iLearn 2013 Conference

This weekend several Tri-state organizations will be sponsoring the iLearn 2013 Conference at the Vineyard Church in Tri-County. There some great session about how to better utilize mobile technology for all students. I will be presenting in the afternoon (same session presented twice). Check out the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati's website for more information. 

Hope to see you there!
Melanie


**Updated** If you would like to view my "tweeted" notes as well as my presentation, check out the post I did on Teaching with Technology 2.0.

Sweden and the Arctic

For the next few days, Mrs. B’s Reading Roots class will be reading about Sweden and the Arctic.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Are you from Sweden? 

Do people in Sweden speak English? Do you know some facts about the Arctic?

Our Reading Roots group would love to hear from you! Please leave a comment and share with us!! If you would like to send us an audio or video clip, leave your email in a comment and Mrs. B will email you.

For the Reading Roots students and families, here are a couple of resources about Sweden so that we can learn more about this European country.

National Geographic Kids ~ Sweden
The Official Gateway to Sweden
Sweden on Wikipedia

Connecting Countries and Cultures

Dear blog followers,

My reading class is beginning a section of stories that focus on different countries and cultures. I will be posting a little about the countries and cultures, especially questions that the students may have. This will be a part of building background knowledge for the students as well creating a motivating, authentic audience for our writings. 

What can you do as a follower? The students would love to have some comments that we can read in class. Anyone can comment. (Comments are moderated before posting.) What I am really looking for are people who can be the students personal connection to texts we are reading. For instance, we just started a book about Sweden and the Arctic. I would love to have a comment or two from someone from Sweden and/or the Arctic. Feel free to share this post if you know someone who could help connect our class.

Thanks for your time reading! Sorry the posts have been limited in the past few months, but I have been focusing on creating an eportfolio (electronic portfolio) that showcase myself and the classroom. This process has been time consuming so between lesson planning, grad school, and being a mom, the blog had to suffer a little. I hope to be back up and blogging regularly starting in May.

Melanie

Touch Math

For some of the students, we has started a math program called TouchMath. It is a multisensory approach to math. The program uses TouchPoints to engage students of all abilities and learning styles. The TouchPoints provide the students with a visual to help develop numeral and other number sense concepts. We will be completing hands on activities as well as creating our own TouchMath visuals. I will be sending home additional information this week.

Here is a video (courtesy of the TouchMath program) that help explain the program at the beginning with touchpoints and counting patterns.

Overview of TouchMath Touching/Counting Patterns

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Happy Holidays!

We had a great couple of weeks talking about the holidays. The students did well today for the schedule being so out of place. I hope you take some time to look through the holiday gifts and crafts that came home. The students work so hard on them and were proud to bring them home.

The Christmas Trees were a hit this year. Thanks to me son's preschool teacher, Ms. Nancy, for sending home this craft with him so that I could "lesson lift" it (new term thanks to a #spedchat friend). The activity was fairly simple. but worked on so many of the basic skills that the students are working on. The students first cut along 3 straight dark lines draw on the large triangle. Using the dark marker helps them focus on the correct area to cut. Next (and under my guidance), the students built the tree from stump to top putting it together kind of like a puzzle. After that, the students added shiny star stickers (which were a big hit) to their tree to make it festive. Lastly, each student either wrote their name or first initial on the back. I assisted by writing Merry Christmas on the front.


I hope you enjoy the time off with family and friends! I know I will enjoy the time off to gear up for 3rd and 4th quarter! Stay warm! Stay safe!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

PS - School resumes January 3rd.