Thursday, December 18, 2008

Until Further Notice...

Several years ago I decided I wanted to learn web design so I bought a book and spent about a month trying to figure it out. The result was okay and I've gotten a lot better at it since. Part of that experience was learning how to do my own blog. And so while it seems that everyone uses blogger, I'm mighty proud of the one I set up myself (using Wordpress). In fact, the only reason I have this blog is because it was a requirement for one of my courses for my graduate program (hence all the tech/school/teaching stuff). So until further notice you really won't find me here, you'll find me back at my original blog which can be found here:
http://www.something-insightful.com

See you there :-)

Thursday, June 12, 2008

More About the Previous Post

Continuing with the thought from the previous post, a video clip like this is short enough to keep student's attention and energetic enough to get them interested in learning. Visual images are vital to educating students with learning disabilities.

Aside from these reasons, I was anxious to try Animoto after hearing about it and seeing the examples of other classmates. I am not allowed to post images of my students on the Internet so I figured I would use my own pictures. I like how this short video turned out and I would definitely use the program again to make introductory videos for my students. I would also not hesitate to make a music video of images of them to be used in the school only. I am really pleased with the ease of using this program and I hope to find more ways I can incorporate its use into my lessons.

Where Do You Want To Go Today?

Fitting with my last suggestion in the previous post, I hope this short video will help make learning more enjoyable. I compiled images from various trips I've taken to take students on a virtual tour of the United States. I think this would be a great introduction to a social studies class.

Turning Words into Actions

With the last several posts I’ve talked about advocacy, accommodations and the issue of fairness. I feel like it’s time now for me to actually talk about the ways in which I have put these ideas into practice in my own classroom. Whether you are a special education teacher or a general education teacher, these concepts can be explored and implemented without much interruption from the daily routine and it’s well worth the benefit to the student.
Tips for accommodating students with special learning needs:
· Provide Visual and Auditory examples at all times. Rather than expect students to copy notes off the board, provide them with a copy so their full attention can be on you while you are teaching. Help students identify what is important by using colors, stars, circles, underlines, etc.
· Unless the test is in reading, read tests to students. You cannot know what a student really knows if they are being held back by a reading disability. Also, accept oral answers and refrain from using bubble sheets which can be very difficult for students with fine motor skills problems.
· Allow students to dictate work to the teacher or another student who can write it for them. So many students with difficulty writing and forming letters have wonderful, creative ideas but are not able to express themselves appropriately.
· Allow children with math disabilities to use calculators. This is so important! A student can struggle for years with basic concepts and be held back from making real progress. There are calculators these days that can do just about anything from basic addition and subtraction to order of operations and reducing fractions. Why not use this technology that is available?
· Accept work according to the individual ability of each student. Do not compare students to one another, especially from a “normal” child to a child with disabilities. Look for students to improve their individual skills and grade based on that.
· Treat each child as an individual.
· If one way doesn’t work, find another way to teach.
· Break concepts down into the smallest of pieces. Slow down the process. If it slows down the whole class to do this for one student, take the student aside and help him or her separately.
· Finally, (not really finally, there are so many other ways to help) work to make things fun. This will benefit all students, not just students with special learning needs.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Fairness

In the field of advocates for students with learning disabilities, there are few more powerful speakers than a man named Rick Lavoie. I have not had the opportunity to hear him speak personally however, I have watched some of his videos and listened to my coworkers discuss his methods. (My coworkers got to see him at a seminar but I was still in college at the time and not yet working at my school.) One of the main themes by which we operate at my school is the one Mr. Lavoie discusses in the following video clip
It is the theme of fairness—“fairness is not getting the same as everyone else, it’s getting what you need.” We operate with this principle in mind at all times, hoping to give kids the best we possibly can. The students understand this concept as well because it is explained to them early on. Perhaps Cathy needs her test read to her while the other students can read it on their own. Or, Jim dictates his paper to the teacher while she types it for him because he is unable to use his hands in the same way as the other students. So many people consider this to be “cheating” or an “unfair advantage” but would it not be a tragic disadvantage not to provide it? How would you really know how much Cathy knows about science if she can’t read the test? How will you evaluate Jim’s writing skills if he forms brilliant thoughts but is unable to form the letters on the paper? How do you really know how well any child can do unless you give them every possible advantage for success?
Kids who understand this are usually much more comfortable in the classroom because they know if the time should come where they need additional support they will receive it, too.
Mr. Lavoie describes a setting where a teacher in a regular education classroom does not give the special needs student the extra assistance because “it wouldn’t be fair to everyone else”. With this idea in mind, I must go back to my prior post from June 9, 2008 about Inclusion because it is this mentality that keeps students with learning disabilities from getting the most from their educational experience. It is this mentality that makes me question why any parent would prefer to have their child struggle through a regular education classroom as opposed to an environment where special needs are met according to the individual rather than what is “fair” for the whole class. And to be completely fair myself, I fully acknowledge that there are exceptional teachers out there who do assist their special needs students in every way possible. But I do not come across these teachers nearly as frequently as I do the other sort. I encourage you to watch this video. If you are a regular education teacher yourself, ask yourself if this theme is one you’ve found yourself saying before and then ask yourself why. Whether you believe in Inclusion or not, it makes no difference. To be truly “Inclusive” we have to reinvent our idea of fairness.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Inclusion?

