Using the SMARTBoard April 30, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Our Classroom, SMART Board.add a comment
The SMARTBoard has been an AMAZING tool, opening educational opportunities for many of my students. Today, with a big smile and overflowing with pride, it is my pleasure to introduce you to my students through our most recent ANIMOTO video…
Our ANIMOTO video April 29, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Math, Our Classroom, SMART Board, Special Education, Websites.Tags: Animoto, SMART Board
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Here is our very first ANIMOTO Class Production– Parallel and Intersecting lines. The students found pictures on the internet and then took photos of intersecting and parallel lines in the school to create this video. I am sooooooooo PROUD!!! It really is quite easy and VERY motivating. Just wanted to share….
Animoto: Education April 28, 2008
Posted by anne marie in SMART Board, Websites.Tags: Animoto, SMARTBoard, video
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Fun, creative, motivating, exciting…. all words that help describe Animoto: Education. I learned about Animoto Friday (Chris shared an Animoto video on his Blog that he created of his trip to the zoo with his daughter) so I ventured to the Animoto site to check it out and learned about Animoto: Education. I immediately emailed Rebecca Brookes at Animoto: Education to receive a FREE All Access Code for my classroom (which arrived that same day) and voila… today at school we were having FUN making an Animoto video on parallel and intersecting lines (students ventured around the school with the digital camera to take pix). It was a great collaborative project that was overflowing with LEARNING!! Exactly what makes a teacher smile! I should also note that students’ Animoto videos can be downloaded to your desktop which is a huge plus since then you’re not dependent on an internet connection and will not experience blocking issues that some school districts encounter. I noticed that Jim Hollis also spoke about Animoto: Education today in his Blog– great minds think alike!! Guess that truly means Animoto: Education gets two thumbs up!! And as Jim mentioned the SMARTBoard is the perfect tool to both display and create the videos.
Spelling City April 28, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA, SMART Board, Special Education, Websites.Tags: ELA, Spelling, Website
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Thanks to my new friend Chris I learned about this terrific online spelling program called Spelling City. According to the website “SpellingCity is an online spelling program to help improve spelling skills:
- contains over 30,000 spelling words, including plurals, contractions, future and past tenses
- uses a REAL human voice that says both the word and the word in a sentence.” Teacher’s have an option to register for an account and create spelling lists (or use premade lists) so student’s in turn, have access to specific spelling lists for review and practice– how AWESOME!! This information would also be useful to parents to keep them in the spelling loop!
I also found this site to be very user friendly. It’s definitely worth a peek.
Shedd’s Aquarium April 27, 2008
Posted by anne marie in SMART Board, Science, Special Education, Websites.Tags: Science, SMART Board, Special Education
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Spent the day sprucing up our pond area and getting reacquainted with our fish after a long winter’s hibernation! Our neighbor, who is 10, also discovered LOTS of frog eggs on the edge of the pond– too cool! Took a few pictures to share. Since fish, water and frogs were on my mind today I thought I’d share a website that has some terrific K-12 information, lesson plans and interactive activities regarding aquatic science- Shedd Aquarium. It is very user friendly, but remember to stay out of the water when the sharks are swimming!!!!
Back to school tomorrow after a week’s vacation- wish me luck!!!!!
Sharing Notebook 10 Ideas April 26, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Autism, ELA, Notebook 10, SMART Board, Special Education.Tags: ELA, Notebook 10, SMART Board, Special Education, Spelling
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I had some time today to explore some of the new features in SMART Notebook 10 and thought I’d share some initial ideas/thoughts I came up with. I am very pleased and excited that some of the interactive options are image friendly– this feature makes a HUGE difference when creating lesson for my students who need visual supports/PECS to complete and be successful in participating in lessons. So if you want to check out some of my ideas click here: sharing-some-ideas.notebook
And if you have some ideas you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you!
Let’s Talk About Insects April 25, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Science, Special Education, Websites.Tags: bugs, insects, Science, Website
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Insects and bugs, oh my!! After spending a day in my gardens on this delightful spring day in New England, I was reminded of a website I have used in the past to teach about the many species of insects. “Let’s Talk About Insects is designed to help students ages 9-11 years of age gain an appreciation of insects; learn how insects grow and develop (metamorphosis), and learn the importance of insects in our environment.” The presentation is narrated in either Spanish or English. The slides are fun and informative. The Teacher’s Guide section is very helpful when preparing for your lesson. This site is maintained by the University of Illinois Extension. So if you are a planning a lesson on bugs buzz on over and check it out!!
I also should mention a PowerPoint Website that I have used, as it has several pre-made PPT presentations about insects.
Symbol World April 24, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Autism, SMART Board, Special Education, Websites.Tags: Autism, SMARTBoard, Special Education, Symbol World
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“SymbolWorld is a website created by Widgit Software, dedicated to people who use symbols. It has material for all ages and includes personal contributions, stories and learning materials.” Symbol World has 4 main sections- My World, Stories, Learning and eLive.
“eLive is an on-line magazine within SymbolWorld especially for older readers.”
Symbol World is speech enabled with Browsealoud- you download Browsealoud and then hover over the symbols to have the words read. How cool!!
I have been a huge fan of this website and use in my classroom quite often for two very important reasons: 1. it saves me LOTS of time in preparing lessons that incorporate symbols (they do the work for me, for which I am very grateful!) and 2. the site is very user friendly and it is ALL FREE!! It also is great to use with the SMART Board. I would mention that because the site does not originate in the US some of the words that are coupled with the symbols are spelt differently. It definitely is worth a visit to this amazing site!
The Rain Deer Orchestra April 23, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Math, Music, SMART Board, Special Education, Websites.Tags: education, Interactive, Math, Number Recognition, SMARTBoard, Special Education
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The weather here in New England this week has been sultry- the mercury reached 84 today-so I thought I’d write about a site that might cool us off a bit! It’s called The Rain Deer Orchestra and is a great motivating site for number recognition 1-10 because it incorporates music… and my students LOVE music! Using the SMART Board students simply touch the nose of the reindeer ( a white glove squeezes the nose) and it elleicits a musical note. I should mention that for some of my students the fact that the number is listed below the nose can be confusing (they want to touch the number). It also is effective for addressing cause/affect objectives. It does give you the option of following a pattern to play 3 Christmas songs or you can opt for free play and create your own beautiful music! Hope you enjoy a little Christmas in April!
Special Needs Cheerleaders April 23, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Down Syndrome, Special Education.Tags: Autism, Down Syndrome, Special needs
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I came across this MSNBC story from Colorado and wanted to share- it touched my heart, made me smile and reminded me of the quote-”Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.”
– John Heywood, sixteenth-century English poet
