Perhaps I should start each Blog with the words, 'A new challenge' because most of our days in 5173, start with traveling down the road of unfamilarity with technology. Are you familar with the old proverb, 'the darkest hour is just before the dawn'? Well, I have to admit that I had a few dark hours but so far I was able to become comfortable with the 'new to me' technology.
Origonally, I thought Boardmaker Plus wouldn't be too tough. I am comfortable with using a similar program, 'Writing With Symbols', which I use on a regular basis.
My original hopes were a 'dynamic communication board' was a visual schedule for our children with autism and the 'book' would be a few simple pages. Silly me! I should have realized that Barb would challenge us to the max; or at least what I felt was the maximun.
In class on Friday:
1.We learned how to create boards.
2.Our group became familar with the navigation bar accompaning the program.
3.The class also created boards with voice input.
4.After creating the boards, we could link boards to other boards.
5.We began the orginization of our assignment. (Subject, related to IPP, etc.)
It is Sunday morning. I spent most of the weekend either becoming more familar with the Boardmaker Plus program or creating an accessible book. Dawn is here! I hear the birds chirping and yes! I am becoming more comfortable with the Boardmaker Plus program. Now it is time for relating the completed boards to the curriculum and the IPP.
About Me
- Marney Lee
- I have been married to Dennis for 36 years and we have four great kids...or perhaps I should say our four children are young adults. Both of our sons have music degrees and one is a teacher. The other son has a government job. My daughters have science degrees. One is in nursing and my youngest daughter is a Physical Education teacher. My family is my greatest joy in life and although they have their seperate lives, we often gather together and either celebrate a special occassion or just enjoy each other's company. Both Dennis and I are teachers and even though Dennis is retired, he still is and always will be a teacher at heart. Professionally, both Dennis and I agree one of the most rewarding pleasures is seeing our students grow both academically and as a person.
I was wondering about something. This program is not running on our time zone. It states I posted this assignment at 2:51 Sunday morning and it was about 7:51. I swear I did hear the birds chirping!
ReplyDeleteMarney,
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the low tech items today! I love the adapted pointer. Such a wonderful idea, visually stimulating and doesn't "look different" for a person who may have to use this device. Besides, as you pointed out in your presentation today, other children will want to use it as well.
As for the domino board in meeting math outcomes....fabulous!! Dominoes are always popular and are a great manipulative for a child to use during class. You can vary this up as you did with simple addition and subtraction questions. I can see this working for many childre in our schools and not just those with unique learning needs. Students would simply like to use the dominoes as a learning tool and enjoy the tactile feel as well.
Gave me food for thought on students I could use this with in my school as well as ways to vary up the board to make it usable with more math concepts! Thanks for sharing!