Go Noodle

Have you ever had a class full of restless students who are struggling to sit still and pay attention? As educators, we understand that younger students benefit from frequent movement or what is now considered to be called a “brain break.” Teaching for a full fifty-minute period is almost impossible, therefore we need to constantly change activities and keep the lessons engaging in order for the students to reach their highest learning potential. 

With the help of my colleagues, I have discovered a fantastic interactive website that allows the students a short break in between lessons that gets them up and moving.  Gonoodle.com is a brain break interactive website that has various channels where students can follow along to different songs, dance along and even move to Zumba as well.  There has been proven research that increasing physical movement during the classroom will help recall information later.  My students were very apprehensive at first to the idea of using GoNoodle, but once we utilized it two or three times, they began to really enjoy it.  I even offered it as a Friday afternoon reward and many students signed up for it. They had a blast having the opportunity to choose the songs to sing and move along to!  

                                 Here's a short video of the class favorite! 

Proloquo2go

Having the opportunity to work within a private, special need school, we cater to students with many social, emotional and behavioral disorders.  Each student is placed in the school and has their own individualized plan in order to help them succeed to their highest potential.  Many of our Autistic students do possess verbal communication skills, but there is one specific student who struggles with expressing his wants and needs. This student began using a piece of assistive technology at home that was suggested by the at home behaviorist, which then prompted him to use at school as well.

Proloquo2go is an iPad based application that uses symbols and speech as a form of communication for students who are unable to speak.  This application became very resourceful for one particular student in our school when he regressed in his speech and communication skills.  Although he had the capability of verbally conversing with teachers and peers, Proloquo2go gave this student the opportunity to initiate conversations and express his needs appropriately.  This application was extremely easy for the student to utilize and we have seen tremendous progress with his communication and less tantrums.     

Book Creator

Asking students to put pencil to paper and start writing short stories can be a difficult task to students even without learning disabilities.  They may feel pressured by the writing process or lack the skills needed, such as writing in complete sentences, correct grammar and punctuation and spelling.  Currently, there is a tool available for students, educators and parents that will allow students to use their creative imaginations and design their own storybooks at the touch of a fingertip solely using an iPad. 

Book Creator is an application available for iPads, Android and Windows that allows students to create endless storybooks.  They have many options such as, annotating over images, recording audio, adding text, or incorporating images from the web into their story.  Book Creator is an amazing tool, which allows the students to work independently while using their imagination to the utmost potential.  Teachers can modify classroom assignments for learning disabled students by uploading worksheets directly onto the app, and then have students annotate their answers directly over the image or add voice recording into the area where needed.  Students would be more motivated to write short stories using this piece of technology due to the fact that they can alter it as many times as they want, as well as personalize the story to their own liking. 

SymWriter

For many educators who teach in the elementary grades, reading and writing for students with learning disabilities can be challenging at times.  When students are just beginning to read, they still do not have the skills to form meaning from specific words or form complete sentences.  There are many ways to influence and enhance the building of vocabulary and reading comprehension.  One assistive technology that is available for is called, SymWriter.

This tool is resourceful not only for teachers, but will benefit early readers and writers as well.  For example, SymWriter could most frequently be utilize in Literacy Class. The class would be given a writing prompt and the students would respond by typing their responses in the word processor.  As words are being typed into the program, symbols are depicted above each word to help support reading and understanding.  Once the students complete their story, they have the option of text to speech, to have the story read aloud to them as well. Teachers can use this program to input short stories for reading comprehension, vocabulary, and for learning schedules.  There are endless possibilities with this fantastic tool!

LiveScribe Pen

            Many students and individuals with learning disabilities face troubles with auditory processing skills along with fine motor skills.  Imagine being a student in class, listening to a lecture, but your hand cannot keep up with the teacher to take notes because she is talking too fast or you are unable to stay focused for long periods of time.  Some people take for granted the ability to read, write and think all at once.  Unfortunately, not all students have that ability.

The newest assistive technology available on the market for students who are struggling in this area is called the LiveScribe Pen.  Students now have the ability to record the lesson or lecture at hand, and take short hand notes at the same time.  This pen also allows you to sync the audio recordings directly to your iCloud services so that you can go back and listen to them later on.  Having this new technology can be extremely useful for students when taking guided notes for an upcoming test.  Students can take short hand notes while recording the lesson, then go home and listen to the lecture to help them study and recall what the notes were about.  The LiveScribe 3 smartpen costs about $150 and is accessible with Android and iOS software.  To find out more information click here.