Review :: Superflex Social Thinking Curriculum

Each year, every teacher at my school receives a $50 purchase order to spend on supplies, curriculum, or materials for our classrooms. It's definitely not much, but I was so happy with my purchase this year that I wanted to share it with you!

Normally, I'll buy colored card stock (for making my numerous visual schedules, break cards, and the like), a few books discussing bullying, divorce, or other issues, or school supplies. This year, however, I decided that I needed some new curriculum! Sure, I have binders upon binders of worksheets and other things, but I'm getting so BORED with them...and so are my kids.

I'd heard really good things about the Superflex Curriculum and read a few good reviews online, so I decided to give it a try. It's a Superhero comic book-based curriculum for students in grades 2-5 to help teach social skills and behavior regulation. If nothing else, I thought that since it featured superheroes and villains in a comic book format, it'd be my best shot to compete with the video games, movies, and TV shows my kids are interested in! And lucky for me, the starter set came in at just under $50! Perfect :)

If you aren't familiar with the curriculum, I invite you to take a look at the Social Thinking Website first! After several weeks of using it, here's what I've found:

Things I Love:
- The comic books are super colorful and grab my students' attention.

- Teacher guide includes prompting questions and really good lesson plans for organizing your instruction
- Each villain (called "Unthinkables") has a cute name that is really easy for my kids to remember and addresses many of the social difficulties my kids have.
- Some of the books come with a CD that has all the printable pages. No more need to squish my teacher guide in to the copier and deal with crooked copies! I can just print one from my computer and make pretty copies!

Things I Wish Were Different:
- I know it's an educational curriculum, but it makes me sad that it has to be priced like one. I have a hard time coughing out $20-$30 for a book! Also, the store sells squishy flexible brain stress balls, but I got them for super cheaper on Office Playground.
- The only "comic books" available at this time are for defeating the first 3 (out of 14) villains (Unthinkables). The teacher guide provides other books that can be used to explain the remaining 11, but my kids keep wanting more of the original comic books, not random other books that I can pull in to describe the Unthinkables! I believe more are coming though.
- My original Superflex book started coming apart at the binding after only 2 weeks of use. I'm the only one who holds the book and the staples holding it together started ripping through the pages. It's already taped up, which makes me sad!

So far, I've used it with students with Autism, ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, and Developmental Delays and it has worked very well for those students. A few of my kids with more severe Cognitive Impairments get distracted by all the action in the comic books (I have to show only 1 page at a time and keep portions of it covered) and have a hard time understanding the concept of "fictional characters," which the teacher's guide warns about.



Even despite a few negatives, I love this curriculum! My planning time has been SO reduced, which is wonderful. I'm still getting used to the layout of all the lessons, but my students have been paying attention, contributing appropriately to conversations about social thinking, and even using Superflex vocabulary outside my office!! "Rock Brain got in my head yesterday when I didn't want to let my sister use the TV." I have to say, THAT is pretty awesome! So if you've got some grant money, unspent purchase orders, or extra TpT earnings laying around, I highly recommend Superflex!

Note: None of the images in this post are mine. They are all from Social Thinking and Office Playground. Also, I was not compensated in any way for this review. It's just something I wanted to share!

Review :: Erin Condren Life Planner 2013-2014

Last year, I ordered my first Erin Condren Life Planner. I loved it so much that I convinced a few of my coworkers to get one too and wrote a review about it here as well. This year, I found out the new ones would be available on June 4th and started the countdown in my head to when I could order mine (my husband thought I was nuts).

I placed my order this morning, but here's what I can say so far:

Loves:

- Having a weekly "to do" list on the side of each week and daily "to do" lists below each day. Prior year's planners had them on most pages, but were missing them for the first week of each month. This will definitely help my organization!



- Ability to personalize rectangle stickers. In the past, I got a million "vegas" or "play" stickers, which I didn't have a lot of use for. Now, I can personalize them for institute days, school improvement days, parent-teacher conferences, etc., which is awesome!

- The classic cover choices. I was a little nervous when I started to see some of the new color options for this year, but was super relieved that many of my favorites from last year were still there! This is the one I ordered this year, with a list of my favorite things for the background and "2013-2014 School Year" for the title, of course:

- Continued durability that I loved from last year. Everything from the super laminated cover to the sturdy aluminum coil put up with all the abuse I put it through last school year. I was happy to see none of these things changed!



My Wishes for Next Year:

- More "circle sticker" choices. You can upload your own images, but I'd love if they had more pre-made images for holidays to choose from.



- Cheaper notebooks for the back. I'm already forking out $50-$60 for a planner. I feel like it's a little rough to charge an additional $18.50 for matching notebooks, even though they are super cute and personalized. Surely they could get the cost down a bit for those of us already buying a planner!



- Ability to personalize ALL the rectangle stickers. While it is faster (for me and probably for them too!) to have some of them with specific events already made up (sale!, no work!, doctor appt., party!, etc.), it'd really be nice to do ALL my own. That way, I can color code and not be stuck in the colors they've decided for certain types of events (light blue for fun things, red for work).



