I just walked around the classroom and gave the teacher some strategies might have walked around. Just gave, you know, a kid some a little pom pom to put in their hands to, kind of, you know, try and help that pencil grasp a little bit again. These aren't kids that need occupational therapy. The teacher just doesn't have the strategies yet to help those kids, right? So that's what we're trying to do, get into those classrooms and let the teachers know how they can support their kids in ways that they were not taught in their teaching education. All right? So that brings us to our second to last tip for today's podcast, and it's kind of a two fold. It's get organized. But on top of that, it's get organized so that you can be flexible, or so that it doesn't hurt you when things kind of go askew, right? And Bridget, from Bridget, Christie on Instagram says, organize info about the students as much as you can beforehand. And this is something I always tell people, and that is on your first day, your first two days, your first three days, even, hopefully your district is giving you time to get organized before you have to jump in and start seeing kids, because that's that's really that's tricky, trying to go in figure out goals. It's like you're shooting from the hip, right? If you just see that kid on the very first day, at 830 in the morning, or whatever time school starts, and you're trying to look up their goal, look up their service, and see the kid all at the same time. It's that's ridiculous. So even if you have to do it the night before, try and organize things in whatever way helps you so that you can be prepared, because you don't have a lot of time in between kids, right? I mean, you go from 839 nine to 930 right? Every every minute is a new kid, or every 30 minutes is a new kid, or whatever it might be for your district. So Amanda from your school OT, you know, she says, use electronic documentation as much as possible and find some sort of way to keep track of IEP dates. And again, I couldn't agree more with this, with Bridget and Amanda, both from a second ago. You know, this is why I put up my organizational system as a freebie for those who subscribe to the otschoolhouse.com email list. It's out there. It's a Excel spreadsheet or Google Spreadsheet, however you want to use it. And it's a way just to keep track of those students IEP dates, keep track of when their annual versus their tries coming up, their services. Personally, yes, we have an IEP system in our school, and it's called sase seis, but I don't think it's very user friendly. As far as keeping data or not keeping data, but keeping records up to date, it's a little tricky in that you have to look in different areas to see when an IEP is coming up versus what services the student is receiving. And so I recommend creating your own document that you have right there, and that way you can, like split screen it. You can have their goals on one side of your screen. You can have the services on the other side, and boom, you're just ready to go. I personally use Google Sheets. And, well, I use Google Sheets for the OT school house, but at work, I use Microsoft Excel, right? And I do this to organize services, goals, IEP, dates progress on goals, upcoming evaluations, even as well as evaluations that have already completed again, you have to keep track of your data, so that way, at the end of the school year, you can show your administration. Hey, look, I was doing like an IEP every other day, or I was doing one evaluation every single week of the school year, and they need to be able to see that. And unless you're keeping data, unless you're organized, you're not going to get there. So this will take some time to get started, but I highly recommend, if you can take an extra day or two before you start seeing kids, to get this organized. Otherwise you're gonna just kind of be behind while you're seeing kids, and you're just continuously going to get a little bit more behind. So take the time and get that done if you can. Man Amanda from your school, OT, you had so many good tips. Another one that I pulled from your your little blurb, you said, try to avoid bouncing back and forth between schools, and this is why you need to be organized so that you can be flexible. I'm lucky now that I only have schools that are literally like a few blocks from each other, but in the past, I've had schools 30 minutes apart, and I know for many of you in a rural area, 30 minutes is like you're close schools. And so you need to have a plan, and you need to plan ahead and even possibly call ahead to see if the student you need to evaluate is even on campus today. It's kind of a bummer when you get all the way across the desert or all the way across the plains or wherever you're going to see one kid to evaluate, that one student, and they're not there that day, whether they're sick or maybe someone else is evaluating them, or whatever. You just can't see the kid that day. You kind of feel like you missed an opportunity, and at the same time, you kind of get mad at yourself for not calling ahead. So highly recommend calling ahead and seeing if kids are even there when you need to see them, because when you're driving 30 minutes between. Goals