Today I want to talk about Inclusion because it’s a relatively controversial issue, at least at my school, and I would like feedback. I discovered an excellent blog and in exploring the postings, I came across one about Inclusion from about a year and a half ago. It can be found here Segregation or Inclusion Supports.
I’ll just do a brief summary since I realize that not all my readers may be teachers. Inclusion is the practice of taking children with disabilities of all degrees and placing them in the general education classroom. The advantages of this are that students with disabilities witness socially appropriate models of behavior and have an opportunity to take part in activities with their same age peers. It is also believed that normally achieving students benefit from getting to know and learning with a child with disabilities. The disadvantages are not commonly discussed because it is the practice of most districts to allow full inclusion and, at least when I was going through college, it was the practice of the University to teach Inclusion to the future teachers.
It’s not that I have a huge problem with Inclusion and I do recognize the potential for benefit however, I have a big problem with the blog posting liked above which calls anything but Inclusion, “segregation”. The word segregation carries with it extremely negative connotation and immediately turns people off to the idea allowing children with disabilities to be educated with others who are like them. My school is one such school that takes only students with special learning needs. Nearly all of the students who attend have been in a public school Inclusion setting prior to attending. The stories they tell make me feel like Inclusion in practice isn’t the glowing, happy, let’s-all-be-friends concept that some would have you think it is. The disadvantages with Inclusion that I see come from first hand experience. One student in the past had a public school regular education teacher explain to his whole class that SLD meant “slow learning dummy” (and was serious). I have had other students who were flat out ignored by teachers in regular education classrooms; students who were bullied and called “stupid” and “retarded” more times than anyone’s self-esteem could handle and students who were given passing grades so they could be pushed through the system despite major learning disabilities. Students who come to my school from a public school are typically depressed, have low self-esteem, and are underachieving academically (as reported by parents). So is Inclusion really the best way to go or is it just something we do to make it seem like everyone is being treated fairly? Do we sacrifice the true needs of our students just to keep from using the dreaded word “segregation?” or can we possibly call specialized learning environments a less harsh, negative word? Let’s at least be open to the ideas put forth and examine the potential positives for students rather than let negative words sway us in a direction which just may not be the best way to go.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Advocacy for LD students


I’ve been thinking about advocacy for students with learning disabilities and have been searching for programs, websites, blogs, etc that address this particular issue. I came across a great site called The Advocacy and Learning Center (TALC)
This site really covers a wide range of issues and I particularly like the section for teachers. In the teacher section which is near the bottom of the navigation pane, you can find articles, essays and other resources. I read one essay that really made me think. It was called “Stop Yelling, It Doesn’t Help”
I think this past school year is the first year of my teaching career where I did actually yell at my students. In the past it was unnecessary but the group I had this year was very difficult to control. All teachers agreed they were a very tough group. So I was not alone in that I resorted to yelling occasionally. The article reminded me of the reasons why this was pointless and only led to more problems but it also got me thinking in a different direction. I have never taught children without disabilities. I am not often around “normal” children and I think it’s easy to forget sometimes that these kids are different and typical strategies don’t always work with them. I wonder if this is part of the reason why schools and even parents struggle and why there is such a need for student advocacy. Particularly for students with LD, the problem is often masked by ordinary looking, speaking, and acting children. There is no major sign to indicate there is any sort of problem. So people look at a perfectly normal looking, speaking and acting child, ask them to read something and then get angry or frustrated when they can’t do it. I believe this is much the same way I got frustrated with my students enough to raise my voice in an attempt to control them—there were times when I almost forgot they needed extra patience and time from me.
I suppose the purpose of this posting is really to remind myself and others that students with LD need the help of their teachers and parents and they need the acceptance of school administrators not for looking ordinary but for learning differently. Don’t judge a book by its cover and remember that some problems that are well hidden still need to be addressed.
The image above is by Jana Christy and was found on www.flickr.com

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Another Shift of Focus

I'm dusting off the old blog here to use for a different course. For the next few weeks I will attempt to share some of the resources I have gathered as a special education teacher over the last 4 years with the hope of gaining feedback from others. There are millions of blogs out there but not enough that focus on curriculum for students with learning disabilities so hopefully I can make my own small contribution.

Recently I discovered a blog written by a special education teacher which can be found here:
Special Education Teacher in Washington DC
This blog was really the inspiration for my current blogging project. I believe this is a terrific resource for educators. It made me think about advocacy and how important it is to be an advocate for children in general but particularly for those with learning disabilities. There is too much misinformation about children with learning disabilities and special education. I figure a great way to start changing the mindset of others is to quote one of my students who struggles with dyslexia. In her self-assured manner, she simply explained to a visitor one day, "We're just like everyone else, but we learn differently." What is amusing is how complex learning disabilities are but how simply they can be explained.

That student is an example of a child who is a self advocate. In addition to explaining how she learns, she is also able to explain her disability to others, why she struggles, what she does to compensate and how others can help her. Shouldn't educators begin advocacy by teaching students to become advocates for themselves? Why do we hide from them, their disabilities. Why do we explain it away, chalk it up to nothing, pretend it doesn't exist. Do we fear they will be so overcome with pain they will not be able to go on? Don't we know that students with disabilities already know there is something different about how they learn and understand things?

These are the things I think of when I view the aforementioned blog. Here, in this blog, I hope to share some of the things I've done in my classroom to help students who "learn differently" and I contribute these ideas with the mindset that I do my job because I want to help my students advance in this world and say, "You know what? I have a learning disability but I can do anything I want to in spite of it."

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Last Stop: Social Skills

I wish I had more time to spend on this topic but I wanted to make sure I covered the main three subjects thoroughly. While many students struggle with one of the three: Reading, Writing or Math, it’s important to note that students with disabilities often struggle with social skills as well. At my school we believe in educating the “whole child” to the point where it’s even part of our mission statement. So to me that means that even if we can get a child to read, write, and perform math skills on grade level and send them off happily to high school and hopefully college then we haven’t fully done our jobs if they are still unable to function socially. In general, I think it’s helpful for our students to simply be around each other. Some people may fear that our students pick up the worst habits of their peers but really, the opposite is true. They often pick up the best skills their peers have to offer. I think this is in part due to the fact that they see each other as being alike. It’s tough to try to emulate someone who seems so unlike you but when you see someone struggle the same way you do but also find success, it makes you want to try harder yourself.
To some extent I believe most children struggle at one time or another with social skills, especially in the awkward preteen and teenage years. But that’s not really the type of social skills disability I’m talking about here. Students in the autism spectrum or those with non-verbal learning disabilities often have a tough time making friends and in particular, reading social cues. The device discussed in this blog http://specialedlaw.blogs.com/home/2006/04/httpwwwnewscien.html offers a unique approach to the problem. It doesn’t take away the need for regular training and therapy however it does provide students with more instantaneous feedback. The device is a small camera that can attach to a pair of glasses. It is attached to a small computer and when the user is interacting with others, the camera reads the expressions, voice tones and body language of the listener and vibrates to let the user know the person with whom they are speaking is showing signs of boredom or irritation. This helps the user know it is time to change the conversation. Without such feedback, students with social skill deficiencies often are clueless about the problems. They are unable to read the cues. I’ve seen firsthand how children will internalize this, reaching damaging, unhealthy conclusions like, “she didn’t want to talk to me because I’m ugly” or “he won’t be my friend because he thinks I’m stupid” when really the problem is that the student doesn’t know how to have a proper conversation or when to stop one that is headed in the wrong direction. Just the fact that I was able to find a tool to help kids with social skills problems is promising. I know in the long run a person doesn’t have to be popular or a social butterfly to get by in life but having friends can work wonders for a child who struggles in so many other ways as well. Hopefully, we can utilize technology in the future to further assist children (and adults) in need of help with social skills.
Well there you have it. Six weeks of blog postings. I hope you learned as much as I did! Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Tools of the Trade

