Obamicon.me

Obamicon.me can turn photos of your students into Obama poster like images. What a fun way to end this week, whether or not you have been doing the News-2-You New President unit.

Sam Sennot has also posted some ideas over at AllTogether and my colleague across the hall told me about this interactive presidential seal via Pete's Powerpoint for higher functioning learners and her class also made an Obama symbol mosaic with that was really something by having the student cut red, white and blue out of magazines and glue them onto an Obama logo blown up and traced onto white poster board.

How to Watch the Inauguration Live (via the web)

Tomorrow I plan to have my class watch the inauguration of our 44th president on the "big screen" which means we must tune in online. Here are some links on how to watch online:

• CNET tutorial Obama's Inauguration and Parties Online
• CCN How to Watch Obama's INauguration Online

Our class will understand this event at different levels. Some will just tune into the excitement, others will understand we have a new president, still others may understand exactly why this new president is so historic. Here are some ways I plan to increase the interactivity of watching the inauguration and parades.

• handing out musical instruments, especially "clappers" and "shakers" to use to make noise to go along with applause and recording loud cheers and applause onto step-by-step switches for those who cannot access musical instruments
• presenting communication boards and overlays for devices to be used while watching - I have uploaded these to Adapted Learning
• inviting other classes to join us and having the teacher's aides and teachers be as excited as possible
• turning down the volume on the webcast to explain and ask/answer questions as needed
• doing follow up activities, including this weeks News-2-You