Talking Photos

Convert any photo into a talking character with PQ Talking Photo. Currently it runs on Windows XP/Vista, but a Mac version is expected sometime this year. Here is what it can do:

• Create animated characters from any photo you want.
• Easy to use. With simple mouse clicks, the animation can be generated in a few seconds.
• Only one picture is needed to construct a realistic 3D face for animation
• Animate any human or animal photos, paintings, drawings or even sketchs.
• Automatically match lip movement with voice.
• Support any spoken languges: English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Chinese, etc.
• Create your talking photo album, live avatars on blogs, funny greeting card, pets talk show, etc.

Note: If you blog about it, they will send you a free copy of the software.

I was pondering the classroom applications of this fun tool before having an adequate dose of morning caffeine when I came across David Muir's post from his EdCompBlog. He has some great ideas:

I think there is great educational potential for animated talking pictures. You could get a picture of an historical character and put pupil generated words in their mouth... Or get pupils to talk in the persona of a fictional character... Or different pupils could record the same message but present it in different ways depending on the emotions shown by the person in the picture - in anger, in sadness, with resignation etc.

Fun With Photos

Winter break is over. It was a time for many of us to connect with families and friends. If you had a camera clicking the whole time, what will you do with all those images? Now you can get creative and have fun with your photos. Check out fd's Flickr Toys for some ways to express yourself and share your pictures.

This photo used the motivational poster feature. I can imagine some great posters for the classroom. At Hosmer School, we are "Respectful, Responsible, Hardworking and Successful". Maybe we will see some posters created by the students that reflect these traits?

Sleep, Perchance to Dream...and Remember!

In his Science News Online article titled "Certain memories may rest on a good sleep", Bruce Bower reports on the need for sleep to consolidate procedural memory.

When practicing a musical piece, a gymnastics move, or any other activity that depends on effortless, virtually automatic execution, here's some memory-enhancing advice: If you snooze, you cruise.

Procedural memory in school might take the form of learning cursive writing, tackling the steps of long division, or mastering a new musical piece on your recorder. It includes any number of things that involve remembering how to do things with your hands: tying shoes, knitting/crocheting and folding origami.

Mel Levine has long stressed that what you study right before going to sleep actually gets replayed several times while you are snoozing. Why not give it a try..at least don't keep yourself up worrying about it!

Warning to students: Do not try this at school...your teacher will not buy the excuse "I was consolidating my long division skills!"

photo by umjanedoan

occupational therapy connection - health and wellness

More on Chores

"Work is nature's physician, it is essential to human health and happiness." - Galen

Mel Levine talks about the family's responsibility to instill a work ethic in their children. When asked what parents can do, he responds:

Schools are responsible for teaching kids how to learn, and parents are responsible for teaching kids how to work. You build up your work capacity, work rhythms, work ethic at home and not in school. There has to be a very clear assignment that society gives families, the job of making your kid into a worker. That means we have to revise the role of parent as taskmaster rather than recreational coordinator. And parents, from an early age, have to be building working capacity. They have to organize an office for a child, set up certain times of the day that are for brainwork and keep kids in cognitive shape. They have to be communicating that a big chunk of life isn't fun and say that we are terribly sorry about that but everything isn't entertainment. It's a bit of an old American ethic but it needs to be revived and celebrated.

To read more, check out the chapter on "outputs inputs" in Levine's book on The Myth of Laziness.

The topic of chores is discussed by others in the educational field. In his book titled, The Motivation Breakthrough, 6 Secrets to Turning on the Tuned-Out Child, Rick Lavoie discusses how work habits established at home carry over into the classroom and eventually in the work place. Read the chapter on Household Chores and Work Ethic. You can buy this book here or read it free online here.

Carve out some time for chores in your child's life.

occupational therapy connection: skills for the job of living - work

The Value of Chores

Last Thursday we got such lovely snow, about 10 inches of it. Before school on Friday, there was a fair amount of shoveling that had to be done before uncovering our cars. Everyone in my street was out with their shovels, chatting to each other and getting some nice "heavy work" before starting their day. Typically that time would have been spent in front of a newspaper or the computer. I couldn't help but think of several of my students who would have benefited from this "heavy work" prior to their school day.

