Melissa Maguire
Director of Special Education and Pupil Personnel
Complete Guide to Special Needs/Educational Apps - EasyStand Blog. iPad Apps for Kids with Special Needs. 10 Free iPad Creativity Apps for Young Learners. Teaching our kids to be creative is just as important as teaching them critical thinking skills.Creativity open up students mind to new learning horizons and makes them capable of tackling new and novel situations way better than any explicit instruction would do. We, in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning , strongly believe in the importance of creativity in education and we have dedicated a whole section in this blog to articles covering this topic. We have also reviewed some web tools that teachers can use to integrate creativity in their instruction and today we are going to introduce you to an awesome set of iPad apps that can do the same job but this time for young learners in primary schools. 1- Draw Free for iPad This is a great free iPad app that lets users create beautiful drawings.
It has an intuitive interface and is very simple to use, ideal for young learners. 2- Pic Collage 3- Our Story 4- Scribble Press 5- Puppet Pals HD 6- Skitch for iPad 7- j2e 8- 123D Sculpt 10- Inkflow. Special Education Apps. Free Ebooks. Special needs. Differentiated Instruction. Apps - iPad. Educational Leadership:Feedback for Learning:Seven Keys to Effective Feedback. Classroom Ideas. Ipad Apps for Education. 22 Easy Formative Assessment Techniques for Measuring Student Learning. I came across Terry Heick’s blog – 10 Assessments You Can Perform In 90 Seconds – at TeachThought from earlier this year and really enjoyed the formative assessment strategies that he outlined. Using formative assessment techniques in class – or “simple assessments” as Terry calls them – are easy to administer and provide the instant feedback teachers need to identify which students need more help, and then adjust their instruction and lesson plans to help them.
Visit Terry’s blog above to get more detail on the following ten formative assessment techniques: 1. New Clothes 2. Do’s and Don’ts 3. Three Most Common Misunderstandings 4. Yes/No Chart 5. Combining Terry’s ten with the ten we’ve blogged about can give teachers 20 great formative assessment strategies for measuring student learning. 11. Here are a couple more assessments you can use to elicit evidence of student learning. 21. 22.
Do you have a favorite? Examples of Formative Assessment. When incorporated into classroom practice, the formative assessment process provides information needed to adjust teaching and learning while they are still happening. The process serves as practice for the student and a check for understanding during the learning process. The formative assessment process guides teachers in making decisions about future instruction. Here are a few examples that may be used in the classroom during the formative assessment process to collect evidence of student learning. Observations Questioning Discussion Exit/Admit Slips Learning/Response Logs Graphic Organizers Peer/Self Assessments Practice Presentations Visual Representations Kinesthetic Assessments Individual Whiteboards Laundry Day Four Corners Constructive Quizzes Think Pair Share Appointment Clock eHow: Types of Formative Assessment.
Establishing Classroom Rules. By Phil Nast, retired middle school teacher and freelance writer Found In: Classroom Management Appropriate behavior fosters a positive classroom environment. Engaging students on the first day of school in creating of a set of rules helps ensure their investment. The following professional development resources, articles, and activities offer different approaches to this common start of school task.
Professional Development Welcome to Classroom Management Online Training (Grades K-5) Online classroom management program. Effective Classroom Practices (Grades K-12) This series of eight mini modules on essential classroom practices includes “Classroom Expectations and Rules.” Recommended Reading Establish Rules & Consequences Provides PDF versions of guidelines for crafting effective rules, elementary and secondary consequences that work, and a plan to teach and invest students in rules and consequences. Everyday Rules That Really Work! Establishing Classroom Rules and Consequences ( 4 Great Rubrics to Help you Select Educational Apps. As iPads are increasingly infiltrating our educational systems the question of the pedagogical implications ensuing from the use of these mobile gadgets in the classroom come to the surface.
Some do look at them as an added distraction and that learning can be more focused without students having access to them during the class. Traditionalists do advocate this view and are , in fact, against the " over-digitization " of education. To these people I say what John Dewy once said " If we teach today as we thought yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow ".
I am strongly in favor of the use of mobile gadgetry for educational purposes. I am talking here specifically about iPad. 1- BVLS iPad App Evaluation Form Click Here to download it. 2- iPad App Evaluation Guiding Question Click Here to download it. 3- Mobile Application Selection Rubric Click Here to download it. 4- Critical Evaluation of Content-based iPad/iPod App Click Here to download it.
Ways to Evaluate Educational Apps. I am conducting a series of workshops in Florida and was asked to share a rubric to help teachers evaluate educational apps as part of the workshop. In 2010 Harry Walker developed a rubric, and I used his rubric (with some modifications by Kathy Schrock) as the basis for mine. (Read Harry Walker's paper Evaluating the Effectiveness of Apps for Mobile Devices.)
I kept in mind that some apps are used to practice a discrete skill or present information just one time. Others are creative apps that a learner may use again and again, so it's a challenge to craft a rubric that can be used for a wide span of purposes. My rubric also emphasizes the ability to customize content or settings and how the app encourages the use of higher order thinking skills. Here's what I chose to spotlight in my rubric: Relevance The app’s focus has a strong connection to the purpose for the app and appropriate for the student Customization Feedback Student is provided specific feedback Thinking Skills Engagement Sharing. Special need. Special Education.