Wednesday, December 29, 2010

End of the Year Wrap-up

Disney - Holiday Wishes (2) (Explored)
As the end of the year approaches I'd like to take a few moments and thank all of my readers.  I've been extremely busy this year, but I appreciate you staying with me during my long absences.  In 2011 I plan on getting at least 1 post per week, getting #AppMonday back on schedule and bringing back the AT Blog Carnival.  I thought I'd share some of the most popular posts of 2010 with you, check them out:

Blogging Against Disabiliism - #BADD2010
AT Smackdown - #ATIA2010
#ATIA2010 - Favorite Products

See you in 2011!

Patrick


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Friday, December 10, 2010

Googling for Communicating


Way back in April of 2009, I shared how I had started using Google Docs to increase collaboration between myself, my related service providers, outside therapists & parents.  A year and a half later it's going gangbusters!  It's been a huge success for me, and my parents.  It is a great way to track student progress, it's a wonderful record of student behavior.

Since I started this project I have added some parts.  For instance, I created a second page just for parents & outside therapists to share information about a student.  One parent even keeps all their child's information about medication changes and seizure activity, which makes it extremely easy for the school nurse to be kept updated!

I've created a Prezi that details the steps I've taken to create the documents, modify them so they are shared correctly, protected them, & added notifications.  You can see it here - Googling for Communicating.

Recently, I've had to make a new portion to the communication logs - translation.  I've had a new student start in my room, whose parents do not speak English, but I wanted to continue to have the opportunity to share information.  Google has thought of this and has created a formula to automatically translate cells.  IT uses the Google Translate engine and I can't verify how accurate the translation is (since I don't speak any other languages), but I figure it's better than not communicating.  I've posted some directions for using the formula at my wiki - Googling for Communicating - Translation.  You can see a sample here - Patrick's Communication Log - Sample.

Patrick


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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Edublog Awards


The Edublog Awards Nominees have been announced and the field is quite broad.  There are quite a few nominees in every category.  Some of my favorites are - Chris Bugaj of A.T.Tipscast, Ira Socol of SpeEd Change & Richard Byrne of Free Technology 4 Teachers.  Please take a moment and vote for your favorite blogs, tweets & posts at the Edublog Awards.


Patrick


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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Tarheelreader Update

One of my favorite websites to use with students Tarheelreader.org has made an exciting update!  Books created on the site will now play on iOS devices.  As of right now the books will play on any iOS device running the 4.2 version software.  So this should work on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3rd & 4th Generation & iPad.  Due to an unfortunate Apple rule you have to touch the words to get them to be spoken out loud.  I don't have a device that this will work on, so I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried it out!  You can check out the announcement here - iPad Speech Support.

Patrick

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Monday, December 6, 2010

Phineas & Ferb



I've found a fun activity for this winter season, that star Phineas & Ferb from the Disney Channel.  The activity is based on their Winter Wonderland episode and has the kids doing all sorts of fun activities.  You can tell them to throw snowballs, decorate the tree, or shovel snow and they do it in their own unique way. The best part is that to get them to do these things you have to tell them, using your computer's microphone.  You do need to speak clearly to make it work, but to be honest my students didn't care what they did as long as they did it after they spoke!  It's a very motivating activity for many students.  You could even record the command onto a switch and have them speak that way.  If you have a student who types, they could practice by typing in the commands too.  I made a simple instruction and choice board of the different activities that Phineas & Ferb will complete.  You can download it from the Boardmakershare.com site - Phineas & Ferb Winter Wonderland.  Have fun playing at the Winter Wonderland!


Patrick


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Sunday, December 5, 2010

Weekly Diigo Links (weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.