Drumming up some fun! May 8, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Music, Our Classroom, SMART Board, Websites.Tags: Music, SMART Board, Website
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Today the U-Mass Drumline visited our school and our class was invited to attend this wonderfully fun, loud, impressive show! My students were mesmerized by the rhythm, beat and precision that these very talented young adults demonstrated by “hitting the drums”. As the show concluded, keeping a beat with invisible drumsticks, many of my students asked if they could “hit the drums”. Enter two websites: 1.Virtual Drumming -play drums using the keyboard. Great to watch on the SMARTBoard. The drums as very life-like and the drum sticks move to the beat. 2.Drums Online Player -play drums with the keyboard or mouse- so perfect for SMARTBoard interaction as it allows students to touch the drums to make music. Here’s a sample of Scott’s musical talents using the keyboard to showcase his “Ringo Starr” moves on the Virtual Drumming site: scott-drums.wmv
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.
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.
“The Lives They Left Behind” April 20, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Books, Special Education, Websites.Tags: , Autism, book, Special Education, Website
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I learned about a very interesting, thought provoking website today from a college friend. She thought I might be interested in this site knowing that my teaching career had started at a state institution. An institution where, when it was first opened, the primary diagnosis for admittance was Epilepsy and not MR. I often wondered about the circumstances that the people who lived there had faced when they were placed. This institution became their “home” and a place that many chose not to leave, when given a choice. So many “what if” questions would pop into my head when I would come to know many of the folks who lived there. Anyway, back to the website– it’s called The Willard Suitcase Exhibit Online. As explained on the site: “When Willard Psychiatric Center in New York’s Finger Lakes closed in 1995, workers discovered hundreds of suitcases in the attic of an abandoned building. The suitcases and their contents bear witness to the rich, complex lives their owners lived prior to being committed to Willard. They speak about aspirations, accomplishments, community connections, but also about loss and isolation.” After more research I discovered that this site is based on a book:
“The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic” by Darby Penney and Peter Stastny. Photographs by Lisa Rinzler. Based on almost 10 years of historical
detective work…. about the lives of 10 people who were committed to Willard State Hospital in New York’s Finger Lakes during the first half of the 20th century.” The book is now on my- “to read” list.
Whiteboard Room ROCKS! April 9, 2008
Posted by anne marie in SMART Board, Special Education, Websites.Tags: SMARTBoard, Special Education, Special needs, Website, Whiteboard
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Charlie Danger from the Better Living Through Technology website shared another site with me today and believe me after exploring The Whiteboard Room site I feel like it is Christmas morning and I got to open the largest gift under the Christmas tree!! This is a definite take a look and stay a while website for all Special Education Teachers using a SMART Board in the classroom. Enjoy and THANK YOU, Charlie for sharing!
Better Living Through Technology April 5, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Autism, Special Education, Websites.Tags: Special Education, Website
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A friend of mine who attened the CEC Conference in Boston this week passed along this dynamite website that is written with Special Educational Needs in mind and is overflowing with resources and ideas–
Better Living Through Technology. This is a “non-commercial web site designed to promote the use of technology to help people with a range of disablities.” Definitely worth exploring.
Little Fingers make it BIG on the SMART Board! April 3, 2008
Posted by anne marie in SMART Board, Special Education, Websites.Tags: SMART Board, Special Education, Website
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It has been a wonderfully beautiful spring day here in New England– have to admit I couldn’t wait for the final bell to ring today so I could rush home to take a walk with my dogs! But before that could happen it was a day filled with swimming, recycling, learning about animal habitats and trying out another website on the SMART Board.
Today we used LittleFingers Games and I’m happy to report that it was another success! There is a variety of PreK-3 educational games addressing a range of skills- we particularly enjoyed the Color Counting, Apple Pickin’, Number Aquarium and Space Germs. Space Germs got a HUGE thumbs-up from the students- they LOVED the challenege of trying to touch the aliens as they flew across the SMART Board (great for eye/hand coordination). I should mention that you will need the Shockwave plug-in to view these games.Enjoy!
Read a “Looky Book”! March 31, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Books, SMART Board, Special Education, Websites.Tags: Books, reading, SMARTBoard, Website
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If you haven’t checked out the website www.lookybook.com you might want to take a minute to do so! I came across this website when I started a Google search for books online. I should let you know up front that this is a website designed to sell books. It may not work for all classrooms, but the reason I like this site is because you can view and read over 200 picture books, for free, with no obligation. I would recommend that you register (it’s free) to eliminate the requests to purchase the book while reading. Using the SMART Board today we read ”Owls” by Gail Gibbons. It was a perfect activity since we are learning about animal habitats. The books are not interactive (students can, however, touch the screen to turn the pages), but having the book projected onto the screen is a plus for my students. I read the pages using a pen light to highlight the words, asked comprehension questions and had students identify the illustrations, etc. The one negative is that the ease of reading the text is dependent on the size of the text in each book. The illustrations, however, in all the books I have used are wonderful and a great spring board for picture identification, prediction, composition, etc. The other obvious advantage and time saving feature of this site is that you can simply review books that you might want to use in your classroom without having to go to the library. All in all it definitely is worth a “Looky Book”!
