Keeping sensory seekers in their seat is not easy. We use a variety of solutions, from Move'n Sit cushions to wrapping Theraband around the desk legs. We schedule movement breaks and allow our students to stand to work. When touring colleges with my son and daughter over the past years, I noticed interesting chair options which provide movement and positional changes. I wondered why we don't have these in grades 1 - 12?
A couple of months age I discovered PicLens, a free extension to your browser (works with Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer). I am now treated to a continuous flow of the images as I roll my mouse to the right or left of the screen. I feel like I am sitting in a movie theater!
PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen, 3D experience for enjoying photos and videos across the web. With one click, PicLens makes online media come to life via an immersive presentation that goes beyond the confines of the traditional browser.Classroom and student applications:
Why mundanely click through online photo galleries or squint at thumbnails? Get PicLens now, and discover what online rich media was meant to be.
In the last post I tried a new application that gives you the option to hear the text. Some of us may not have needed it, some may have found it helpful while some may have found it essential.
This uplifting documentary explores one L.A. woman's pledge to lead a group of autistic children in defying diagnosed expectations by writing, rehearsing and performing their own full-length musical.Autism: The Musical has been making the rounds at film festivals this year. I missed it when it was playing in Newport, Rhode Island. Last week the full documentary was available to watch online for free and I had time to watch only half of it. This week it seems to be removed, so I am out of luck again! If you have HBO, you can watch it this month, however. The schedule of showings can be found on their site.
Here's a nice tool made by Kim, here at Hosmer, to help a student with significant difficulty with motor control learn to draw shapes. She used a piece of foam board and an Xacto knife to cut out the lines. She taped heavy (duct) tape over the lines of the shape on the back to reinforce it. The grooves are large enough for the student to use either a marker or his finger to trace the shape. This technique can be used to make letters, numbers, names or any simple pattern. Thanks Kim.
Doodling in class doesn't always have to be bad. At times, it can enable a student to listen to classroom instruction. I know because drawing engages my attention when I am stuck talking on the phone longer than I like! After finishing a conversation, I usually am amazed how much I covered a page in scribbles and designs without being fully aware of what I was drawing.
They learn how to create pictures that tell a story and write words that paint pictures.Students start by painting a picture with watercolor and crayon resist. Then they brainstorm to create rich vocabulary to use with their pictures, in essence learning to "read their pictures". The writing process involves visual, kinesthetic and verbal modes which makes the students' work come alive.
Try this simple and easy online multi user whiteboard. After signing up for the free account, give out your URL & start working together. Sketch, text, share files, upload pictures all in one common shared space. There are no new tools to learn, nothing to download, nothing to install. Brainstorm ideas together. Everyone sees the same screen, everybody gets on the same page. More about skrbl here. 
Did you miss it too? January 24 was Global Belly Laughing Day. I am putting this on my calendar for next year.
Things I am reflecting on after attending the Educon2.0 conference in Philly several weeks ago:
"Abigail has come up to my desk five times in the past three days asking when we would be learning G," teacher Ellen Honig said. "I told her we'd probably get to it sometime next week, but that I couldn't make any promises."The young girl's anxiety caused by the letter g is only increased when her teacher adds:
"We should get to g very soon, but you never know," Honig said. "We could have a fire drill, or the multiplication-filmstrip series I ordered might finally come in."
This promises to be a great conference...instead of workshops, there are "conversations".EduCon 2.0 is both a conversation and a conference.
And it is not a technology conference. It is an education conference. It is a School 2.0 conference. It is, hopefully, an innovation conference where we want to come together, both in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session will be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas -- from the very practical to the big dreams.
We must all, in order to make reality more tolerable, keep alive in us a few little follies.
-Marcel Proust
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: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.
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.
"Work is nature's physician, it is essential to human health and happiness." - GalenMel 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.
Carve out some time for chores in your child's life.
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.
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.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!
There are 50 levels in all, but it is rare for people to get above level 48.
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?
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!
