Using the iPad in Special Education | School Stories At the Manhattan Children’s Center on the Upper West Side, Christopher, 9, sits at a desk in front of his teacher and an iPad. Diagnosed with autism, Christopher has difficulty communicating. He makes high-pitched sounds, almost like crying, to get his feelings across to his teacher. “What am I doing?” Christopher maneuvered his index finger over the iPad screen, swiping from page to page. “Clapping,” said a male mechanical voice from the iPad. “Good job, buddy!” Christopher quickly moved from screen to screen. “Crying,” said the robotic monotone. The autism spectrum includes a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders, characterized by social impairments, communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes. The use of technology to teach children on the spectrum or those with communication disabilities is not a new concept.
Lockdown Librarian: Ways to Connect to Your Patrons Now that most of the world is in some sort of lockdown, librarians are finding new and inventive ways to reach out to their patrons. As a school librarian in London, UK, I’ve been keeping busy reaching out to the students that I serve. It’s a bizarre situation that we’re all in but we are all in it together. For the first two weeks of this mess I couldn’t read one page, my mind couldn’t focus. So here are a few ways I’ve been reaching out to my students, I hope you find these useful and can adopt them to your library or school! #OneMinuteBookReviews Over on Instagram I’ve been running daily (Monday–Friday) one minute book reviews. Email This is an easy one, I’ve been ensuring that my emails are being checked for parents or students who want to keep in contact. Category ID: 45597 Category ID: 2822 Check Your Shelf Newsletter Sign up to receive Check Your Shelf, the Librarian's One-Stop Shop For News, Book Lists, And More. Thank you for signing up! By signing up you agree to our terms of use
Top 10 Mistakes When Using Technology When you use technology with your class, do you think that you are you using it correctly? Or are you unknowingly making mistakes that you should avoid? Now is the time to learn what they are so you can avoid making these mistakes in the future. This information was shared during one of Jerry Swiatek's Teacher Learning Community's Webinars. Full-Access members, sign in to the Community and then click here to watch the on-demand recording to hear Jerry's tips on how to avoid making these mistakes in the future. Top 10 Mistakes Educators Make When Using Technology: 10.) 9.) 8.) 7.) 6.) 5.) 4.) 3.) 2.) 1.) Have you made any of these mistakes?
Flipgrid: A Modern Tech Tool to Practice the Age Old Art of Speaking – Canadian School Libraries Journal By Sarah Murray Traditional models to access learning usually require the teacher to rush from group to group to assess learning. This can be chaotic with the cacophony of students talking within their groups, managing those who are off task and engaging those who are actively disengaged. Paolo Friere, a Brazilian educator and philosopher, and author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, stated “If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed”. Flipgrid is a tool that not only destabilizes the traditional structure of the classroom with the teacher as the predominant voice, but furthermore allows for the collection of authentic voices that can be responded to over time. Flipgrid is a user-friendly video app that allows teachers to create topic “grids” to which students respond by video recording themselves. The app allows teachers to assess a Flipgrid as a “speaking” product, as an observation of learning and as a conversation between learners. Versatility. Authenticity?
How To Use Flipgrid for Book Clubs How do students in your classroom share their responses to reading? How can you participate in a book club with educators nearby or far away? I’m so excited about the way educators are leveraging the power of digital tools to connect readers of all ages. Whether you are organizing a book club for a classroom of first, sixth or eleventh graders, or setting up a book club for fellow educators, you can use Flipgrid for book clubs – it’s a favorite tool for reading responses and discussion! Last week I received an email from a fellow Apple Distinguished Educator, Dr. Terri Cullen. There are lots of ways to use digital tools with readers, and I’ve shared some of my favorite strategies in the past like creating book trailers with Adobe Spark and using backchannels with Today’s Meet. Looking for more reading favorites? How To Use FlipGrid You can decide how long students have to respond. One special feature of Flipgrid is the ability to respond to the contributions of others.
Joining a meeting by phone Overview You can join a Zoom meeting via teleconferencing/audio conferencing (using a traditional phone). This is useful when: you do not have a microphone or speaker on your PC/Mac,you do not have a smartphone (iOS or Android) while on the road, oryou cannot connect to a network for video and VoIP (computer audio) Zoom has toll numbers available for many countries that are included with all plans. For audio plan subscribers, Zoom also has toll-free and additional toll numbers available. View list of Zoom International Dial-in Numbers. If you have a Zoom Phone license, you can dial in to a meeting using Zoom Phone without incurring usage charges. This article covers: Follow the below sections if you want to join a meeting using the desktop client for video and screen sharing, but want to join meeting audio using your phone. Joining a meeting by phone After joining a Zoom meeting, you will be prompted to join the audio automatically. Click Phone Call and follow the prompt to dial in.
Abby the Librarian Teaching Multilingual Learners Online | WIDA WIDA as an organization does not advocate for or endorse any of these technologies for instruction. Schools, districts and states are responsible for making choices about appropriate and applicable technologies and products. Since many schools are moving to online instruction, WIDA reached out to educators in the WIDA International School Consortium to identify some of the unique opportunities and challenges for multilingual learners in online environments. Some international educators have been teaching online for more than a month, and we have framed these insights around the 2019 WIDA Guiding Principles of Language Development. Many thanks to Esther Bettney and Tan Huynh for their contributions. Multilingual learners’ languages and cultures are valuable resources to be leveraged for schooling and classroom life; leveraging these assets and challenging biases help develop multilingual learners’ independence and encourage their agency in learning.