Modifying Abstract, Language-Based Curriculum

Please click on over to the Advance blog to see my post about the V in the FIVES criteria for choosing good technology resources that help make instruction more visual.

ASHA Session Accepted!

After a week down in Cape Cod with an unexpected lack of internet access (won't be renting that house again), I'm back on the grid, but only for a few days as I am off to Europe. Really, I am not a jet-setter, but this summer it seems that way!

I was excited to learn that my submission to the ASHA Convention in Philly this November was accepted! I will be presenting a 1-hour seminar, Links to Language: Leveraging the Interactive Web in Your Interventions, on Friday 11/19 from 11:00-12:00. It's session #1598, so please add it to your Convention Planner after you register. Hope to see you then!

I'll also be helping out with a poster session, Narrative Rubrics to Support Evaluation and Eligibility in School Settings, Session 1140 on Thursday 11/18 from 3:00-4:30, so please pop by that session too!

More details to come...

Summer Schedule!

I hope all of you are enjoying your summer. As I write, Boston and pretty much all of the Northeast are in the midst of a heatwave.  Not a fan, but I guess you have to expect this in July! Summer can be a time to reflect, or just relax into a deserving doze.  Your choice.  I'll still be here as part of your PLN, but posting somewhat less frequently, as I am headed on a few vacation trips (one to Europe!).

As a summer message to you that doubles as highlighting a fun resource, I present the following:

SNOW GLOBE MAKER- BEACH!

Remember when summer trips (yours' or others') meant acquisition of Snow Globes?  My favorite snow globe strategy was to tip it upside down so all the snow accumulated at the top (bottom), then flip it over so the snow flew.  Then Repeat.  And Repeat.  Thank goodness computers came along.  The Snow Globe Maker series (also with Spring and, natch, Winter editions) are iPhone/iPod Touch apps available for $.99 from the iTunes Store that allow you to make fully customizable snow globes!  Spatial concepts and descriptive elements (as well as causal, sequential, narrative pieces if you encourage kids to make up stories) will accompany your creations!  

Check it out and I hope you get some time on the beach!

Continuing with FIVES

So we get that the F in FIVES, the criteria I have suggested to evaluate good tech resources for use in therapy, is for "free or almost free." No discussion needed. In my next few posts for ADVANCE, I will be discussing the other letters, though. Click on over and check out the I.

Thanks to http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/ for the image.

Click on over...

...to the Mindwing blog to see my post about using Character Mapping to build social thinking skills with your groups of students.

According to the FTC guidelines, I will disclose with each of these cross-posts (and in other references to Mindwing products) that I have a contractual relationship with Mindwing as a guest writer. In no other instances am I compensated to review or endorse products or technology resources (i.e. websites).

Happy 4th! And Canada Day...

We all have trouble describing what fireworks do, and are limited to comments like:

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOh" or

"I like how that one did the squiggly thingie"

The Firework Display Designer from i-Board Interactive (I have no idea why it is under the category of Religious Education) gives us (and our students, of course) a way to simply customize and describe a fireworks display to celebrate the holiday.  You can make choices of color, "bang," speed, timing and tilt, thus working on important concepts and descriptive skills along the way.  Check it out and have a blast this 4th! Computers are certainly safer than real fireworks...

Thanks to InTec InSights for pointing out this resource.