Zoho+Assignments

This page contains the assignments listed in Zoho. I have labeled each assignments exaclty the way each page was labled.

Week 5 2/22/10-2/28/10 "uhh what, could you repeat that". As a teacher this can get quite frustrating because of the constant blank stares, but as a teacher of students with specials needs, this is always a concern of mine. Due to this students deficiency, I thought the computer program Fast ForWord would be perfect! The program is used to "re-image" the brain for more improved processing skills, language skills, etc. I hope to add to this notebook the child's progress- or even lack of progress. I feel that this would be beneficial to my classmates because this program is now more widely used in schools and it is helpful to have another teacher's perspective about a helpful or a waisted program. This is the web site for Fast ForWord: []You may find it helpful to hit the tab for k-12 educators. There is a variety of uses for this program and they are all explained on the left hand side of this page. To name a few: Early Learning, Stimulus Package, No Child Left Behind, Special Education, General Education, etc.I will update my notebook when I complete progress monitoring for this student.

Week 6 3/1/10- 3/7/10 Blogs are a useful resource for many things such as sharing information with family and friends, updating people about the status of something, educating other about a particular topic, conversation about a shared interest, or simply a personal journal about ones day. This list goes on but since I am an educator, during my research about blogs, I thought of the many uses it may have in my classroom. I feel that a blog would be a great tool for the students and teacher to communicate during a large assignment or project. A blog would allow all to share ideas, information, and struggles to support each other. (wow, i just realized this is like the discussions link on blackboard, but I think I like blogger better!)I also like that a blog is very easy to set up and share with others. this would promote young students to use it as well! I feel that the easy access and simple page design makes this very useful! A blog may also be used for group member in a class to collaborate ideas for a project they must create together! They would have access to web links, pictures, and the ideas of their peers which is wonderful for productive work IN school. Finally, a blog would be useful for teachers to join and collaborate about their own ideas about their curriculum, grade level, subject area, etc. A blog within a district would allow professionals to exchange ideas and discuss things that have been successful (and not so successful).
 * __WEBLOGS a.k.a Blogs__**

Week 7: 3/8/10- 3/14/10 3/9/10- today we had a special education department meeting about recent concerns we have been seeing as a team. I brought up an issue of concern regarding technology a few weeks ago and it was spoken about today. This is my concern and this is what I learned... At an IEP meeting, a parent asked me about technology resources that are available to her child to support her individual learning needs. I responded with a truthful answer when I said I personally did not know the boundaries of this question so I asked to get back with her with a concrete answer. Turns out, I have been the only special education teacher at the elementary level that has had this concern. I brought this question to my supervisor immediately. Apparently, as teachers, if we feel that personal assistive technology would benefit a student, we can hold meetings to disucuss the child's needs and experiment different technoloy devises to see which one helps the child the most. Please remember that I am a learning support teacher so assistive technology does not come up often, but I was taken back when I found this out. I believe that for the sake of this child, technology would be beneficial to learning with her disability and technology should have been implemented earlier. I am happy to say that with this concern of mine, now all elementary special education teachers are aware of this privilege. I am just shocked that this question has just been brought to our attention now. Does't it seem a little outdated already?? Yes! I feel that access to technology for students of all ages is way over due!

Week 8: 3/15/10-3/21/10

Currently I do not have the program Audacity on my computer, but I spoke with the tech department for my school district and I am in the process of getting Audacity added to my lap top. I have already discussed creating a pod cast for a particular student with my administrator and I believe it will be very beneficial. When I receive the tools to create this pod cast, I plan to have this child read her social studies project on my pod cast. I chose this student because she has the slowest processing abilities of my students and the lowest reading fluency rate in one minute. I decided that if she read her most recent assignment on my pod cast, it will allow her to listen back and hear her self read, and hopefully make some slight improvements. I am a big believer on metacognition and thinking about one's thinking. I feel that if a child is thinking about his/her reading, reading rates and comprehension skills can improve. This child is also very shy and has an emotional disturbance. The motivation to do well and the success I already anticipate for her will hopefully add confidence and some public speaking skills. I will follow up on this pod cast after I receive the necessary tools and create it!

Week 9: 3/22/10-4/4/10

RSS feeds are extremely time saving applications that can be used on any computer- when using Google Reader in my case. This tool has been established to the internet surfer- which is me- is notified when a favorite or important web site is altered or updated. This tool allows the web surfer to quickly gather new information about a topic of interest and possibly allow more time for the other things in life. this tool is quite simple to use and you may add to the list of subscriptions at any time. RSS is also available on mostly every site on the internet. There are specific symbols on a web page to access RSS and to create that subscription. The tools are simple, stand out to the eye, and provide easy to read directions for the new user.