Posted by Lauren Grossberg on Wed, Aug 04, 2010
You know it is back to school time when you see school supplies in the stores, back to school sales for uniforms and supplies in the newspaper, and many articles popping up online, in newspapers, and magazines including teacher and parent resource materials and information for back to school. Below is a compilation of the best articles I have read recently about back to school including back to school eye exams, technology needs for students of the 21st century, and back to school apps for the iPhone and iPad.
The Sun Sentinel’s Back to School Guide
In Sunday’s Sun Sentinel Newspaper there was a back to school guide. There were many great articles for parents and teachers about homework help sites, easy experiments to get kids interested in science, how art stimulates academic and creative growth, how vision problems can affect learning, and about strategies for maintain streaming autistic children. Many of these articles, among other great resources for education, can be found online on the Sun Sentinel’s Back to School Page.
The two articles that caught my in this special guide were about vision screenings and strategies for parents and teachers with mainstreamed autistic children. The article about the vision screening urged parents to take their children to an optometrist or ophthalmologist for a vision screening before school starts. Many schools still provide free vision screening for students, but the vision screenings are not comprehensive and typically only check for basic 20/20 vision. Poor vision can lead to inability to read the whiteboard, classroom textbooks, and may even lead to behavior problems.
The article about how schools are starting to mainstream autistic children due to budget cuts gives teachers and parents a checklist of strategies to make learning, socializing, and transitions attainable to these students. Some of the strategies include following a schedule, have a quiet area for the child can refocus, enforce rules, repeat instructions, use clear language, keep your classroom organized, and provide instruction using a variety of methods of instruction.
Back to School Tech
Back to School Tech is becoming ever more popular. Many schools and teachers now required higher-tech devices than they even have in the past. Many back to school supply lists now include high-tech calculators with graphing capabilities, USB drives, home printers, or even laptops, and eBook readers. An article I read last week on InfoTech supports this trend for high-tech school supplies. Schools are issuing laptops for deeper learning, installing state-of-the-art interactive whiteboards for collaborating, along with podcasts, and teacher websites. The top ten back to school tech items from Tech Xav, a popular online tech magazine, includes many items that have been posted about on the MangoMon Blog previously: the iPad, laser mice, Dragon Naturally Speaking, and Office 2010.
Back to School Apps
Many of my favorite online resources posting their top ten lists of back to school apps for both the iPhone and iPad. The list provided by Gizmodo includes math conversion apps, calendars & planners, calculators, the periodic table, and an eBook reader. PC World’s list includes dictionaries, Google Apps, a flashcard creator, along with a document sharing app. Cnet TV has a short video including their list of apps including very similar apps to the other lists.
Check back over the coming weeks for more back to school related articles and resources. Also, Florida residents – don’t forget the Back to School Sales Tax Holiday August 13-15th!
-Article By Laura Ketchum
-Picture By Heather Elias
Free Teacher Resources | Special Education by MangoMon
Posted by Amanda Kenuam on Wed, May 05, 2010
The iPod Touch®, iPhone®, and iPad®, are a great innovative technology tools for educators and students to use in the classroom. These devices all have access to the App Store, which now contains a wide array of easy to use, fun and functional applications for education. Access to the App Store is readily available through iTunes or over wireless and 3G connections on the various ‘i-devices'. Since the release of the iPad, there has been an increase in creation of educational apps. While not all students may have access to Apple's portable devices, it may be time to put in wish-list requests to administration for tools like these to be included in the budget for your classroom next year.
Where to find Apps for Special Education
Scribd is a social publishing and reading site. On this site I found a Scribd page devoted to
special education apps. The interactive list contains 24 mini-pages of useful apps for special education students including descriptions and links for download. The apps are organized by topics and include communication, organization, reading, writing, math, music, art, accessibility, and games. Most of the Apps that are in the list are free or low cost, typically not costing more than $5.00 per App. When you select on an App, the link will take you into iTunes where there is a full description and screen shots of the App along with user feedback is available. The App can then be purchased and downloaded the portable Apple device you own.
Beth Kintle is a K-12 Technology Integration Specialist who maintains a blog about various educational happenings. One of her posts from March included a new open-access Google Docs document for individuals to add information about iPod apps that they have used in their classrooms. The list contains the title of the App, a link, description, subject, level, comments, and user feedback. Users with a Google account can add their favorite Apps to the lists. This is a great way for the special education community to join together in building the best apps that will help special needs students.
One app that I really liked was the My Homework App. Using this app on an ‘i-device' allows the student to create a list of their classes and add specific details about projects and assignments. They can be viewed by all classes for individual days, for a week, or a month-at-a-glance. Text can easily be added, deleted, and modified into the program. There is also a feature to then send their updates to their email account.
One last location to find Apps for special education is to directly search using iTunes either on a laptop or your ‘i-device'. If you go to the iTunes store and search ‘special education' and then select App store from the left-hand menu, you will get a comprehensive list of Apps currently denoted as being specifically developed for special education. When you select on the App you can learn more about the App through a description, screen shots, and user feedback.
Upon my searching I found many flash card systems that teach functional skills that can be integrated with the iPhone. Since the device is portable, it can lead to students living more independent lives. Another cool set of Apps I found was the Jammit games where students can learn to play drums and guitar and then make a mix based on actual artists' recordings. Fun and learning all wrapped into one!
I can really see this type of technology being the future of education for special needs students!
Article by Laura Ketcham
Photo from myHomework
Free Teacher Resources | Special Education by MangoMon
Posted by Lauren Grossberg on Wed, Apr 21, 2010
Because April is Autism Awareness Month, Kindergarten.com has released a set of 24 apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad for free for the Month of April! Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) Flashcards are available to download for free from the iTunes store! These apps are great for students with special needs because they include audio reinforcement, musical rewards, and will shuffle the decks for you. The apps also include games with themes like which object does not belong, which words rhyme, as well as traditional flashcards.
An example of one of the apps is the "Which Go Together" app. This app focuses on problem solving, which is an important skill to learn early in a child's life. Here, students can be introduced to associations that will help them develop visual discrimination skills and understanding of various objects.
There are 120 colorful images that are of high interest for visual and auditory learners. The student will be asked which one of the four objects shown does not belong in a specific combination. With clear audio and verbal praise to reinforce correct answers, students will have fun and learn at the same time. There is even pleasant classical music that plays throughout the app to keep children focused on the task at hand. The sounds can even be turned on or off to cater to a specific child's needs.
To download all these wonderful free apps, open iTunes, click on the iTunes store, search for Kindergarten.com and you will be able to see all the available apps!
Free Teacher Resources | Special Education by MangoMon