That brings me to topic of chores. Not only do they teach a great work ethic and persistence at a task, but in many instances they can be designed to provide the needed sensory input in a child's life. Raking leaves, shoveling snow, carrying out the trash and recycling bins all can help to regulate a child. Have we dropped chores from our children's lives because they are so over scheduled? See a previous post on the value of heavy work.

I am hoping for more snow.

Connection to occupational therapy: skills for the job of living - work

photo citation: North Idaho Dad

Do Good While Learning

FreeRice is a site that lets you do good while getting smarter! How cool is that? For every vocabulary word you get correct, it donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. Here's how it works:

FreeRice automatically adjusts to your level of vocabulary. It starts by giving you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do, assigns you an approximate starting level. You then determine a more exact level for yourself as you play. When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level. When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level. This one-to-three ratio is best for keeping you at the “outer fringe” of your vocabulary, where learning can take place.

There are 50 levels in all, but it is rare for people to get above level 48.

In addition to boosting vocabulary skills in students with language delays, this site can be a nice break for some of our students with advanced verbal skills. Kids with aspergers and NLD need opportunities to build their strengths, something we forget to add to their day. This would be a great built in break for them!

The website cautions potential players - WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance...

After playing it, everyone in my family found it addictive...what a healthy addiction for students and families! I can't imagine hearing, "Stop learning new vocabulary and clean your room!"

occupational therapy connection - learn through play

Connections That Continue After the Bell Rings

The bell rings and the school day is officially over. Now what? You would be surprized how students are connecting, sharing and creating on their own. A case in point is the new Students 2.0 site.

For the first time ever in the history of the internet, we have created a global edublog that is administered, designed, edited, and written by students, and only students. In an otherwise teacher-dominated blogging community, we have decided to speak up and let ourselves be heard. Hailing from Hawaii and Washington, from St. Louis and Chicago, from Vermont, New York, Scotland, Korea, and other points on the globe, we have one goal in mind: expressing our opinions and perspectives about education with clarity and confidence. We plan on contributing our unique and insightful perspectives with the objective to better the world of education.

If you are curious about the world our students live in, stop by often to read their views. Begin with this post from a Vermont high schooler who writes about the importance of his global villages and how they are segregated from his school experience. Why are our school doors so tightly shut?

Connection to occupational therapy: access, inclusion

photo citation - Shareski

Kids Using VoiceThread

Take a look at this creative way of using VoiceThread. I am not sure where this student goes to school or how old he is, but he certainly knows how to make learning his own! I can't imagine he will ever forget the 5 step writing process!



Connection to occupational therapy: learn by doing

Jott - Improve Productivity

Introducing your very own personal assistant. No, you don't need to hire anyone. Instead sign up for a free account at Jott. Use your voice to help you remember things, to make lists and to organize your life. Why write things down anymore, especially if you are on the go most of the day. Pickup your cellphone and start jotting!

Added thought: There is always a student that struggles with copying down the homework. It never seems to get into the agenda book before the bell rings. Items may be missing due to visual motor challenges. Why not have the student send themselves a jott, using their voice to record the daily homework? It gets sent as a text message or email. Problem solved!

Connection to occupational therapy: modifying the task

Qipit - Camera Click and Share

Take a digital image (from your cellphone camera or digital camera) and turn it into a sharable document.

- Scribbled ideas on napkins
- White board teacher notes
- Handwritten notes from a meeting




Check out qipit...it's free. Their blog provides all sorts of tips and suggestions.

VoiceThread - Create, Comment and Connect!

My New Favorite Tool! Why?
It's Simple (the less clicks it requires, the more we are apt to use it)
It's adaptable (can be used in may different ways)
It's free for everyone (and the Pro version is free for K-12 educators)
It's just plain cool!

VoiceThread is a program to upload images (photos, documents, powerpoints, videos, etc.). But it's better than that. You can add your voice to comment about what is on the screen. Others can add their voices to keep the conversation going. To see a fun example, watch this voice thread of an old family photo.



