A.T. Update
Vol. 1, March 2016: Great Free Apps
Spring is almost here!!! To bring it in with a lion I am releasing a brand new feature from the Special Education Office, a monthly Tech Update. Each update will include technology features you can use in your classroom to provide strategies for UDL, differentiation, as well as assistive technology. I know there are tons of products out there so hopefully this allows you to identify useful tools for your classroom without having to scour the many "tech" stores that are out there. This month highlights many useful apps that are teacher approved and, for the most part FREE!
Brain Pop
Works in conjunction with a Brain Pop subscription and on all mobile devices. The BrainPOP Featured Movie and BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week apps regularly deliver fresh movies, quizzes, and bonus features right to your students’ handheld device. They cover a breadth of relevant topics including current events, historical figures and milestones, holidays, curricular subjects, and more. Over 700 videos available and no concerns about questionable content.
Best Books for Tweens
Perfect for middle school students! Choose from popular categories such as action/adventure, fantasy, mystery, sports, animal characters, historical fiction, realistic fiction, and non-fiction. You can also filter the list to see books with either male protagonists or female protagonists.
This app is a fun way for parents, teachers, librarians, and readers to get more information about top rated books at the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade level. Tag a book as "I want this" or "I've read this" to add it to your list. You can email your list out for an easy way to show which books you're interested in getting and which books you've already completed.
This app is a fun way for parents, teachers, librarians, and readers to get more information about top rated books at the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade level. Tag a book as "I want this" or "I've read this" to add it to your list. You can email your list out for an easy way to show which books you're interested in getting and which books you've already completed.
See Touch Learn
Picture cards are an integral part of an effective learning program and are used to help teach new words and concepts and foster self-expression. Brain Parade’s See.Touch.Learn app combines the effectiveness of picture cards with the power and interactivity of the iPad. Create custom exercises and lessons, automatically track performance and carry your entire library collection with you at all times. Whether you are using picture cards as part of an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program or another program, See.Touch.Learn. is for you. To get you started, Brain Parade includes over 50 professionally designed exercises with each library you purchase!
Earth Viewer
EarthViewer is like a time machine for exploring Earth’s deep history. Based on the latest scientific research, it lets you scroll through the last 4.5 billion years with your fingertips. Follow a favorite landmark, be it Greenland or New York City, as its position shifts through time, or watch a famous fossil like Tiktaalik make an incredible journey from its origin to its current location. Layer your view of shifting continents with data on atmospheric composition, temperature, biodiversity, day length, and solar luminosity, to get a more complete view of our dynamic planet.
Virtual Manip-ulatives
A virtual set of fraction bars available for your iPad. Use the rectangular bars or pie graph format in conjunction with a virtual whiteboard. Manipulatives alone are not enough to help our students but paired with great teaching can be.
Too Noisy
If the noise level is acceptable a happy smiling contented graphic is displayed. If the levels of noise increase beyond what the responsible adult has determined as acceptable, the graphic changes to reflect the unacceptable noise level. Once the level of noise returns to an acceptable level the graphic automatically returns to the happy contented one, however, if the volume of noise remains unacceptably high for more than 3 seconds...an audible alarm is sounded (this can be turned on and off) and the screen of the device appears to shatter! Also, the "Alarm Counter" on the meter is incremented by one (this can be zeroed at any time with a reset button).
On occasions, it may well be that a higher level of background noise is acceptable, depending on the activity the children are engaged in. In this case, the responsible adult can adjust the sensitivity of the app so that a higher level of noise is required before the graphic changes or the Alarm is triggered.
On occasions, it may well be that a higher level of background noise is acceptable, depending on the activity the children are engaged in. In this case, the responsible adult can adjust the sensitivity of the app so that a higher level of noise is required before the graphic changes or the Alarm is triggered.
Technology Request
Calling all unused iPads!!
It's very exciting that our county has been able to put so much technology into the hands of our students. With most middle school and all high school students having access to Chromebooks I bet there are some unused iPads out there that could really be better used in our elementary schools. If you have first generation iPads or iPads that are not being used for instructional purposes please email me so that I may redistribute these tools for use by our youngest students.
Event Information
Half Day Professional Development
12:00 - 2:00 - MSAA Test Administrator Training
Please be sure to bring your laptop to participate in online webinars.2:30 - 3:30 - PODD Training
If you have a PODD please bring it to the training.
When?
Wednesday, Mar 23, 2016, 12:00 PM
Where?
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Event Information
Spring Break
When?
Thursday, Mar 24, 2016, 12:00 AM
Where?
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