With the rising costs of everything combined with the school economy today, we can use all the help we can get for a greater bang for our buck. This is the 2010 list of some tools that are provided free to help your students be more successful in their educational process. So much is available for free these days, is software where we really need to be spending our money? (For those of
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Free Classroom Supports Worth Knowing About
With the rising costs of everything combined with the school economy today, we can use all the help we can get for a greater bang for our buck. This is the 2010 list of some tools that are provided free to help your students be more successful in their educational process. So much is available for free these days, is software where we really need to be spending our money? (For those of
Friday, July 2, 2010
Page Fluffing
Page fluffers are helpful in fostering independent literacy skills. Page fluffers are simple adaptations made to books or other reading material that make pages more accessible to turn. Page fluffers increase the space between the pages of a book, allowing those with limited fine motor skills to get their fingers between each page, therefore, making it easier to turn a page. You can use a
Friday, May 28, 2010
Pictures to Support Learning
Research supports the idea that images connect directly to long-term memory. Images are different from text in that they can communicate “lateral thinking, objectivity and global context”. Acquiring new knowledge is difficult for most learners because they go about it the wrong way. Many of our learners will try to memorize difficult concepts from textbooks. However, our brain isn’t geared
Monday, April 26, 2010
MyStudyBar
MyStudyBar is free to download and is designed to help overcome problems that students commonly experience with studying, reading and writing. MyStudyBar is similar to popular commercial programs which use a floating toolbar to support literacy.It helps to alleviate problems with organization, reading and writing. The toolbar consists of programs assembled into one convenient and
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
AAC Resources
The above graphic is from AAC TechConnect.
When working with students who are using any form of Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC), it is important to teach several components when using a device. These may be good areas to focus on when writing an IEP:
How to operate the device and take care of it as independently as possible
How to communicate with it, (Eyes, Ears,
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Writing to Demonstrate Knowledge - Alternative Supports for
A writing-to- demonstrate- knowledge assignment is one that teachers employ when they assign reports, essays, persuasive writing letters and papers, and research papers.
When writing to demonstrate knowledge, students show what they have learned by synthesizing information and explaining their understanding of concepts and ideas. Students write for an audience with a specific purpose. But
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Building Mouse Skills
Helping students to develop mouse skills can be a challenge. There are free activities online for helping children to build mouse skills. There are games and various drawing programs (see previous posting "Sites to Support Students with Special Needs" for a listing of drawing programs) that provide simple mouse practice for the beginning mouser. Below you will find some activities designed
Friday, January 8, 2010
100 Web Tools to Enhance Collaboration
100 Web Tools to Enhance Collaboration
I love this list by Ozge Karaoglu. Talk about getting people talking! How much fun would kids have using some of these tools in their classrooms. My favorites are listed below.
CoSketch is another whiteboard that you can collaborate to visualize your ideas and share them as images. The good thing is that, you don't have to register or install anything
Monday, December 28, 2009
Methods and Materials to Support Handwriting
A CONTINUUM OF CONSIDERATIONS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
For the Mechanics of Writing
Handwriting is a complex skill involving visual perceptual,
neuromuscular, and motor components. The labor-intensive motor aspect of
writing includes: holding the writing utensil; stabilizing the paper;
visually guiding the hand; moving the writing utensil along the paper;
visual recall of the letter;