Browse the examples under presentations, travel, family and classroom. We can use voice threads for social stories, how-to demos, digital story telling, skill practice, monitoring students' reading progress...I could go on and on. Families can document events in their lives and share with relatives and friends.

After showing this to a group of special educators here at Hosmer, I instantly got examples emailed back to me. The creativity is contagious. Go try it!

Life Long Learners

John Schinker from Taste of Tech wrote this post on being responsible for your own learning. Daily we are faced with new technologies to learn and integrate into our practice. We cannot wait for others to take our hand and show us. We must dive in, experiment and try things out. I love this quote he included:

“The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” — Alvin Toffler

Stay tuned for some programs I have discovered recently....

Photo Citation: Ben Werdmuller

Russ Hoyt Talking on Siblings

Come to the Watertown Special Education Parent Advisory Council meeting on Wed., Nov. 14, 2007, 7:00pm
Lowell Elementary School Library, 175 Orchard St, Watertown, MA.
Childcare will be available.

RUSS HOYT ON SIBLINGS
Come listen to Russ Hoyt, early childhood director for the Groton-Dunstable Regional School District (or Mr. Russ as he is known to the children in the Boutwell Early Childhood Center). In addition to his professional career, Mr. Hoyt has a personal connection to Special Education. Russ’s oldest brother, Rick, was born with cerebral palsy and cannot walk, talk, feed or care for himself without assistance. However, Rick has run the Boston Marathon 26 times, completed the Ironman Triathlon 5 times as a team with his father, and he graduated from Boston University. Russ will share with us the story of his family, his relationships with both of his brothers, and to pass on some ideas and some research findings on how to support healthy sibling relationships. All are welcome.

If you are not familiar with Russ's brother and father, watch this four minute movie on their endeavors...quite inspirational!
What can you imagine?

Close Your Dictionary

Tagging - the act of labeling your luggage for quick identification at the airport carousel
Wiki - short for wiki sticks, those waxed pieces of string that allow you to create shapes, letters or just about anything
RSS - IM speak for something (I'll have to ask my daughter); much like POS, standing for "parent over shoulder"
Blog - an extreme of "bog", as in "I got really blogged down by this project"
Podcast - a fly fishing technique
Social networking - what goes on in the teachers' room around the copy machine
YouTube - "No, I'm not jumping in this cold river with my inner tube...it was your idea so you tube!"

Welcome to Web 2.0. Go directly to Atomic Learning to update your definitions. This tutorial by Vickie Davis from CoolCatTeacher is free for the month of November. Hurry on over!

Image citation: jrtcollector

Living Sensationally

How do you respond to sensations around you? Are you someone who seeks input, someone who does not notice, someone who avoids it or someone who is too sensitive? Although you have a predominant way of reacting to sensory information, you may have characteristics of all these. Understanding how we are alike and different in our sensory world promotes acceptance and tolerance of each other's behaviors and reactions.
It is part of being human.
Take a moment to think about how you feel riding the subway downtown.
Do you love the experience of sight, sound and movement...or do you cringe at the thought of someone standing next to you?
Does shutting out the experience altogether by plugging into your ipod seem like a great solution to you?
Do you love the jerky bumpy ride with frequent stops...or do you leave the train frazzled and racing to get above ground again?
Perhaps you are oblivious to the activity going on around you and even miss your stop.

I'm still waiting for my copy of Winnie Dunn's book, Living Sensationally, to come in the mail. If you want to get a taste of the book, read this review from the Times.

photo citation

Become Involved...Your Child Will Benefit!

Hear Ye Hear Ye: Parent Volunteers Needed in Hosmer School Library



Parents can volunteer during their children’s classes and would be able to see what the children checkout. In addition to checkout/checkin responsibilities, volunteers will shelve books and complete various library projects to make our library a better place.
If you are interested in volunteering, please contact me at: kschwartz@watertown.k12.ma.us

Kara Schwartz
Hosmer School Librarian

What an opportunity! Why do it?

