Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Sign Lanaguage Images

ASL videos are fantastic for learning new signs, but sometimes you need an image. Here are three sites that have drawings of sign language:

Sign Language Tutor (line drawings)

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Online Special Needs Software - Sensory World

Sensory World is an interactive online enviroment for learners with special needs. You begin at the Sensory House front door and click on the door to go inside (by mouse, trackball, touchscreen, eye/head tracker with a means of clicking).

Once inside you are in a hallway where you can choose from a kitchen, where you can play games about safety or hygiene or plan meals, a music room, or a sensory room , where you can play with the various lighting and sound equipment. The games are basic and fun. Students will need cause and effect understanding, and some life skills knowledge as well as intact vision to play. Hearing is not totally necessary, but the audio is quite nice for those who can hear. Reading is also not mandatory. Overall it is a nice set of online software for the "life skills" track of special needs students.

P.S. Some of the activities are culturally geared towards British students (which is because it is a British site), meaning that British terms, spellings and foods are used. Might be an especially fun activity for American students if working on an "Around the World" type of thematic unit.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Website of the Day - Enviroments Label Maker

Environments is a educational supply vendor. They appear to carry you average array of pre-K and primary level supplies. However, they also offer a number of beautiful free resources. These include a classroom calendar and weather set, label makers for creating a print-rich environment (in English, English and Spanish, with or without pictures), a room layout designer and thematic and products guides. In addition they have parent and staff training handouts.

The site does require a free registration (there is no e-mail confirmation so you can use your disposable e-mail address), with lets you use all of the resources and gets you a catalog in the mail (if you give your real address).

Monday, July 2, 2007

Website of the Day - The Visual Dictionary

In most kindergartens and first grades you will find a literacy center called, "Read the Room" based on the idea that students find and learn to read the words around them. Teachers work hard to make the room "Print Rich" for this purpose.

The Visual Dictionary is like having a "Read the World" website. The site collects and hosts images of words found on in all sorts of places. You can browse the images, look words up or use the search box to find what you need.

I can see two great ways for special education teachers to use this site. The first is as participants. Go on Read the World field trips and take digital photos of every word you see or focus on the functional community words you want your students to know. Then send your images to The Visual Dictionary.

The second way this site could be useful is to help our learners generalize site words. I have had more than a few students who can read sight words on their flashcards or in there primer, but can't generalize this to the same words found in other locations. Now we can print and make flashcards of the same words in different types of fonts at different angles. Or we can use the images to make interactive media such as slide shows or other programs.

The limit is our imagination.

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Differentiated Mini Offices

Mini Offices must be one of those teaching ideas that came along after I finished teacher school. I am enamored with the idea of mini offices for my students since I first stumbled over the idea of mini offices a few weeks ago.

Basically Mini Offices are desk size dividers that have helpful information for students. They are made of file folders taped together or presentation boards (like the kind for science fairs) cut in half. A kindergarten mini office might have letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. A second grade mini office might have a mini-word wall, a number line, guidelines for writing, time telling information, etc.

I love the idea of differentiating mini offices for special needs students. One of my students might have all of the Dolch words, a paper QWERTY keyboard, a number line to thirty, a written schedule with cues for certain tasks, time telling and coin information and reminders about classroom rules. Another of my students might have a Mayor-Johnson picture

schedule, visual images of various work tasks, a free time choice board and visual images of classroom rules. Each student's mini office only needs the information that he or she needs to increase independence and success.

Another idea I have is for the back or outward facing side to have information for teaching staff. For example a one page IEP for that student, a list of what data and work samples have to be collected for the alternative assessment, reminders about that student's AAC system (especially how to do a soft reset), and tidbits like images of sign language or how to give positive reinforcement. It can be two offices in one! (<-it helps to say that line like the Junior Mints Ad, "Two mints in one!") Each of the photographs above are from one of the links below: