TeachMeetSEN In partnership with Leicester City Council TeachMeet SEN took place on 28 January 2012 with over 60 people attending in person from all over the UK. It will live on through a micro-site which will contain the resources shared on the day, including the best videos of the presentations and selected tweets, photos and blog posts. The site is in production, and will be linked here once ready, but if you can't wait, you can see photos on the flickr and read blog posts by Josie Fraser and Jo Badge for quick summaries of the day. What is TeachMeetSEN? TeachMeet SEN will focus on engaging, amazing and effective examples of practice from parents and carers, school leaders, teachers and learning support staff working with children and young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN). What is a TeachMeet? TeachMeets are informal, free meetings, providing space and structure for people supporting education to share practice, innovation, insight and approaches. Venue, date and time Accommodation Social!
Ways To Differentiate Instruction - Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo (This is the first post in a two-part series on differentiation) I posed this question last week: "What is the best advice you can give to a teacher about differentiating instruction?" I've shared my response in an Ed Week Teacher article that I've co-authored with my colleague, Katie Hull Sypnieski. I'll limit my contribution here to sharing a useful link to The Best Resources On Differentiating Instruction. Experts in the field, though, have agreed to share their responses here, so today I'm pleased to publish answers from Carol Tomlinson and Rick Wormeli. Response From Carol Tomlinson Carol Tomlinson is an internationally-recognized leader and author in the field of differentiated instruction. My journey with differentiation began in my middle school classroom when it was quite clear that my one-size-fits-all approach to teaching was, in fact, not fitting many of my students. So some colleagues and I began to ask ourselves some fairly straightforward, if daunting, questions.
Differentiation - tools, tips and resources Differentiation is an important aspect of education. Students learn differently, have different needs, different backgrounds, different skills, different ability levels, different interests and more. As educators, we try to create engaging lesson activities that provide a variety of learning experiences and allow students to demonstrate their learning in different ways. Differentiation should occur in both how students learn and gain knowledge and skills, and in how they demonstrate and are assessed on what they have learned. “In the practice of education, differentiation is defined as working to address the abilities, interests, and needs (both perceived and real) of individuals. Here are some resources, tips, and tools on differentiation: Digital Differentiation - ideas and tools for differentiating with digital resources Tools for Differentiation - helping teachers meet the needs of all learners Differentiating with Web 2.0 Technologies
Special Education Apps for iPad Add In my classroom , I was blessed to have students from amazingly diverse backgrounds and with an array of skills and strengths. I worked relentlessly to build in supports and foster an inclusive community for all of my students. Continuing with our Education Apps for iPad series, here are some apps grouped by category that students, parents, and teachers can leverage to support all learners! Communication Proloquo2Go . Grace . iConverse . iConverse is a simpler and cheaper AAC device that focuses on basic needs. TapToTalk . iCommunicate . Behavior First Then Visual Schedule . AutismXpress . CBTReferee . Earn It Stars . Skills Everyday Skills . iDress for Weather . Dance Party Zoo . iWriteWords . Thanks to www.b12patch.com , specialchildren.about.com , and the Apple App Store for helping me explore some of these great apps! For more iPad app inspiration, take a look at our post on apps for early childhood education , elementary school , and overall . image courtesy of edvoices.com
Teaching the Gifted and Talented: 33 Websites Where You Can Find Good Resources I wish the Internet was available to me as a kid in elementary school. In New York City, where I attended kindergarten through sixth grade, they called the gifted and talented class "SP". I remember being put into a class to learn French, but very little else. I figured out how ahead I was only when I entered junior high school in New Jersey. The French language I had studied for three years allowed me to coast through French class for the next four years. LESSON PLANS41 Ways to Go Beyond the Book Report Edsitement- from the National Endowment for the Humanities Gifted and Talented Education Lesson Plans Helpful Sites for Gifted Students Lesson Plan Resources- from Davidson GiftedMrs.
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. 2- Pic Collage This is an app that allows you to create awesome collages of your friends and favourite stars using stickers, text, web images and many more. 3- Our Story 4- Scribble Press 7- j2e
Special Needs iphone/ itouch apps The Best Resources On Differentiating Instruction My colleague Katie Hull-Sypnieski is leading a February 1st Education Week Webinar on differentiating instruction, and I would strongly encourage people to participate. Katie’s the best teacher I’ve ever seen…. In addition, Katie and I have co-authored a piece for Education Week Teacher on the topic that will be appearing there soon (it’s appeared: The Five By Five Approach To Differentiation Success), and an upcoming post in my blog there will be talking about it, too (that two part series has also appeared). I also did a second two-part series in Ed Week on differentiation. Also, check out The Best “Fair Isn’t Equal” Visualizations. Given all that, a “The Best…” post was inevitable, and here it is. Here are my choices for The Best Resources On Differentiating Instruction: The Best Places To Get The “Same” Text Written For Different “Levels” Busting Myths about Differentiated Instruction is by Rick Wormeli. Reconcilable Differences? Deciding to Teach Them All is by Carol Ann Tomlinson.
20 Must-Have Educational Resources For All Teachers Edudemic often features posts providing a list of top resources for a particular category. Recently, the site gettingsmart.com posted the names of the LAUNCHedu finalists chosen by the SXSWedu® Conference, offering even more resources for the Edudemic staff to consider! On March 7, 2012, they will choose winners after a full day of presentations by the finalists. There are so many sites and programs on the Internet already, but this competition just goes to show that the need for educational resources is still great. I thought and pondered, considered and reconsidered, and researched and revised a list in my head this week. First, however, I created a wordle using some of the lists the editors have created recently. I divided my resources into categories, based on my interests as a teacher. Devices iPad – The iPad provides access to e-texts and incredible educational apps. Resources for Lesson Planning Classroom Resources Learning Management Systems Cloud Resources What about you?
Education - Special Education Great Lessons 3: Challenge Who is up for a challenge? Number 3 in the Great Lessons series:Great Lessons 1: Probing Great Lessons 2: Rigour These posts focus on the habits of great teaching; not one-off strategies but the things we do every day. 3. Subtitle 1: The thrill of the chase.Subtitle 2: No struggle; no learningSubtitle 3: Beware the Buzz that drowns the Fuzz. How do you know that a lesson is a great lesson? But that isn’t it. The point is that Great Lessons, with or without the buzz factor, have something in common: Challenge. Perhaps the Holy Grail of challenge are lessons that lead to Flow, where the challenge levels are continually just ahead of the level of skills: Flow: Where challenge and skill levels are high. A brilliant example of this is skateboarding as I describe in this post: In practice, routine, habitual challenge manifests itself in myriad ways. LOW CHALLENGE: In my experience, the most common reason for lessons to be sub-standard is that there isn’t enough challenge: Nonsense Comprehension.
Student Learning and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator This file discusses briefly (1) the four dimensions underlying the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and (2) several teaching approaches that will appeal to different MBTI profiles. The 126 item Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Form G, is the most reliable method for assessing student learning style. The MBTI provides data on four sets of preferences. These preferences result in 16 learning styles, or types. A type is the combination of the four preferences. The MBTI instrument should be administered in the first or second class period by the counseling center at your school. Extraversion (E) versus Introversion (I) This preference tells us how people "charge their batteries." Extraverts find energy in things and people. The majority of undergraduate students are extraverts. The majority of university faculty are introverts. Teaching Extraverted Students Extraverted students learn by explaining to others. Extraverted students enjoy working in groups. Teaching Introverted Students