Well if you didn’t like the concept of having students listen to their stories and lessons on tape the you’re really not going to like this idea (I’m talking about any other readers, I know my group mates are open minded!) I think students with math disabilities absolutely must master the use of a calculator with as many helpful functions as possible. Disagree with me? That’s okay, one of my coworkers tends to disagree with me there as well. But hear me out: Math isn’t like reading. Students CAN compensate for math disabilities far more easily than they can a reading disability. If a student can complete a problem using a calculator but struggle with out one then for goodness sake, let them use the calculator. How many adults do you know (teachers excluded) that do long division with paper and pencil? If you find one let me know so I can ask them why they don’t have better things to do. Calculators are simple, relatively inexpensive pieces of technology that were made to be used and in the field of assistive technology, there are calculators and then there are CALCULATORS. Some of these do just about everything you can think of. This website run by the University of Texas http://www.edb.utexas.edu/ATLab/Labinventory/Classroom/classroom-ld-math.php offers some interesting products including software but what intrigued me the most were the calculators. All the way at the bottom of the page is a calculator that looks essentially normal except that it speaks to help those students with visual impairments. Then, towards the top of the page is something called Big Calc which can be programmed to meet the needs of the individual student plus it is appealing to young children because it is colorful and friendly looking. Finally there are the two that I like the most. One is called the Coin-u-lator (which I’ve seen at teacher stores) and then the Money Calc which I’ve never seen before. Both incorporate coins and bills to help students add and subtract money. The Money Calc also does regular calculator functions. I’ve seen students who are terrific readers and reasonably decent math students look at a pile of coins with a look of such confusion you have to stop and double check to make sure you remembered to use American currency. So they may not like carrying around the big yellow Coin-u-lator but at least it would get the job done. I worry about kids who have issues counting money the most because I feel like they are targets for dishonest cashiers. I’d rather see them carrying around this calculator than be swindled. The last calculator I want to mention isn’t found on this site. It’s something the middle school math teacher at my school discovered and for the sake of continuity I want to list it here. This calculator—http://www.amazon.com/Casio-Fraction-Calculator/dp/B00154GSM4/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1208217469&sr=8-24 does just about everything a student would need to carry them through 8th grade math at the least and probably further. It does order of operations and most importantly it does fractions which I’ve seen stump student after student and tie them up for months as they try to battle through the fraction chapter. Many students at my school are already using this device which is far cheaper and far less intimidating than a graphing calculator. You can find calculators out there that do just about everything and websites that help with the rest. For example, this website helps with converting fractions to decimals http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fractions/FractionsCalc.html . The possibilities are endless. All a student with math disabilities needs is a teacher who will help them use these tools with confidence and not try to convince them that they are somehow cheating the system but using a calculator.

Monday, April 14, 2008

TouchMath

Here I am starting my last week of blogging. I could try to come up with some really fancy way of saying this but it’s easier to sum it up with one simple word—valuable. I would never have found the information I’ve come to find nor developed such a sense of the field of technology for students with LD had I not been forced to thoroughly search and research the web for ideas, opinions and programs. I can’t promise I’ll keep up the blogging but I can say for certain that I will use what I’ve found. My professor suggested that we become “experts” in our field. Well I’m sure not an expert of the field but I know I am the expert on my school’s staff. That leads me back to my original word—valuable.
So I wanted to continue the focus on Math since I really only covered it in two postings last week. I came across a blog this evening that was written by a mom whose son struggled with math. The original posting can be found here http://adhdguide.blogspot.com/2007/03/touchmathhelp-for-children-with.html. The mother’s story led me to a site that features the concept of TouchMath found here http://www.touchmath.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=about.welcome&gPage=23. I’ve seen a couple of kids use this technique before to some success but it has never been one of the primary techniques used at my school. I thought I’d look into it a little more to see if perhaps it should be.
TouchMath is an extremely simple concept that uses zero electronic technology. This is probably the biggest plus because it means I can implement it instantly and not wait to purchase a program. It also got me thinking that I shouldn’t put all my eggs in the technology basket because sometimes things can be done the same or better without the fancy computer or electronic device. TouchMath is based on the concept that all numbers 1-9 have TouchPoints. If you’ve ever seen a student tapping the paper on the ends of the number, he or she was probably using this technique. I think counting fingers works just as well but kids get embarrassed sometimes when they have to count fingers so this would encourage them to use a tool that can be implemented discretely. It’s really as simple as that. I’m feeling silly for not teaching this to all my students already but it just goes to show that you miss out on simple things sometimes when you go with the same techniques and traditions that the other teachers have always followed. Here’s just one more simple technique that can be used to help students with math disabilities.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