that can be harmful to your time and your productivity. All right, a few more under this organization umbrella, Sarah from Sarah B ot says, I recommend making yourself a checklist of all things that need to be completed before and after IEP, such as data collection, teacher consults, scoring goals, drafting goals, documentation, etc. And yeah, Sarah nailed this. I actually do this on a daily basis. On the home screen of my computer. On the desktop, I have an open notes page, and it just kind of that's exactly what it is. It's a checklist, and I just look at it. When I have an IEP coming up, I can look at that and just mentally say, okay, for John Doe, I have updated the progress on goals. I have updated the present levels, but I have not drafted a new goal. I have not put in my updated services. And then, as I'm at the IEP, I look at it again, because that's when I start the post IEP process, and that is, did I bill? Did I provide a treatment prescription? Did I fill that form out in and scan it with my phone and send it to whoever needs to be sent to, right? So that they can do the whole medical Medicare thing? Did I make my treatment plan for my own personal benefit and my own personal memory, right? Did I put their new goals, their new services, all that into those, those Excel spreadsheets that we talked about earlier. That's all on a little checklist right there on my home screen, on my computer, so I can reference to it right away. And along with that previous tip, Megan from woo therapy, who is amazing, has some really cool tape you should check out if you haven't yet. She says, Before an IEP meeting, observe the child in class, talk to the teacher and call the parents, yes, yes, yes and yes. Do not go into an IEP meeting without seeing the kid. Especially I do as Megan does, I highly recommend you also call the parent, talk to the teacher. Especially, one of the things that, again, I am not the greatest at, is calling the parent, and I can very much tell the difference and how confident I am at an IEP, as well as how well the IEP goes in general, with all providers, including the teacher, if we have or have not talked to the parent, you know, you don't want any surprises at the IEP. You want to be able to go in there, have everyone on the same page. Highly recommend calling the parent, but if you can't try to send them an email, or if you need feedback from them, I actually create a Google form or a Microsoft form that I'm able to send them a link in an email and say, Hey, we're doing an evaluation on your student. Can you please complete this form? Just click on this link and it'll ask you a few questions about your student, and that way you're getting input. If you have any questions about what comes back in that form or what comes back in that email, give them a call and follow up. You don't want to be asking a lot of questions at the IEP. You want to be able to do that beforehand, so that when you get into the IEP again, things that run smoothly. We talked a little bit about that in episode 43 right? 43 when we talked about some difficult IEP, so be sure to get that parent and teacher input. And here's one last tip as to why being organized help. And it's about flexibility. Hope. From hope McCarroll on Instagram, she says, Be flexible. Write everything in pencil because it will change. Also give yourself some grace to make mistakes and take longer on things The first year is difficult, she says all in caps, and so you need that year to learn the rhythm and routine of the school year. You know, when you are organized, it's easier to roll with the punches, right when a teacher stops you in the hallway, you don't feel as pressured if you're able to say, sorry, I'm on a tight schedule right now. But if you email me a reminder, I will get back to you Thursday when I reply to all my emails that is not rude, that's you know, that is advocating for your time, that's advocating for yourself, and that is telling the person, hey, look, what I'm doing is important, but I will get back to you right? And so likewise, when you know an IEP is due because you're keeping your own data, not relying on the teacher's email saying, Hey, An IEP is coming up in three days. You won't feel as caught off guard. And so there are times when a teacher will email you at 8am and say, Hey, I forgot to tell you there's an IEP at 3pm today, and it's not your day at that school site, right? So maybe you're across town and you're like, Oh, thanks. I have 10 kids to see today, and now I have to get to an IEP at 3pm right? No, keep track of your own data. You should be the one, at least, in my opinion, you should be the one two weeks before an IEP supposed to happen. Saying, Hey, teacher, I haven't heard from you about John Doe his IEP is coming up. Can you please let me know when it is? And hopefully you know that'll at least give them the cue to get back to you and again, that way you're not caught off guard when something happens. All right, tip number six for new school based OTs, or even just you all out there who are just like, Man, I need some tips from the community. And this is it. Tip number six is document, document, document. Alyssa Warne reminded me of a great quote that goes as