The research overwhelmingly demonstrates that parent involvement in children's learning is positively related to achievement. Further, the research shows that the more intensively parents are involved in their children's learning, the more beneficial are the achievement effects. This holds true for all types of parent involvement in children's learning and for all types and ages of students.children perform better in school when parents get involved in their education, and volunteering is a great way to get involved.

Check out this site to read more.

Need more information? The Harvard Family Research Project from the Harvard Graduate School of Education shows the relationship of family involvement with child outcomes as seen in their figure below.
We would love to see you in the library...and your child will benefit from your involvement!

Clip art from Discovery Education

A New Way to Look at Time

WE WON! What a great ending to the baseball season...if you are a Red Sox fan. Do you feel like it was all a blur? Check back on the season as a whole through this animated time line that lets you see who is leading throughout the season.

It was designed to bring a historical season to life more than mere standings or graphs. With BaseballRace.com, you can experience an entire season "live." The data goes back to 1901, and includes every game of every season up through yesterday (10/29/2007).

Don't stop there. For a historical perspective, check out past seasons as well.

World Series Here We Come!

Just Happy...We're in!

"World Series week indicates that baseball is one of America's major disturbances." - Bugs Baer

Everyone in the Red Sox Nation is looking towards a week of late nights and emotional exhaustion. School function will definitely be affected. Remember October 2004?

What a great opportunity to bring the passion of baseball into the classroom. To read more about World Series history, check out this link.

Add a little geography by going to Google Earth to see the locations of past winners. Someone from the Google Earth community produced a collection of placemarks showing the winners of Major League Baseball's World Series from 1903 through 2005. By clicking on the team logo you can go directly to the stadium. This post from the Google Earth Blog will get you there.

Here's a math activity your students may enjoy. Click on World Series Winners under the worksheet collection. Most of all, enjoy the ride!

Transitions...Can You See It?

I look around at my environment to help me transition to the fall season. Frankly, it is not working. Just this week on a bike ride along the Charles River, I noticed a group of trees with spring blossoms. It is still mostly green around here in Massachusetts. Today was warm and humid requiring shorts and tank shirts. I like it but I am confused.

This reminds me of the importance of visual information. The visual information I am getting from my environment is not helping me make the transition from summer to autumn! Make sure the visuals we provide students are clear and meaningful. Karen Janowski's post on Less is More is worth reading and reflecting. The point that "Seeing is Understanding" is helpful not only to many of us, but essential to those individuals with autism. Let's look at situations and see if we can add visuals that will provide just the information our students need.

Sensory Summer - Looking Back

I started each day this summer with a barefoot run on the beach. What a sensory delight. The sand was freshly raked by tractors in the predawn hours each morning. I joined them as they were finishing their task, believing it was prepared just for me!

How do you start your day? What sensory activities do you have in place to make your day go smoothly? Now think of your children and students. What could they do to give their day a boost? Perhaps your child would benefit from a walk to school, a romp on the playground or a quiet moment listening to music. Sensory preferences vary just as our fingerprints do. There is no one sensory plan or sensory diet that works for everyone. We are all individuals with unique sensory preferences.

To read more about the variety of sensory preferences in everyday life, read Winnie Dunn's new book, Living Sensationally. It is hot off the press this month. I am waiting for mine to come in the mail. You can send for yours through Amazon. Click on the book image below.

End of Summer and Back to Blogging

It has taken me a while, but I finally have to say goodbye to summer. It makes me realize that transitions can be hard. I think of the students we work with and the challenges they face at the beginning of the school year. How has the transition been for you and your students?

Ice Cream in a Bag

The last day of school is here. Why not celebrate with this fun activity? The movement required to make it may offset the calories in the ice cream!

What You Need:

• 1 tablespoon Sugar
• 1/2 cup Milk or half & half
• 1/4 teaspoon Vanilla
• 6 tablespoons Rock salt
• 1 pint-size Ziploc plastic bag
• 1 gallon-size Ziploc plastic bag
• Ice cubes

How To Make It

1. Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
2. Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
3. Place the small bag inside the large one and seal again carefully.
4. Shake until mixture is ice cream, about 5 minutes.
5. Wipe off top of small bag, then open carefully and enjoy!