The Media Equation

You were expecting math? Well this week’s blog includes a special segment on the media equation (part of the assignment). It’s helpful to any readers who are not group members to briefly explain the media equation. In chapter one of the book conveniently titled The Media Equation, authors Reeves and Nass explain a concept that leaves many with the initial response, “but certainly not me!” Can you tell the difference between human and machine? Well you may think so but the research demonstrates that humans are inherently social beings and therefore have a tendency to apply human social interactions to objects that are, well, not alive. Still skeptical? Well have you ever coddled your computer when it was running a little slowly or begged your car to make it just a little further to the gas station? Perhaps because more than you may realize, media equals real life. Our brains have been trained for so long to believe that what seems real is real that it’s now difficult to differentiate between the two and we don’t even realize we are doing it. Now that I have your attention, I suggest reading the entire first chapter (it’s not that long) for all the excellent examples provided by Reeves and Nass. The article can be found here http://guir.berkeley.edu/courses/cs198/papers/mediaeq.pdf or if you want the whole book, here http://www.amazon.com/Media-Equation-Computers-Television-Lecture/dp/1575860538.
Before you lose complete faith in the mental state of mankind, let’s examine some positive aspects of this vulnerability in the human conscience and the impact it could have on education. First of all it seems that children are even more likely to believe what they see is real and apply human attributes to machines. So knowing the emotional impact a computer program could potentially have on a child, designers should incorporate computer reactions that will elicit the proper emotional response in a child. For example, a child who is using an educational game may receive basic feedback on answers but what if the computer instead played a friendly face that explained the problem and provided warm and positive feedback. Or perhaps in the older grades, the computer provided positive social responses, in effect, modeling appropriate behavior or actions. If kids are not exposed to enough positive social role models, the maybe the computer can act as the positive role model for them. Even more importantly, this could work for students with LD who often exhibit poor social skills. There is a severe shortage of social skills training courses available to parents of children with social skills problems, particularly for adolescents and teens who I believe often need it most. A digital teacher, who is being perceived as a real person in many respects, could provide the necessary training in the privacy of one’s home. It may seem counter-intuitive to teach social skills in an isolated setting but first of all, if the student perceives the computer character/ teacher to be real then they do not feel alone and second, this is a better option if the alternative is not having training at all.
I think the key is to be cautious and to help students gain self awareness of this “issue”. Too often kids get too involved in video and computer games, applying so many human qualities to animated characters that they get fully depressed when something happens to that character in the game. I’ve seen this happen first hand when I once had two students cry while playing the game Petz after their animated dog ran away. We should be cautious also to make sure we don’t allow media to replace real human interaction. No device can substitute the need all people have for true human relationships.
Well I’ve beaten on my poor computer enough for one day. It’s tired and wants to go into hibernation now. I’ll miss it while it’s sleeping but I know it will be ready to greet me later.
Until next week!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

TEAM

After some disappointing web searches the past couple of weeks, I was literally giddy to find the website I will discuss today. It’s not often that I read information geared towards teaching students with learning disabilities and think, wow, these people get it. The website for TEAM which stands for Teaching Enhanced Anchored Mathematics can be found here http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/TEAM/index.html The TEAM project is associated with the University of Wisconsin- Madison and I cannot do it justice in simply trying to describe it, but I will try. Under Projects and Funding, you can find a good summary of the research used to create this program. One particular sentence jumped out at me.
“…many teachers of low-achieving students are reluctant to teach challenging math problems before they have mastered basic skills, which often leads students to dislike mathematics and drastically reduces to their motivation to learn it.”
This could not be more true to my experience. Actually, my fellow coworker and I have long disagreed on how math should be taught. He believes students cannot advance to the next chapter or concept until they have mastered the first which leaves some 12 year olds working in a second grade math book on the addition chapter. The research from this program has identified instructional practices that make it possible to teach low achieving students to solve complex problems. The program accomplishes this by helping kids develop problem solving skills in a real world context. Now this seems intuitive but unfortunately it does not seem to be the norm in classrooms across this country. In fact, the latest TIMSS report from 2003 (the 2007 results won’t be available until late 2008) still show American math and science test score falling well behind other nations. (http://nces.ed.gov/timss/TIMSS03Tables.asp?Quest=3&Figure=5) So I have to ask why more schools aren’t taking this research into account when teaching kids math. Going back to the TEAM program, the instructional program developed by the researchers is called EAI which stands for Enhanced Anchored Instruction. EAI uses video based problems delivered by CD-ROM to help students complete what I would consider to be rather complex tasks. I loved how the researchers noted the importance of this sort of delivery system for students with reading disabilities. Having something that students can watch and listen to eliminates the barrier students with reading disabilities immediately encounter when opening any text book. I see this as a huge step. To get a real feel for the actual program, an example can be viewed here http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/TEAM/products.html I was disappointed that I could not get the video to load despite many attempts however the teacher’s manual provides a very detailed description of the video and the TEAM project offers teachers a free CD-ROM for use in the classroom. The only unfortunate thing about this program is that it was designed for middle schoolers so it is not something I can use for my own students but it is something that I know the middle school students at my school would really enjoy so I will be passing this information on to the middle school math teacher at my school.
I am thrilled to have found such an interesting program and I hope my continued searches are as successful. I am also pleased that I now have research to show kids can move past the basic skills and learn more complex ones that will not only have real world significance but also be more age appropriate than the current text books.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Refining the Focus

Here we are nearing the end of this blogging assignment and after speaking with the professor, I finally have a solid grasp on my end goal. In my school we essentially create our own curriculum. We don’t follow premade lesson plans unless we happen to find one we like. It is then usually adapted to meet the needs of our student population. In that sense my goal is to become an expert in content area best practices with technology. I’d love for a coworker to be able to say, “I’m having trouble helping Jimmy understand rhyming patterns.” And then in turn point that coworker in the direction of a technology program, device or activity they could try. I feel that the more I advocate for better uses of technology, the more my school will see the need to improve our current tech set-up.
Now that we’ve settled that (phew!) I’d like to move on to my final content area focus which is math. I don’t teach math this year although I have the previous 3. I do miss teaching the subject because I’ve always enjoyed math and I find for many kids, it is their strength which means they enjoy the learning process. There are many however, who struggle terribly with math and whose parents shake their heads and say things like, “we’ll make sure she has a debit card.” There are those who push math aside as being of secondary importance to things like reading and writing. I believe math is every bit as important as the other two subjects.
I’m a strong believer that kids need to use manipulatives as much as possible especially in math. I also believe that the objects don’t have to tie directly to a certain math concept (ie: fraction bars or clocks). At http://www.mindwareonline.com/MWESTORE/Home/HomePage.aspx? Teachers and parents can find an array of mind puzzles that kids love. This is not computer technology however it is definitely a form of technology in my opinion. Kids learn logic, problem solving, even engineering (like when building a marble run). In no classroom should computer technology replace hands on tools like the ones found at mindwareonline. Research does indicate that math disabilities can be improved with technology. LD online always has a vast array of information. At this site http://www.ldonline.org/article/6291 if you scroll down to the subheading “Developing fluency in math-delayed children using technology” you can find research assessing the use of technology for students with math disabilities. Very interestingly, the study found that “computerized drill and practice was ineffective in developing declarative fact knowledge in students with math difficulty” (Hasselbring, Goin, and Sherwood, 1986). I hear many teachers out there saying, “oops!” and we’ve had this research for the last 22 years? Most computer math games do little more than quiz students on math facts with fancy graphics or animated characters. No wonder it’s not helpful. Luckily, I have not been using such games. Hasselbring and Goin developed a program in 2005 called FASTT (Fluency and Automaticity through Systematic Teaching with Technology) which helps students develop “declarative fact knowledge.” The resulting computer program called FASTT Math has been shown to create positive results both for students with disabilities and those without. This makes it perfect for a mainstream classroom and a special education classroom. The same article goes on to describe research in increasingly complex areas of math however, I am going to leave the focus here for now because math basics are often the most difficult and also most vital for students with math disabilities. Without the basics, the rest become an insurmountable goal. I’ll be adding this program to my list of “best practices.”

