iPhone/ iTouch Apps for Special Needs

Erica, one of my students who has Joubert Syndrome has made tremendous gains over the past two years. Click here to see a previous post on Joubert Syndrome. Her communication has gone from being completely prompt dependent with mostly yes and no answers to initiating her needs and wants at times. Well her birthday is coming up next month and her parents are getting her an i pod touch. We are hoping that this will increase her accessibility to prompts, schedules, self taught skills such as sign language, as well as to the internet and books. Her father has asked me to find some apps that would work for her, so I am compiling a list of apps that can help all special needs students. You can view the list HERE!  There are almost 50 apps with descriptions, links and cost. They are organized my Schedules and Prompts, Communication and Autsim, Reading and Stories, Math, Sign Language and Braille, Teachers and Parents, and Disability Access.

A few good news notes....

1. I was accepted to the Kennesaw State University Graduate Educational Leadership Program. Yeah! I start in June!
2. I finally received my Wii for the classroom! Now I need to start looking for the programs I need....
3. My classroom is almost, almost, almost finished! 2 more things, put film on the back windows and get a bucket for the dryer ventalation. I will upload pictures next week!

Going back to school...

        So I did not just spend my spring break getting sun, I also visited Kennesaw State University. I am starting grad school there for Educational Leadership. I have been through tons of schools trying to find the program that suits my needs the best and finally have found one. My latest decision was between Georgia State and Kennesaw and Dr. Dishman at KSU finally swayed me. Both programs seem terrific but the catalyst for KSU was its law and data-driven focus. GSU is a research-based institution and the program there would be primarily research-driven. Why does law and data appeal to me? Well, with the direction education is going data is a huge controlling factor. Administrations’ are constantly pushing data-based evidence in order to develop new programs and classes that are based on the needs of their students. Educational legal matters are also increasing drastically and a full understanding of the law and what is allowed in imperative in a good administrator. With this degree i hope to bring special education more to the forefront and help to alleviate the negative stigma that is attached. With all that is going on with standardized testing and meeting AYP, many schools turn to special ed. as the scapegoat for their "failure". Unfortunately this pattern will not change until new instructional interventions and programs are implemented. Lets take a pseudo middle school for example. Let's say this middle school has 1000 students and 130 of them are in special education. Out of these 130 students, 30 of them (not including low-incidence populations) cannot read past a 3rd grade level. That is almost 1/4 of the special needs students that most likely will not pass the state standardized test (even with the accommodations/ modifications). Unfortunately many schools ignore the fact that they have a low reading level by not implementing a strategic reading intervention. No, an intervention probably would not get them on grade level, yet could facilitate their comfort and understanding on test.

I have heard many times that when teachers enter the administration sector they forget what it is like to be in the classroom. I take this observation very seriously and vow to never forget the struggles teachers go through. My main mission with entering this degree program is to help the teachers. I want to really listen to them and investigate their struggles and in turn examine ways to ease their concerns and troubles. I also will always maintain my special education perspective. My dream job would be as a special education curriculum developer for schools. I want to dedicate my time to finding the gaps and filling them with validated and reliable interventions and programs. I want to impress on general education teachers that differentiation is not a scary word but in fact a way to expel their creativity onto their students. All students are different learners and can benefit from multi-modal instruction. Accommodations and modifications can be an easy, as long as the teacher has confidence and knowledge of to how implement them. Inclusion of special ed. students does not have to be scary either, but it is to many because their is not always a good support system. Daily I here complaints from teachers as to how many special education students they have in their class, and yes I understand this can be hard, but it does not have to be. As a curriculum developer i want to help teachers find ways to teach to the strength of their special ed. students and not focus on their weaknesses. We ALL have strengths and this ALWAYS needs to be the starting point when education special ed. students. I want to encourage special educators to not fear I.E.P.'s but use them as a tool to really design a potent program for the student. I also want to encourage general education teachers to READ the whole IEP and truly become familiar with the student. Let me stop deviating though...

Soooo, if all goes according to plan, my application will be accepted at KSU and I will be starting this summer. Wish me luck and I promise to keep you informed about what I am learning and what ideas start to grow. ;)

Happy 1st Birthday to me!!!