Thanks to Robyn Lee for her photos posted on flickr.

Know Thyself

How often do we evaluate students and never share the results with them?

"Kids need to know themselves, and they need to know what to work on to help themselves."

from A Mind at a Time, Dr. Mel Levine.

Read the All Kinds of Minds June newsletter on Demystification. Have conversations with students about their learning differences and their strengths.

Wiki Wondering and Collaboration

Blogs,Wikis, RSS, Message Boards...is your head spinning yet? There are so many new technology tools we could use if we just knew what they were! Karen Janowski from Teaching Every Student shared this video on her blog recently. It is called Wiki's in Plain English produced by The Common Craft Show, sense-making for the masses.

We have been doing more and more collaboration in the schools: writing progress notes together, teaming up to develop student goals and joining forces during evaluations. If you asked anyone, they would say email has been a good way to share and plan. That may be true in some cases, but watching this will make you rethink that notion. The video is under four minutes long, which is not even close to the time you will save when you start to use this technology tool with your colleagues.

Visual Tools

I watched the finals of the National Spelling Bee last night. After the seventh round, only one girl was left, Isabel A. Jacobson, a 14-year old from Madison, Wisconsin. She was wearing every bracelet she owned on one arm...25 and counting. They were described as her good luck charms, but I think they were more than that. As Isabel explained, "I don't know why it works. Maybe it's because looking at sparkling things keeps me calm."

Visual tools often help students focus and attend. We see this in the classroom as kids use a variety of items to keep alert by gazing at them. What appears to be a potential distraction may in fact be a very useful thing!

Work With Wings

The Hosmer student blog, Work With Wings, is a place where students can share their ideas, interests and creations. Take a look at what these kids find interesting as they give their work wings to share with the world.

Please add a comment about their work...they love to read them!

Photo by gadjoboy/scott from flickr

Mashing Letters

An entire zoo made from letter forms and punctuation marks? A must see! Check out this interactive picture book called Bembo's Zoo by Roberto De Vicq DeCumptich.

Creating Comics as Story Writing

Do you want to get you students excited about writing? Here is a great free resource mentioned by the tech chicks in their recent podcast. It is an online educational comic generator called makebeliefscomix.com.

First, you can choose the # of panels in your comic strip. The two panel option can represent a First-Then structure for younger students.




The three panel option can represent a beginning-middle-end structure. Older students can add more detail with the four panel option.





Next you choose the characters and their mood.








Finally, you write their words and thoughts. Each panel gives you a dialog prompt.

This is very easy to use. Click here, click there to drop characters into frames. Now you are ready to tell your story. There is even a list of story ideas to get started.

I love this because it is so flexible. It can be used to create a simple cause-effect story. At the same time, it can call on higher order thinking skills. The tech chicks suggested making a current event into a comic. This involves summarization, reframing, evaluation and making judgements.

Start now to tap into your students' creativity. To see a sample, check out the Hosmer student blog post, How to Appreciate Teachers.

How Can Grammar Be This Cool?

By now, I hope you have explored some free podcasts through the iTunes store. Perhaps you stumbled upon this one. Grammar Girls Quick and Dirty Tips are short, informative and entertaining grammar tidbits that we all have wondered about. She discusses a range of topics, from the apostrophe catastrophe to sentence fragments running amuck. The episodes are an average of 5 minutes in length. There may be one you want to play for your students...or maybe there is an issue you want clarified.

This resource will have a positive effect on your students' writing...or is it affect? I'm going to listen to the episode titled "Grammar Affects Me" and I'll get back to you!

Listen While You Walk

While walking the Walk for Hunger this past weekend, I had a chance to listen to some podcasts on my ipod. Have you ever heard the Tech Chicks, two educators from Texas who broadcast episodes about using technology in the schools? You can subscribe to it free at the iTunes store and listen from your computer or upload to your mp3 player. Check out their website at techchicktips. They list some great resources, tips and tricks (and are especially fond of "free").

(photo by Wallula Junction)