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Response to Intervention

I heard about this (what do you call it? Process? Program?) A couple years ago and was pretty fascinated by the concept. Before I go any further, let me not assume that my only readers are my three excellent group mates. If you are unfamiliar with RtI, then read this summary from Wikipedia which does a fair job of explaining the program. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_to_intervention
There, got it? Of course. Now I could have made RtI my entire Blog topic and not come close to covering all the details so I’m certainly not going to attempt to cover everything today. I came across this blog http://ldblog.com/tag/rti/ which really got me thinking and I figured it was a perfect way to end my two week examination of the writing process with respect to learning disabilities and technology.
RtI is not something that has had any effect on me as of yet. After all, students who attend my school have all been identified (if they weren’t yet identified, they wouldn’t be there—it’s a school for only students with LD). I figure in the future we may see “treatment resistors”—those who do not respond to intervention. To this point however, I’m not even certain this is happening in the public schools in my area.
When I first heard about RtI the first initial concern I had was “what about students with LD that are not reading disabilities?” and this concern is noted by Blogger “JohnL” in his posting. This concern is also echoed in my experiences for the last two weeks in searching for writing programs. Finding information to blog about reading disabilities and accommodations was quite easy. There is a tremendous amount of support for struggling readers and that’s not a bad thing. After all, not being able to read can be extremely debilitating, especially for adults. It can negatively impact one’s entire life from career to family to health and finances. But what about writing? There is a severe lack of solid support materials for struggling writers and I don’t mean students who reverse letters, or misspell words. I don’t even mean those with bad handwriting. I mean those students with severe expressive language disorder, those who simply cannot express themselves with language—oral or written. Is this not a tremendous problem too?
The blogger says in his posting that we should not expect learning disabilities to disappear as some may have you believe is possible with RtI and I agree. How can we expect learning disabilities to disappear when we don’t even address all of the problems? Writing/ Written expression is not addressed with RtI and neither is Math which accounts for approximately 25% of learning problems (according to the blog). JohnL (blogger) states at the end that “there is much more to special education than the methods for determining eligibility of students with Learning Disabilities” and he couldn’t be more right. Let’s not put all our eggs in the reading basket and ignore struggling writers. RtI is a good start but not if it leads people to the false belief that it is a cure-all for LD.
So where am I going from here? Well I’ve exhausted the searching for writing programs so in my mind I’m working on ways I can do this on my own. I’ll let you all in on a little secret. I don’t think I want to be a teacher forever, eventually someday I want to write textbooks (who knows, maybe they won’t be in book form by that point) but regardless, I feel like I’ve found a goal for myself—find a solution to this writing problem and create a program that actually works for students. So having exhausted the writing and having addressed reading, next week I plan to move on to the subject of Math disabilities and what forms of technology can do to aid those struggling with dyscalculia. I hope I don’t find the shortage of support for Math disabilities as I found for writing. Then, if all goes well I will look to tie all the loose ends together. Maybe even address LD and social skills. That’s the rough plan but I’m letting the blog dictate my direction.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Grab Bag

In searching for today’s blog posting I found two things I wanted to talk about that were very different from one another. The first is found here http://www.donjohnston.com/products/write_outloud/index.html . This is another product that is supposed to help struggling writers. It shows some pretty dramatic positive results and I say if it really works like that then sign me up. But I’m somewhat skeptical. After two weeks of searching, I don’t believe there is one magic program out there. This one does have some neat features however. It provides basic items like spell checker and dictionary as well as a device which helps students create a bibliography (much like the newest versions of Word). There is also a function that allows teachers to track students’ needs for remediation and growth. This program is part of a larger “literacy suite” called SOLO which has several programs all to aid struggling writers. This program seems better than the one I discovered last week in that it offers more ways to assist students. I feel like this may help “unlock” some of the doors that block students who are capable of being good writers but are unable to produce because of various difficulties. I still don’t think this solves the problem for kids who simply don’t know what to write but then again, no single program is intended to solve every problem.

The second thing I wanted to mention today is found here http://ldblog.com/special-content/correcting-reversals . It’s an interesting blog posting about letter reversals. This is a problem for both readers and writers but in my opinion, more often a problem for writers. I actually have a couple of students who routinely misspell their own names because they reverse b and d. The blog cites research which suggests a method for correcting letter reversals by essentially using positive reinforcement to acknowledge correct letter formation. Eventually over time the child will correctly write the letters. I can see how this very simple (low tech) method would work. I see my students with this problem get to certain letters on spelling tests (whether a b or a d) and debate with themselves over which direction to make the letter. It’s not as though they don’t know which letter they should use, they simply can’t remember which way the letter goes. I have unknowingly been doing this very method with my students but need to work on employing it more consistently. So there you have it, two different methods to solve writing problems; two very different levels of technology.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Back to Basics

