SymbalooEDU Social Bookmarking Service Gets this Teacher into the Cloud!

     Three weeks ago I had never heard of SymbalooEDU. I went to a professional development class feeling not so tech enabled with my head literally in the clouds and left with a free social bookmarking service in the cloud! Clouds now have a whole new meaning to me! SymbalooEDU has changed my life for the better.

      With SymbalooEDU teachers can organize and share the best of the web with their students. To me SymbalooEDU is an amazing tool. To the right of this page is a sample picture of what SymbalooEDU looks like. SymbalooEDU is a free educational tool that gives teachers and students a way to save their on-line resources in the cloud with access from any technological device, such as: an iPad, iPhone, MAC, and/or personal computer. Each tile on the SymbalooEDU grid (actually called a gallery) is a website, app, or a resource. As a busy teacher who always wants to give their students the best possible lessons, SymbalooEDU is not only a life saver but also a time saver. Now with a click of a button, the classroom teacher can share websites with students and colleagues. There will no longer be gaps in instructional time while the teacher types in web addresses manually. Just one click and the whole class is together on the correct website. There will no longer be the worry of advertising getting into what the student sees. The best part is that all resources in the SymbaloEDU gallery are saved in the cloud. This means that they can be accessed by any device in or out of school.  SymbalooEDU resources automatically sync between a user’s ipad, iPhone,Mac, and personal computer.

   Again, please look at the sample SymbalooEDU picture above. Each color coded section which will actually have pictures or graphics on it from the website, demonstrates how each teacher or user can organize their SymbalooEDU gallery. This actually has a name called: a webmix. Simply stated, a webmix is a collection of links around a specific topic. My personal teaching gallery is actually made up of six webmixes: lessons, typing practice, behavior, presentations, teacher made websites, and music to teach by. Webmixes can be published for other teachers to find and use. Symbaloo EDU is very user friendly. I am not a strong tech person, but even I was able to quickly and easily add my frequently used websites to my SymbalooEDU gallery. It is very simple to search the web from the SymbalooEDU gallery. There you can find your favorite websites that you frequently use and place them on a tile in your gallery.

   Another great feature of SymbalooEDU is there is a tile where you can create or obtain lesson plans in the marketplace. There is even a Symbaloo basic certification lesson plan!

  Since I'm not an expert of SymbalooEDU my recommendation is to hop on over to http://www.symbalooedu.com to learn more about it. 

Soon you will be just like me: a teacher in a cloud! Best of luck.

ADHD Informational Guide: Three Main Types

Life: Two Questions Answered!

     

My son's friend recently asked me two questions to get to know me better. I decided to share them in a blog form because everyone chooses their own path in live for different reasons. My path from day one was special education. I have chosen to be an advocate for children who need special education services for very personal reasons. I love my career choice and even though I may gripe about the long hours of paperwork that goes along with this career, I do believe that the paperwork is necessary to give children the best education possible. The paperwork is simply the glue that binds all of the services together and keeps the team connected. I have never regretted becoming a special education teacher.

Question 1: Why did you go into special education instead of regular education?

"Hmm...My reason for going into special ed as opposed to regular ed is highly personal but not so personal that I won't share. I was a preemie back in 1961. I actually almost didn't make it because my heart stopped beating when I was only a few days old. I was saved. My story could have easily turned out differently. I could have been intellectually challenged. Thankfully I was not. I went into special education to help kids who were not as fortunate as me. I wanted to treat kids how I would have wanted to be treated if I were disabled. I believe that every kid is "normal", it's just that everybody's normal is different. The most rewarding part of my job is seeing kids happy and excited about learning. I love watching kids work hard to get to the next step in his/her education and then get it! I love coming up with new and creative ways to make lessons memorable to keep my students talking about what they have learned and experienced. Not every child learns in the same way. I love finding the key that helps unlock each child's learning potential." 

Question 2: What is your favorite holiday and why?
     
     "My favorite holiday is Christmas Eve. I love Christmas Eve because it is a true family holiday. Everyone is happy and together reliving Christmas's past and full of hope for the next day. I love reading Christmas books. When my kids were young we had a holiday reading jar. I actually wrote a blog about it! I love unfilled stockings and the smell of the air. I love Christmas Eve Mass as a family. I still remember the feel of my grandmother's smooth,  leather gloves as she held my hand in church. I hope my kids have warm memories too.#

Summertime Play: A Child's Work

     Summertime is here! Did you know that some of the best lessons don't come out of the classroom but from your child's imagination? The belief that play is a child's work is commonly accepted among researchers and educators in the field of early childhood. Practically from birth, children learn best from touching and experiencing objects using their five senses  to see the effects of the items on their world and on themselves. Play, along with proper nutrition, hygiene, and adult interaction is essential for proper social adjustment and problem solving skills. Children who play develop abstract thinking skills which will later help them with the necessary skills to be successful in their academic and personal lives.
     Children are constantly observing the interactions of adults. Through play they imitate these interactions. One of the best summers my children ever had was the summer that we got a new refrigerator. I had placed the refrigerator box in the garage for disposal. My kids begged me to keep it! So, we did. For the next couple of months my driveway and that box became a playhouse for all of the kids in the neighborhood! It's amazing what kids can do with duct tape, paint, and their imaginations!
     Another favorite of my children was play-doh! Kids can make play-doh into anything they want it to be. They can make figurines to role play and/or food to pretend to cook. 
     Let's not forget blocks and sandboxes or better yet the beach. What better things to use to build castles and dreams!
      I have one other activity that I used to let my kids do! We played in the rain! We put our boots and jumped in puddles. We got wet! (Only for rain showers without thunder and lightening). We laughed and had such a great time. What is the difference in getting wet in a pool or beach and a puddle? Okay, yes, puddles may be not quite as clean, but it's all good fun. I also wouldn't advice letting children jump in puddles unattended but within the realm of your own safe neighborhood, why not?
   Kids need to be kids! Kids need to play! So, this summer just let your kids be kids! Let them develop their sensori- motor skills, constructive play skills, their dramatic play scenarios, and if they are ready, play games with rules! Remember, the interactions in child's play, will give your child the lessons of giving and taking in social relationships. Creativity will strengthen as the child acts out make pretend dramas and expands on real life situations that the child has observed. Play also helps the child with math and reading because of  symbols and shapes used in play. This will become an even stronger skill if you read to your child as part of a regular routine.
     So this summer let your child do his/her work and let them play! 

Empower Special Needs Teens with Appropriate Social Strategies

   

Teenagers with special needs have a whole host of hidden difficulties that aren't often thought about or mentioned. Up until puberty and the growth spurt that comes with it, it was okay for these kids to be cute and lovable. They could hug their family members, classmates, or mostly anyone who was kind to them. Often kids with special needs misread people and think anyone who smiles at them or says a kind word to them is an instant friend. Not only is this not true but can also be dangerous.
     When a person is given a properly administered IQ test and has a score or IQ below 70, s/he is in the bottom 2% of the population. A person with an IQ between 60-70 is on the approximate grade level of a third grade student. A third grade student is 8 or 9 years old. Therefore, a teenage or adult person with the mental age of 7 has scored the same amount of questions correct as a 7 year old first or second grade student.

     Let's talk about seven year old children for a moment.
Socially, seven year old children want recognition for their individual achievements. They are not generally good sports when losing a game or even a sharing a preferred toy. Seven year old children are learning to stand up for their own rights but must be taught boundaries for self advocating. They want to be more independent. They are more critical of themselves and are critical of their own failure. They also become concerned with their own lack of skill and achievement.
     Now let's take the traits of a seven year old and place them in the mind of a teenager with an IQ lower than 70. This teenager may speak clearly, be able to do simple
 math equations well enough to balance a checkbook, and may be able to read on a second grade level. This teenager may look just like his or her same aged peers.
     Up until middle school these teens were expected to be thankful and to express their gratitude. When they were younger it was perfectly acceptable to openly express their appreciation with big smiles and hugs. It was okay to feel safe by holding their caretakers hand. It was okay to sit on well known adults laps. Suddenly their bodies grow and hormones kick in just like their age equivalent peers and "OH NO!"  These same expressions of gratitude are no longer appropriate! Let's keep in mind that people with lower IQ's take longer to learn  to learn skills and proper behaviors than their age equivalent peers. So these skills and behaviors that were learned early on have been habituated and will be very difficult to change. Learned behaviors are not like academic skills that build on to each other, for example learning alphabet sounds, then applying phonics skills to create the basis for reading. Behaviors become habits which are very difficult to undo. Behaviors become deeply ingrained in the person's brain.
   So now, this teenager who was once labelled sweet and affectionate is now labelled weird or perverse, or perhaps even dangerous! The special needs body has grown but their emotional and social growth has remained childlike. Special needs teens often don't know their own strength. their reactions to others is often the same as it was when they were seven years old but now it is isn't adorable or acceptable. Sadly, in reality these teens are victims of circumstance. They are not weird, or perverse, or dangerous. They simply haven't completed their learning on socially appropriate behavior yet.
     