- An improved pen holder. I still ordered one again for this year, but my one from last year started stretching out after only a month or so. I'd love some higher quality elastic for it.



Even though I think there are a few improvements for future years, I am SUPER excited to get mine!! The bright colors and fun overall feel of the planner got me through last year! I ordered it today and the estimated ship date is June 14th, so I'll post an update when it arrives in its adorable, bright-colored box :)

A final note: All of the pictures on this post are from the Erin Condren site. None of them are mine!

Update:

Here are some pictures of mine! I love it so much. It *almost* makes me feel ready for school!

Pinterest Find :: Erin Condren Lesson Planner

So, I'm going to be honest. I didn't find this on Pinterest...but I don't have any other term right now to categorize things that are awesome besides "Pinterest Find." Any ideas, anyone?

Anyway, I love to be organized. I frequently get harassed by coworkers and friends for color-coding, organizing, alphabetizing, etc., so I actually felt like I had died and gone to heaven when I came across the Erin Condren store. I actually found it last summer while I was looking for a new planner for the school year and ended up getting one of their Life Planners (which I HIGHLY recommend by the way - I'll talk more about them in July when their new versions come out).

If you're around here often, you'll know I'm a school social worker, not a teacher. Nonetheless, I know that several of you ARE teachers, so I figured I'd let you know about this awesome lesson planner! It's super colorful and includes just about every single possible thing you'd ever need in a lesson planner. Among the awesomeness included: inspirational quotes, pages for substitutes and sub plans, important dates, attendance logs, grade book, weekly lesson planning grid, etc. etc. etc! You can even choose from over 20 different covers and add photos to personalize it! And did I mentioned it's colorful?

I will say that it is a tad pricey compared to cheap books your school may give or that you pick up at Staples, but from owning one of their planners this year, I can honestly say I never regretted my decision to get one even once. I mean, how many minutes a day do you spend staring at your lesson planning book? Probably at least 30! Is it worth less than 20 cents per day to have a planning book that you enjoy looking at and actually makes you want to plan? I thought so!

Also, no, I don't get paid for recommending their products. I genuinely think they're just that awesome!! Here's a little more information from their website:



AND! Enter the code: WELOVETEACHERS this month at check-out to receive 25% off all their teacher products. Happy Teacher Appreciation!!

Note: All photos in this article are from the Erin Condren website. I didn't take or create any of them!

Review :: Creative iPad Case

I was recently lucky enough to get an iPad Mini funded through DonorsChoose for my students! I'm super excited because there are all kinds of awesome apps to teach social skills, communication, and problem-solving. Unfortunately, I had to way to use the apps without an iPad!

It's supposed to arrive sometime in the next couple weeks, but in the mean time I've bean searching for a good case for it. There's tons of cute ones out there, but so many don't provide the "military-grade" protection I know I'll need...haha!

Luckily I came across this one! Not only is it very cute looking, but I also love the handles and that it appears to be very durable! It's also made for all different models of iPads. Some of the reviews mention that it doesn't stand up well, but that's not really why I'm buying the case to begin with! I ordered one in purple and I'll post an update after I get it to let you know how it holds up :)

Anyone know of any must-have apps while I'm waiting!?

Happy Sunday!

Update 4/11/13: I definitely REALLY love this case!  It's a bit tight to get the iPad mini into, but it looks fantastic and I know it will hold up to the abuse my students will put it through. It even stands up on the desk. I've already gotten tons of compliments from my coworkers :)

Review :: Erin Condren Life Planner

I honestly can't remember where I heard about the Erin Condren Life Planner, but it's something I tell other people about constantly now!

Ever since graduating college and getting my first social work job, I have looked forward to shopping for my school planner each year. I think it goes back to always looking forward to school supply shopping. Since I don't have the use for new scissors, gym shoes, and rulers every year, getting a planner fills that void!

My only difficulty comes with my desire for color-coding, prettyness, and customization, which unfortunately isn't found in most "adult" planners :(





Uh...yeah gee, these types of things make me look forward to my full day of meetings ahead! There's been some sites in the past where you can personalize the size, format, and some colors on the planner, but it's generally pretty limited and most of them have gone out of business after a year or too.

Which is why I actually started screaming when I found this (seriously, ask my husband...he thought I was crazy!) Erin Condren has finally done what I've been begging planner companies for: created a planner that is customizable, very cute, and makes me excited about the day ahead each time I look at it. It also comes with customizable stickers if you'd like. I mean, what other planner can you get that comes with stickers of your family members' faces!?

I will say they are a bit pricier than ordinary planners you'd get at Office Max or Staples, but honestly, you're going to spend at least 10 minutes each day looking at it so you may as well like it! The price tag sting disappears the moment I got my planner and has never resurfaced again. SO worth it!

Here are a few pictures of my planner!







P.S. Make sure you order early. They take a couple weeks to make and ship (they're making yours completely individually, after all!) I ordered mine toward the end of July and got it in time for the start of school about 3 weeks later.