follows, if it's not documented, it never happened, and make sure you cover yourself. Cya, right, by documenting your treatments thoroughly so that you can show the therapy you provided at a later date for any number of reasons. You know, I think by now, most districts are using some sort of electronic records program for billing, and so I highly suggest that you don't just view that as a meaningless record, but as something that you can be thankful for potentially one day right again. Cya, cover your own. You'll figure out what the A is. But likewise, I also suggest that you keep your calendar up to date in case your district or anyone else questions your whereabouts earlier this school year, I actually did a a workload study where I kept track in 15 minute intervals, what I was doing at all today. Granted, I still need to kind of analyze that data, synthesize it a little bit, but in doing that, I was able to really see that I was struggling and that I needed help, and so that's why I was able to send an email confidently and say, Hey, I can't do this alone. I need help. Please provide me with support. And you know what? I got the support. So document, document, document, whether it's your IEP, your calendar and obviously your treatment notes and evaluations, you don't want to be caught off guard a year or two years from now, not having some good notes that you can rely on. All right. And our last tip for new school based OTs, and this is just honestly for everyone, is advocate, advocate for yourself and advocate for the students. Kenzie from ot with Kenzie says, advocate for your children, but most importantly, yourself and yourself is all in caps. And then Danielle from mornings with an OT mom on Instagram, she says, change takes time. You will see many things you are not okay with. Focus on the things you can change, like every other tip, these are so important to remember. You know, you are only one person in a huge organization. Do not overburden yourself with things that other people should be doing as part of their job. Of course, help where you can, but everyone needs boundaries. So ask for help and let people know when you're struggling. I had to do this just a few months ago, like I was talking about, right? I had 100 missed sessions, and I used my my workload study to kind of show why I was missing those sessions. And it took some emails and support from the rest of my ot colleagues to help me out, but eventually the district did provide me with the support of a COTA one day a week, and so that's really helping me make up some of those missed sessions. So yes, advocate for yourself and worry about the things you can control. All right, I'm sure we could go on and on with many more tips. Maybe we'll have to do another follow up podcast for more simple tips like this, directly from you and for you. But that is going to wrap things up for today. I know I mentioned many people's names and many Instagram handles, if you would like to see those Instagram handles to be able to follow all those people, I will probably have something on my social media around the time that this comes out, like with a tag, so you can just click on their names right on my story. But also go to OT schoolhouse.com, forward slash episode 45 where I will have a link to each of these people's social media accounts so that you can easily just click on it and click follow. It'll be that simple. They are all amazing occupational therapists or occupational therapy assistants, and I highly recommend that you follow them. Yeah, you know as OTs, we need to, we need to support each other, and we need to follow each other so that we can get all the tips we can right. So just to recap, the larger six themes were get to know everyone on campus and allow them to get to know you. That was number one. Number two goes right along with that one, and that's building rapport. And how are you going to build rapport with number three, asking questions. Number four is knowledge translation. Get trained and then use that training to train others, whether it be other OTs, OTs, or teachers and classroom assistants. Right number five is get organized so that you can be flexible. And right along with that, number six is advocate for yourself, because we are all people, and we all need help. We all need time, and we all need to just do our job well, and we need to advocate in order to do that right. It's hard to do your job well when there's not enough time in a day. So advocate for yourself. Advocate for your students and yeah, keep doing you be awesome. You know, you're an amazing ot remember, like hope said, The first year is very difficult. So many people expressed how difficult the first year is, but you will get through it. You'll move on to year two, that'll be a little bit easier, and by year three or four, you'll be great at it, right? So keep it up. You're awesome, and we'll see you next time on the OT school house podcast. Take care everyone. Bye, bye. 

 

Amazing Narrator   

Thank you for listening to the OT school house podcast. For more ways to help you and your students succeed right now, head on over to otschoolhouse.com Until next time class is dismissed.



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