Wow!!! Can you believe it has been a year since I officially started this blog? I remember the first day; I was sitting at a friends house playing on the computer. I was complaining to him (again) about how there are not enough resources on the internet for special education teachers. He suggested that I make my own blog and post resources myself. What a great idea! I considered myself somewhat computer savvy, so I signed up for blogger and my friend bought me a domain at Godaddy.com. I remember writing my first entry, I had no idea what to say because I had no idea who would read it so I decided on an entry about ...drumroll please...... The Georgia Alternate Assessment!  This was actually written March 5th, 09 but I did not start with the Analytics until April 10th so thats when I consider the start date. Since then my site has grown immensly. Below are some facts about the site http://www.specialeducationteacher.me/ :
In ONE year....
7,272 visits
5,643 unique visitors
90 different countries
In the U.S. the states that have the highest visitiation besides Georgia are: California, New York and Texas
40 official entries
32 followers
Highest visited entries are: Haiti Powerpoint and the Georgia Alternate Assessment
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I could not have reached these numbers without my visitors and I thank you. My goal for next year is to double these numbers, I would also like to include more resources and updates about my life as a special educator. I get lots of comments asking me about certain projects or ideas and it seems as though my readers enjoy reading about what goes on with me. Well I will keep you posted! If everyone could reach out to one person and share this sites URL it would be fantastic! Also if you are a continuing reader please comment to this entry, I would like you to send me your email (if possible) and a link to your site (if possible). Trying to personally collect visitor data. Thank you again!

If I could invent anything....

My second panal question is out and ready to read. The question is " If I had unlimited resources what product would I invent to assist special education students?"  To my suprise, this question was very hard to answer!!! Following is my response to the question: You can also visit the website and view it there Weareteachers.com

When I first began my career as a special education teacher the hardest struggle for me was compiling resources to develop some sort of curriculum and plan for my students. The first day of teaching I walked into my classroom and it was an empty canvas. I had a desk, a couple of book shelves and a few adapted materials left over from the previous teacher. I was stumped and confused as to where to begin. I had these I.E.P.’s that had tons of objectives and no materials or lessons to pull from. So that year I jumped into the water head first and had to teach myself how to swim.
That year I was given $1000 to help me purchase materials for the class. Luckily I had a co-worker who helped me gather materials and choose the right programs for the kids. I found some money and time programs, I found some sight word programs and also some living skills lessons, but I soon found my money depleting rapidly. I was also lucky that the school had a lamination machine, for it became my best friend. I created a lot of teacher-made materials that year and to this day still use them frequently. As the years have passed my collection of materials, lessons and programs have grown and my classroom no longer looks bare. The hardest thing I find about teaching a special needs class now is the scheduling and lesson planning. General education teachers follow a unit plan set by the state standards and are given a text book to follow, special education low-incidence teachers are thrown to the wind to figure it out for themselves.
If I could invent a product for the special education classroom it would be a complete functional curriculum. The curriculum would cover: functional academics, self-care, motor skills, household management, living skills, non-verbal and oral communication, interpersonal skills, competitive job-finding skills and some leisure-time skills. The curriculum would come as a kit and you could choose which functional would be appropriate for your class, MID, MOID and SID/PID. Within the band the lessons and activities would be leveled as well. The lessons would be organized in a 2 week format and give the teacher a direction and model to follow. Materials and manipulatives (of course modifications will need to be made for some students) will be included. For example, in the job skills section, sorting activities, stacking activities and assembly line tasks would be included in the kit.
Special education materials are expensive and a teacher could spend well over a couple of grand each year buying materials that are accessible for our students. With this curriculum the teacher would have time to focus on the student and not on gathering and searching for materials. This would be a “one-stop-shop” for low-incidence teachers, lessons for all functional skills. Low-incidence classrooms have a lot going on and anything that could alleviate some stress would definitely be beneficial.


Let me know what you think!

New Classroom

Ok, ok I have not been forgeting about all of you who want an update on the classroom. I have not been ignoring you, just did not have much to say... The classroom was "sorta" finished last Monday and we were able to move in, but there was still a lot of work to be done. I have some pictures but I am gonna wait to show you the whole thing complete. It is Spring Break right now so hopefully a full week without students in the building will allow them sufficent time to finish things up. I will go into detail after I get back next week. Stay tuned.....