I set out to find ways in which technology could be used to enhance learning for students with disabilities and to this point, the information I’ve found does focus primarily on this topic. However, after a lot of searching last week, I decided that it may just be time to find some solutions to the writing problem without worrying so much how a computer or electronic device could help me.
I believe the programs I found last week are decent and would likely be helpful and it’s certainly not an exhaustive list. I also have come to realize that there is a lot I can do to help students the old fashioned way—by teaching them with paper and pencils. The article found here http://www.readingrockets.org/article/6213 outlines a study titled “Prevention and Intervention of Writing Difficulties for Students with Learning Disabilities”. Again this is a long one so I had to decide what parts of it I wanted to focus on without turning this blog entry into a 6 page essay (although it’s a good read and the authors make several comparisons and points using the Peanuts Characters to keep things interesting). One particular statement validated my current frustrations: “The writing problems of children with LD are not transitory difficulties that are easily fixed.” Thank goodness! I’m not the only one who sees this!
About a third of the way down the page, under a section called Table 1, the study outlines key points that represent “Exemplary Writing Instruction”. I focused heavily on this because I want to make sure that I am, at the very least, providing exemplary instruction. Of course I wasn’t surprised to see there are things I can do differently like the ninth tip:
“Instruction covering a broad range of skills, knowledge, and strategies, including phonological awareness, handwriting and spelling, writing conventions, sentence-level skills, text structure, the functions of writing, and planning and revising.
We typically isolate handwriting and spelling from the subject of writing to allow kids an opportunity to be successful in at least one area without worrying about the others. For example, kids can be great writers and horrible spellers. If you combine the two it brings down the so called quality of the writing. It’s interesting to see the suggestion of combining all the areas of writing into one instructional set and it’s worth trying.
Another tip was to integrate writing across the curriculum. This has been something I’ve wanted to do for a while now and something I do attempt now and then but the biggest obstacle to having students write in other subjects is the sheer amount of extra time it takes. It’s one thing to spend 45 minutes of a writing class on writing, it’s quite another to spend 45 minutes of social studies on writing. I think before we get to this point we still have to overcome the hurdle of simply not knowing how to put thoughts on paper.
There are adaptations listed as well but realistically, the teachers at my school have been doing these things for years so this area wasn’t particularly helpful.
The last item of interest is towards the very end. The research describes the importance of early intervention. It states that to the point the article was written, only 4 studies had been done on the effectiveness of early intervention for writing disabilities. Interestingly, in one of the studies research showed that supplementary handwriting instruction raised compositional quality. This is of great importance to me because we focus very heavily on teaching kids to type while spending only about 20 minutes a week on handwriting instruction. Unfortunately a separate study was not able to replicate these results. In any case, all studies demonstrated a positive result for struggling writers when early intervention took place which is further evidence for me, that as a teacher of students with disabilities, the most important step I can take is to return to basics and in the future, start earlier.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Hopeful

Well I think I was taking the wrong approach looking for the “magic” program or technique to fix writing problems which was naïve of me. I know better than to think any one approach will work for everyone, after all, I’ve built my entire class on coming up with ways to teach kids individually. Regardless, my few students with severe writing difficulties probably need to start at a more basic level and I’m starting to see how I am probably part of the problem and so is the school system. I am pressured by the school and parents to prepare kids for middle school and I in turn try my hardest to get my students to write even those that simply can’t. I’m really just frustrating them. I discovered a program called Fast ForWord. There are a number of products associated with this program. I have had some students use the reading programs with great success but I was not aware that they also had language programs. At this site: http://www.scilearn.com/products/elementary-products/fast-forword-language-basics/index.php one can find a description of the Language Basics program. For those who are unfamiliar with Fast ForWord, it is a set of products that “develop brain processing efficiency through intensive, adaptive software exercises.” There are products for the elementary and secondary levels and the program claims to have one to two year gains in 8-12 weeks of use. The Language Basics program works to improve memory, visual and auditory attention, visual processing, and sequencing skills. It also builds computer skills and techniques. For students who advance past the Basics program, there is a follow up program called Fast ForWord Language which is for slightly older children. Perhaps my only concern is the cost. The website does not display a price for the program but I’ve been told it is quite expensive. It still seems worth recommending to parents and even suggesting it is placed on the school wish list.
It is my belief that without the proper foundation for learning and acquiring knowledge, students will be lost. For students with severe language problems, one must consider the idea that extreme remediation needs to take place. The website explains that the software works as an exercise program for the brain and this makes good sense. Right now I’m asking kids to run a marathon before helping them practice running a mile. Regardless of what program is used, remediation seems to be the answer.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

What Now?

After the goal I set for myself in my last blog I’m starting to understand why in my four years of teaching and actively seeking an answer to this question I’ve not yet found a solution (not that I’m giving up). After a great deal of searching, the same program kept coming up as a solution for kids with expressive language disorders: Kidspiration. Towards the middle of the page on this site http://www.synapseadaptive.com/learning_disorders.html there is a brief outline on the various types of language disorders (articulation, expressive and reception which are just to name a few). The site then provides a link to Visual Thinking Software which is this site http://www.synapseadaptive.com/inspiration/default.htm discussing Inspiration.
I must say I am a bit disappointed and not because Inspiration and Kidspiration aren’t fantastic programs—they truly are. I use Kidspiration in my classroom already and kids enjoy it. I should actually say that some kids enjoy it because others, the same that I keep in mind when searching for writing programs, are completely frustrated by it. The blank screen stays blank until they get direct assistance. If they work with a peer, the peer ends up doing it for them. Pre-made graphic organizers remain blank as well. I routinely get the question, “What am I supposed to put here?” And before any reader thinks I leave my students directionless, please let me assure you I typically spend 2-3 class periods preparing for writing before asking students to put the first word on paper. We go through an extensive process of brain storming and modeling. It works well for probably 85% of them. I still have a few that are unable to produce a single sentence. Kidspiration doesn’t help them. So what now? More searching.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Writing Programs

This week, I’m hoping to find as much valuable information about teaching language and writing to kids with disabilities as I was able to find about teaching reading. Since I’ve only been teaching Reading this school year and Language/Writing for the last 4, I’m much more familiar with the curriculum however, I’m always on the search for new ideas and I like to hear the thoughts of others on how to teach writing to kids with disabilities. I went to a writing workshop a few years ago and came back armed with all these great techniques to try. Sadly, they all failed miserably (and I tried and persisted with all of them to no avail). With any luck this search will result in a more fruitful acquisition of knowledge.
There are countless products out there to help students with writing disabilities (or even regular ability). The product described on this website http://www.wordq.com is called Word Q. This software program works with any word processor. It predicts words and provides speech feedback. You can also have text read back to you. It doesn’t correct spelling or grammar but that is rather irrelevant because the word processor itself does that. I think one of the most key tools associated with this software is that it claims to have the ability to predict words based on “creative spelling” and if it can predict the spelling of words for some of my students then it’s worth its weight in gold. One of the biggest problems with using the regular word processor is that kids type stories and essays and get discouraged because every last word is underlined with a squiggly red line. I would hope this program could alleviate some of those problems.
So Word Q is one of many products out there that aids students with writing disabilities and I can see how it would work for some, even many students. I feel like this program is still just a band-aid for the real problem which is that students with learning disabilities and expressive language problems would be doing well to put ANY idea down on paper. I have on many occasions asked frustrated students to dictate stories, sentences, and ideas to me so I can write it for them. Many are still unable to get thoughts out on paper. So while I’m pleased to find programs like Word Q, I am still on a quest for a solution to the greater problem: how do you get students to form ideas, organize those ideas and put them on paper in the form of a readable essay/story/sentence?

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Reading for Real Life

Today I’ve taken quite a turn from my last several blogs but there is good reason behind it. First of all, I had a conference today. The parent wanted to discuss her child’s progress and where she is headed. This child should be in 7th grade but is currently performing at around the 4th grade level. The mother said she had heard all you really need to get through life 6th grade reading and math proficiency. She hoped her daughter would achieve this. (Yes, if I have anything to say about it and oh yes, I do!) So of course I got to wondering about this 6th grade level thing. After doing some searching I found a web article that claims newspapers are in fact written at the middle school level.
See: http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/archives/000418.html
On the one hand, I feel a sense of relief for my students some of whom will struggle with reading their entire life. I’m pleased to know that they will be able to read the news as adults, even if they never become “great” readers. On the other hand I am completely appalled that these are the standards in our country. We as teachers work incredibly hard to build and sustain the foundation that children need to excel through school. We pour blood sweat and tears into teaching struggling readers how to read and purchase hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of equipment in an effort to aid these students. Then we have parents shooting low because that’s where the rest of society has already set the bar. There is however, a bright spot. The article talks about the Flesch-Kincaid tool which measures the readability of any document. The scale measures on a scale of 1-100 with, as the author puts it, 100 being a stop sign, and 1 being “practically impossible to read”. The average newspaper story falls between 70-80 (about 8th grade level) while the top 5 internet blogs (based on a source called the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem http://truthlaidbear.com/ecosystem.php ) score significantly better scores-- between 45 and 55 (10th-12th grade level). What this tells me is that when given the opportunity, people want to read more challenging work and as a teacher, this tells me that if I want to give my students a good challenge I should encourage them to read blogs rather than newspaper articles for a good mental workout. I hope that if students become more accustomed to reading quality writing they won’t want to stop at the 6th grade level of reading, that they’ll push beyond that to read what is interesting and challenging. Why should we let students settle for mediocrity when something better exists at our fingertips?
Before I close I found something else interesting. It’s called “The Blog Readability Test”. Simply enter the URL of your blog and it will tell you the reading level. http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx. This blog is currently at the college level.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Super Pens

Well the name of the item isn’t really “Super Pen” But I just can imagine putting one of these in the hands of one of my students. In my mind this is what he called it so that is the title of this blog.
The article http://jset.unlv.edu/20/JSETv20n1.pdf is rather long. If you’d like to read it, it’s on pages 31-40 in the Journal of Special Education Technology (Hey, perfect! Right?). The title of this research is, “The Compensatory Effectiveness of the Quicktionary Reading Pen II on the Reading Comprehension of Students with Learning Disabilities.” And I know now that you’ve gotten through the title you’re thinking I’m crazy if I think you’re going to read through this whole article (It’s okay). Basically a study was done to see how effective this new OCR pen is for students with learning disabilities. In the past there was somewhat conflicting evidence on the effectiveness of the pen. This one is different because students are intended to use it to decode single words, not entire phrases of text which can interfere with comprehension. The pen is connected to an ear bud which allows a student to use the device privately. The research points out that students with reading disabilities often have no trouble understanding spoken language so if you can aid a student with the reading aspect, then comprehension will follow. Thirty children ages 10-18 were trained on how to use the pen. Then, students were tested twice using the Formal Reading Inventory (FRI). Students scored significantly better when using the pen. Obviously there is more to the research than this short summary but the important part is that the research indicates that this pen can benefit students with reading disabilities. My thoughts upon reading this research went immediately to my students, not now but in the future. While they are in my classroom, I know I can help them get through their reading assignments. I accommodate in every way possible. But I also know that the time will come when they leave my school and hopefully attend a regular high school. A device like this would be a fantastic tool for students who just need a little extra help but who, at the age of 14 or 15, don’t want to ask someone to read a word for them. It grants independence while aiding studying and comprehension. The best part is, it’s so small and portable that peers may as well not know it exists. I know for my students, it is important for them to feel “normal” around their peers. They don’t want others to know they need help. I did some further research and this pen is available for around $275 (some cheaper on ebay) which if it helps a student, is really a small price to pay for the potential benefits.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Storybooks on Computer

It had been my intention to move forward this week in the blogging, to focus on another of the classes that I teach. Last week I covered reading and this week I was going to try to cover writing but I don’t feel finished with Reading. In doing my research, I found so many promising programs and interesting articles that I want to continue with Reading for now and see where that takes me. Maybe I’ll move to writing next week, we shall see! For now I’m thinking of readjusting my topic (yet again) to focus not just on technology for students with learning disabilities but also on how different programs can be integrated into the daily curriculum. I teach reading and language. While I don’t teach Math this year, it is something I’d like to cover as well. Finally, I’d like to see what I can find that has to do with social skills training. I’m hoping that if I cover all these concepts, I’ll be able to have a really good grasp on how to use technology to benefit achievement for students with learning disabilities.
So for my first link of the week:
http://www2.edc.org/ncip/library/ec/storybks.htm
This article is called Storybooks on Computers: An Overview. It outlines the many benefits of having children listen to stories. What is neat about this program is that it’s not a simple recorded book. This program actually allows kids to “turn” the pages on the computer. As the article point out, this is helpful for kids with fine motor difficulties because it allows them to experience reading like a peer would. It also allows a visually impaired child to enlarge the text. One of the best features in my opinion is that the stories are illustrated with interactive graphics. The example given in the article states that a child can click on a dog in the story and it will wag its tail. There are several other variations that can be selected (changing the speed of the reading, gender of the reader, and whether syllables, words or whole sentences are highlighted, etc). I was thinking about how this sort of thing would be great in the classroom as a center in the younger grades, especially in a mainstream classroom because “normal” (I hate that term) children and children with disabilities could work together. Both children could benefit from the activity without one feeling as though they were different because of the accommodations. Another great place to use this would be at home although my fear would be of parents using the program as a replacement for actually reading to their child. I’m sure in some cases however, this program would be better than not being read to at all. The article starts by saying “All children can benefit from having story books read aloud to them.” I couldn’t agree more. With or without disabilities, all children could enjoy a program like this.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

What's Available?

