Posted by Denis Soukhanov on Fri, Sep 10, 2010
Now that Labor Day has come and gone, almost all of the schools around the country are open for learning! Enjoy these technology sites and ideas for incorporation into all levels of classrooms this fall.
Blabberize
Blabberize is a free web 2.0 tool where students, or the teacher, can upload a person or animal photo, add audio, and animate the mouth so that the person or animal is speaking the audio you uploaded. Implementing a project using this site would be a great activity for students to complete when learning about the history of famous individuals, or when learning facts about animals. Teachers can also search for already created blabberized photographs to share in class as a fun activity or opening activity for a chapter or lesson.
Thinkfinity
Thinkfinity is a website that provides a wide variety of free online resources that are frequently updated by various organizations including Verizon Foundation. They have lesson plans for grades K-12 for many different subject areas including the core subjects along with economics, literature, geography, and art. They also have an interactive games and tools section where students can go on the computer and develop creative projects including interactive dictionaries, post cards, maps, and graphs. These activities provide great guidelines on how to implement them into your classroom along with the information for appropriate grade levels. Another great feature on this site is the “Today in History” section. This would be great to start off a history lesson in class every day with the fact and a critical question relating to the fact of the day. Teachers of all subjects, grade levels, and ability levels should definitely check this site out.
Exploreatree
Exploreatree is another free web 2.0 resource. On this site, students can create, save, and print, a wide selection of graphic organizers. This site has very simple and very complex graphic organizers appropriate for many different classes and levels including math, science, and language arts for all grade levels. Students, or teachers, can even start with a blank template and create their own graphic organizer for a specific lesson. After creating a graphic organizer, you can even upload it to their database of graphic organizers and share it with other users.
PSB Kids Design Squad - Designit Buildit Fidgit
Design Squad is a science, math, technology, and engineering television show where teens compete in making machines to try to win a college scholarship on PBS Kids. They have a companion website for the television show. Designit Buildit Fidgit is an online logic game that student can play on a computer during technology centers or as an activity for when they complete assignments early. The goal of the game is for the students to solve various puzzles including shapes that can be rotated for flipped to save the ‘fidgits’ by getting them back into their box. Students can play levels that other students have created and once familiar with the game, they can actually create their own level to challenge other students. There are also several other games related to the Design Squad show that can also be accessed via the Fidgit site.
These are great free online resources for creative projects and lessons in your classroom for the beginning of the school year. If you have any ideas of other great free sites, please feel free to leave a comment!
- Article By Laura Ketcham
- Picture By San Jose Library
Free Teacher Resources | Special Education by MangoMon by MangoMon
Posted by Lauren Grossberg on Thu, Jul 08, 2010
For many students with special needs, traditional classroom settings are not always the best option for the ideal learning experience, especially as some of these children need time and room to move about if they get restless.
The Southern Oregon Education Service District will be opening a program, STEPS Plus, at the old South Medford High School for about 20 K-12 students with severe special needs.
Based on the STEPS program, serving students 5-21 with severe or multiple disabilities, the "Plus" program will provide more intense assistance. Because these students need more one-on-one support and different environments, they will be more ready and willing to learn because the environment will be set up exactly for their needs.
Along with the Medford district, the Education Service District will renovate 6,500 square feet of the former South Medford High School and customize it to meet the needs of students with high sensory needs and other behavioral and cognitive disabilities.
With an office and three classrooms full of special equipment and mirrors for observation, the students will have room to flourish. One room, the sensory-motor room will have both a trampoline and sleeping bags for students, depending on their needs in terms of space and area.
Two groups of 10 children will attend the program for 3 hours a day and will also visit with a special education teacher and aide, speech pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, autism specialists and a psychologist one day a week.
For parents who have struggled to find a place specifically for their child, STEPS Plus is certainly a step in the right direction.
Free Teacher Resources | Special Education by MangoMon
Posted by Lauren Grossberg on Fri, Apr 09, 2010
Being a part of a team is something most children look forward to during their childhood years. Disabilities should not limit the chances a child has to participate on a team. Gerry Herman and his wife, Gwena, have been working as co-directors for the Kennedy Krieger Institute's Physically Challenged Sports and Recreation Program. They have helped build some great athletes, including a wheelchair basketball team.
Gerry and Gwena started with just four children and have now built a program with about 100 participants that include sports like wheelchair basketball, football, sitting volleyball and a recreational ice skating program with Olympic champion Dorothy Hamill.
The participants have become national champions at the National Junior Disability Championships for the past 10 years. By teaching with the idea that kids can do anything, the Hermans may be helping eliminate an uncertainty in the minds of students about what they can and cannot do.
The program uses sports to challenge the students to be active, independent and goal-oriented. With special chairs and wheels, handicapped children can easily move about to perform the drills that simulate real moves from a game of basketball.
The program has attracted students from all over the country. There are even popular alumni like Tatyana McFadden, who is a Paralympian. She went on to become a world-class athlete who won silver and bronze medals in the Paralympic Games in Athens in 2004.
Programs like this are great because it shows such a range in the possibilities that students can achieve. They also allow the students to do more things for themselves and grow just like any other child does.
Photo By WhyOhGee
Free Teacher Resources | Special Education by MangoMon