What skills and tools am I going to carry with me into the future? Why did I choose these particular tools?
My students love to use computers. Recently when I was supervising them alone, eight of my kids were deep in concentration in front of a computer. There they sat, all in a row. Laughingly I said to them, "Hey, are you guys having a good time?" Only one of them answered. Looking at them clicking away on their key boards I noticed how content they seemed. I also saw what nice guys they are. The kids were using Starfall, pbskids.org. or Google. They Google all sorts of things, from trains to Listerine. Clearly computers are potentially a powerful teaching tool for my students.
The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives, along with several other web sites, would be wonderful for my class. Websites like these can teach concepts very cleanly and efficiently. While I am busily making PowerPoint slides using clumsy drawing tools, time is fleeing. What I am doing has already been done, and better than I can do it.
I have to keep searching the internet, investigating promising websites, and implementing immediately. What NLVM does with fractions is fantastic. It serves up the essence of fractions better than anything else I have ever seen.
Then there are blogs. I am considering communicating to my parents through a blog. The first five years I taught special education I sent home weekly newsletters. But as my job kept growing, this became harder and harder to do. The newsletters were discontinued in favor of email communications to specific parents. No doubt the families that I am serving would be interested in a blog about their child's week at school.
PowerPoint Shows have been an important part of my program for the past few years. I intend to investigate Apple’s Keynote Software. I have heard that it has powerful animations. The animations available in PowerPoint have been fine so far, but occasionally they seem inadequate. In teaching the children how to tell time, a clock with moving hands was needed, but using PowerPoint for this was painful and time consuming.
There will always be new software, materials, and approaches. At times keeping abreast of major developments in the computer world has seemed daunting. Other times it’s been fascinating. Twas ever thus. Sometimes we hang on white knuckled, other times we ride with our hands off the bar, arms straight up, with the wind in our hair. I guess I will always be somewhere in between. I appreciate how fascinating teaching and computers are but sometimes I have to brace myself for the wild ride.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
AAC Devices and Special Needs Students
Some special needs students, including those who have autism, need help in communicating. When verbal communication is delayed or impossible, alternate means of expression need to be provided. Sometimes only paper and pencil are required. Other times a portable computerized communication device is necessary. The important point is that all children must be able to communicate and IEP teams must work together to make this possible. Fortunately there are tools available for assessing students’ communication abilities and needs and places to go to learn about AAC devices.
A good place to start is with “The Assistive Technology Continuum”. It could be posted in prominent places around school and in locations where IEP meetings take place. It should also be printed for distribution at IEP meetings. It provides a great summary.
The Assistive Technology Consideration Guide for IEP Teams can also be used for annual meetings or whenever there is a communication problem that needs to be addressed. Another tool, from the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning, is the Assistive Technology Evaluation Report Checklist. This is part of a longer document that contains lengthly and thorough check lists pertaining to communication. The Assistive Technology Evaluation Report Checklist is at the end of this paper and is available through my website.
SETT stands for Student, Environments, Tasks, and Tool. It is a form that helps to determine a student’s strengths and needs. It is a clean and simple document that outlines information pertinent to a child’s education. It too is available through my web site.
For a longer and more in depth look at communication and AAC there is the Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative (WATI). It would be wise to have copies of the WATI for every SDC, RSP, psychologist, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, and principal. Additionally there could be three other copies for the staff to share that would be available in the staff room in a location where they wouldn’t become buried and forgotten.
For team members who have decided that a dynamic display device is needed, but who don’t know which dynamic display device to buy, the following web site is recommended: AAC devices. This url was obotained from an email message sent to QUIT, the list serve group.
If everyone is approached in the right way, with respect and calmness, more can be accomplished. When information is provided to the team that clarifies the student’s needs and the capabilities and features that the AAC devices have to offer, the chances for netting the right device for a student increases.
A good place to start is with “The Assistive Technology Continuum”. It could be posted in prominent places around school and in locations where IEP meetings take place. It should also be printed for distribution at IEP meetings. It provides a great summary.
The Assistive Technology Consideration Guide for IEP Teams can also be used for annual meetings or whenever there is a communication problem that needs to be addressed. Another tool, from the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning, is the Assistive Technology Evaluation Report Checklist. This is part of a longer document that contains lengthly and thorough check lists pertaining to communication. The Assistive Technology Evaluation Report Checklist is at the end of this paper and is available through my website.
SETT stands for Student, Environments, Tasks, and Tool. It is a form that helps to determine a student’s strengths and needs. It is a clean and simple document that outlines information pertinent to a child’s education. It too is available through my web site.
For a longer and more in depth look at communication and AAC there is the Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative (WATI). It would be wise to have copies of the WATI for every SDC, RSP, psychologist, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, and principal. Additionally there could be three other copies for the staff to share that would be available in the staff room in a location where they wouldn’t become buried and forgotten.
For team members who have decided that a dynamic display device is needed, but who don’t know which dynamic display device to buy, the following web site is recommended: AAC devices. This url was obotained from an email message sent to QUIT, the list serve group.
If everyone is approached in the right way, with respect and calmness, more can be accomplished. When information is provided to the team that clarifies the student’s needs and the capabilities and features that the AAC devices have to offer, the chances for netting the right device for a student increases.
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