Well I couldn’t talk all about reading accommodations without finding a program that could actually do it and do it well. One of the programs recommended by http://www.readingrockets.org is called NaturalReaders. A demo of the product can be seen here http://www.naturalreaders.com/. In spending a bit of time with the program I can see how tremendously beneficial this could be for my students. The program is available as a free download or it can be purchased for around $40 to $100 depending on how fancy you want to get with it. While I didn’t purchase it to see for certain, I believe the $40 version would be sufficient for my students because it reads Web pages and Word documents (among other things). This would be unbelievably helpful when my students are doing research. Right now what happens is this:
Student types their topic into the internet search bar. Student pulls up a list of web pages. Student clicks on the first page that comes up. Student calls me over to the computer to read the page to him or her. All other students throw a party while my back is turned.
Well maybe that last part isn’t entirely true (most of the time).
The fact remains, students would gain a tremendous amount of independence if they did not have to rely on a peer or me to read everything to them. Even kids who are grade level readers can’t necessarily read all the words on a webpage. Having this program available empowers students both at school and at home where parents are not always around to help read aloud either. One thing I’ve discovered is that children with reading disabilities often can comprehend quite well (at least in my experience) so these students will actually get much more out of a lesson that is read to them than a student who tries to read it him or herself and only decodes every third word.
Furthermore, if the program reads word documents then a student could type his or her report and then have the program read it back to them so they can hear their mistakes and more easily make corrections.
I believe I’ve found my first product for classroom implementation!
Feeling a little wiser,
EmTech

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Fighting for Accommodations

Just about more than any other thing I hear from new parents was how unwilling the public school system was to accommodate their son or daughter’s special learning needs. It’s pretty sad because I have spoken to public school teachers who complain about having to deal with kids with learning disabilities in their classroom. I can’t help but wonder why a school doesn’t just give students the accommodations they need since it would benefit everyone involved, most importantly—the student. Then I remembered, oh yeah, it’s the money. Assistive technology costs money, usually a lot of it. Once it goes in a student’s IEP, that’s it, the school must provide it. Really it’s rather unfair not to since the school is getting more funding for that child to begin with. But I digress…
The author of this blog: http://specialedlaw.blogs.com/home/2008/01/accessible-e-te.html talks about how important it is for students with reading disabilities to have texts that can be converted to spoken word. He emphasizes how valuable e-texts have been for his son. His post led me to this nifty article which helps parents realize the full potential of the provisions of IDEIA. This article http://www.readingrockets.org/article/16308 provides essential tips for parents including information on the IEP process. It also encourages parents to try out the many e-text programs available before committing to one in the IEP. The blog posting and the article do more than describe some of the resources available, they talk about something perhaps even more important, that no matter what technology is out there, it takes parent intervention to make sure it becomes available to their child. If parents are not advocates for their kids then who will be?
EmTech

Monday, March 10, 2008

Audio Books

After selecting my topic, I had a bit of a fear that I’d picked something too specific; that maybe it would be difficult to find information on technology for ESE students. Wow, was I wrong! There is a ton out there but at least in my first round of searching, a great deal of the information seems to focus on products—adaptive technology. So I decided that instead of picking something too specific, I really went too broad. I have chosen to focus on technology for students with learning disabilities since this information can and will directly impact what I do for a living.
So where to begin? I thought for the first two weeks I could focus on the subjects I teach. I’m starting with reading. Many of my students have reading disabilities. In fact the breakdown goes like this: of 20 total students the youngest is 9 and the oldest is 12. Age has no correlation to reading grade level. I have 11 students reading (some struggling) at the second grade level. I have 3 at the third grade level. There are 4 at the fourth grade level and 2 at the fifth grade level. Ironically, one of my fifth grade readers is only 9. So reading is a struggle for most of my kids. Probably the most high tech thing they use right now is a tape recorder to listen to their stories on tape. In fairness, my students have made terrific progress this year but I’m sure there are programs and devices that could help them more.
http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.aspx?r=1066
The link above takes you to an article about an organization called Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) that provides audio recordings of all varieties of books. These aren’t just regular stories. Many of the audio books they offer are actually textbooks. The books allow a student with a reading disability to listen along to assigned reading and stay up to speed with classmates. The article really hit home on some of the issues I find myself defending to other people who are not as familiar with learning disabilities and sometimes, sadly, even parents of students. One of those issues is that listening to something being read to you is actually cheating because you don’t have to read it yourself. The article disagrees, as do I, saying that anecdotal evidence provides countless stories of kids who once hated reading and now enjoy it (and who also learned to read in part by following along with the audio and the text). RFB&D calls audio books a bridge of the “remediation-accommodation continuum.” Essentially saying that while you’re trying to teach a student how you read, you also should provide them with a means to learn their other subjects since a reading disability creates a barrier to the understanding of all other subjects.
The article really validates what we do at my school which is a private school solely for students with learning disabilities. We accommodate students in any way we can and if that means giving them their lessons on tape then so be it. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to look into the services of RFB&D to see if any of our textbooks are available. Decades from now I know that most of my students will be leading successful and fulfilling lives and if they listened to their science rather than read it, who cares? There is no rule on how one must acquire knowledge. Audio books just level the playing field.
EmTech

Saturday, March 8, 2008

A New Blog is Born

The first question I should answer is maybe not even your question. I’ll explain anyway. The title, Something-Insightful comes from my main site found at www.something-insightful.com which began as a way for me to explore the world of web design and blogging. I’ll only ask that you not look for updates there if you expect to find them here.
Posting to a specific topic is new to me. If you read any of my other blog, you’ll find there is no pattern, rhyme or reason to the topics which are so varied they sometimes make even my head spin. For the sake of good grades and useful practice, I’ve decided to explore the world of technology in exceptional student education. It’s an easy choice for me. As an ESE teacher any information I find can be used to better serve my students. As someone truly interested in what technology can do for students with special learning needs, I am excited to explore what’s out there in this field.
You’ll be “seeing” me soon!

“Expert” in the making,
Em