Ed Tech In the SpEd Classroom

Using Technology to Help Bridge the Learning Gap

Who woulda thunk Math could be fun? :)

October11

This is exactly how I felt today.  Let me tell you why.

So first of all, I was told yesterday afternoon that our new principal should be dropping into my classroom* to observe the iPad pilot we’re doing.  Of course, knowing this, I try to plan something that the kids will use their iPads for.  Being that today is Core Class Review day, I decide to introduce them to a new app to review their Math.  Lately, we’ve been going over how to write an equation of a line with a given graph.  I happened to stumble upon an app a while ago called Geometry Pad.  Basically, this gives students the ability to graph lines, coordinates, and other figures onto an x and y axis.  What I did was give them an equation, such as y=2/3x-4, and they needed to graph it.  I had to give them some brief instructions on how to use the app, but they caught on fairly quickly.  They graphed their line and we went over it as a class.  We did this two more times and they seemed to enjoy it.

After this, we went onto Wonderopolis so they could write their ten lines about the topic of the day, which had to do with nomads.  Before they began, I showed them the Speak feature on their iPads, which allows the user to tap and select any portion of text and have it read aloud to them.

I then showed my students how to tap and select the text on Wonderopolis.  I demonstrated it to them, showing them the process on my ELMO, then had them do it themselves.

After a bit of tweaking with reading speed rates, they were able to listen to the selection.  I explained that this would be a valuable tool to use when it came time to do research projects in a few months, which will require them to read material from several different websites.  All students in my resource room are below grade level and motivation is always an issue.  I’m hoping this is a useful aide to them when the time comes for them to read a lot more information on their own.

I let my student use my personal, pink-cased iPad for this one. 😉

After class, I had to have a student take a make-up test.  Her IEP requires her tests to be read aloud to her.  I decided to use the iPad to record the test at home and explained to her how to pause and un-pause the iPad so she could answer the questions.  It went nicely, and she did well, considering it was a pre-test.  I used the app Audio Memos, but plan to switch to Chirbit, which is an online audio recording tool.  This way, several students can access the test recording at once, rather than just one recording on one iPad.

And, of course, I had to save the best for last.  Thanks to the wonderful Edmodo community, I posted if someone would be interesting in doing pen-pals with my students.  I had a few people respond that they were resource teachers as well, and would love to get their students to practice writing.  So, beginning next week or the week after, we will be doing, E-Pals, or electronic pen-pals.  My students will be e-mailing their pen-pals, and hopefully, get to Skype with them later down the road.  You have absolutely no IDEA how excited I am for this! At the moment, I’m in the process of doing some brainstorming as far as grading, frequency, format, etc.  I wanted to wait until tomorrow to tell my students about this project, but instead I told them I had some exciting news that I would share the next day.  Dumb mistake.  They twisted my arm and I gave.  At first, they weren’t sure what I was talking about, then as it sunk in, some of them remembered they did something similar in elementary.  But when I explained that they’d be corresponding with other 8th grade students from another state and may possibly be able to Skype them, they started to get excited.  It’s pen-pals suped up.  🙂

Poor Future-Hubby.  He’s been letting me chew his ear off about all this while we were supposed to be sleeping.  Brace yourself, honey….this is only the beginning.  😉

 

 *Of course, after all that prep…he never showed. Oh, administration.  

by posted under English, Math | No Comments »    

Email will not be published

Website example

Your Comment:


Skip to toolbar