This leaves the special needs teenager and soon to be,  adult in a very vulnerable situation. most people in the world are not trained to see hidden disabilities. If a person is walking and talking and seemingly functioning as "normal", then to the untrained eye, this person is normal. It's an oxymoron of fortuity. Teens who are intellectually disabled  often face teasing, taunts, abuse, and rejection by peers yet because they want to be accepted and have friends these teens think these "bullies" are their friends. They believe that their "friends" aren't laughing at them, they are laughing with them. Again, this is because since birth a smile has been a sense of approval.
     Low intelligence coupled with limited social-emotional skills, lead to special needs teens missing important social cues. An example: Dorothy is an outgoing, kind 16 year old teenager. She is in Honor Society so volunteers her time to help in a self-contained special education classroom in her school . Dorothy helps Christopher in math. He is learning how to balance a checkbook. Christopher writes his first, perfect bank deposit slip. Dorothy gets excited, she smiles at Christopher and touches his shoulder to congratulate him. Christopher gets very excited and misreads Dorothy's cues. Christopher leans in and tries to kiss and hug Dorothy.  Christopher gets reprimanded by his teacher. Dorothy who is embarrassed leaves the room. Again she unknowingly gives the wrong social cues by saying "It's all right Christopher.You did great!"  Later, Christopher sees Dorothy at the playground with her friends. Christopher begins following Dorothy and her friends everywhere. At first Dorothy again gives misguided social cues to Christopher so that she doesn't hurt his feelings. She smiles and tells him to please stop following her. The smile tells Christopher that she likes him even though her words do not make sense. Eventually, Christopher follows Dorothy home, often. Christopher's parents believe he is safely hanging out at the local playground, because he returns home on time. He has been going to the playground his entire life. He is allowed to go alone because he is never a problem and can tell time so he knows when to walk home.They do not expect any problems because Christopher has always been kind to others. One day Dorothy and her parents decide that Christopher may be a threat. They call the police. Christopher now has a police record for stalking when in reality he was only misunderstanding social cues. This story is false but realistically special need teens face these hidden dangers everyday. 
     Another danger that intellectually challenged teens may face is their size and strength. They are not dangerous they just may not realize their own strength.  An example is: Jane, who is an intellectually challenged seventeen year old. Jane has younger siblings who are ages three and six. Jane enjoys being with her siblings. Jane sees her parents playing with her siblings and wants to join in. When mom or dad is present Jane is reminded to be gentle. One day Mom is distracted by the mailman; Jane decides to help by pushing her three year old sister on the swing. Jane pushes too hard and her little sister Jacqueline flies off the swing. Jacqueline is not seriously hurt but Jane feels bad that her sister is crying.  Jane also is worried that she will be in trouble with her mom for pushing the swing because she may only push it when a parent is watching. Again, this example is false.

     It is very important that the special education teacher and team of psychologists, social workers, speech therapists, para-educators, and parents take the time to reteach socially appropriate strategies for the special needs teen. Going back to that seven year old mentality, of not being a good loser and difficulty taking criticism from adults, even constructive criticism, coupled with misreading social cues and not reeducating a special needs teen, is a recipe for disaster. Sadly, the person who is a victim in the end might be the teen who in reality is a gentle soul, with a pure heart, who either never learned socially acceptable responses to visual and verbal cues or is in the process of learning them. It seems unfair that an innocent baby is born with special needs, grows up with a loving heart, only to be the victim of a social misreading that places him or her and another person or persons in jeopardy. Remember please if you are a parent or person working with a special needs teen, the importance and value of teaching and modelling age appropriate behaviors that will keep this good-natured teen safe.   

How Far The World Really Goes

Maybe it's better she never knows
                           How far the world really goes...
Maybe it's better she only sees old...
                  for her belongings to her are purely gold.
Maybe it's better she's never seen Parents who work...
              they wait for the check unlike a crook.
Her parents are home, they're drunk, they                                                                      never cook.
Maybe it's better there's free meals in                                             school,since now she can read.
Maybe it's better her parents can't read...
             She can a little, not enough to be freed.
Her clothes are tattered, rarely clean, 
                                                      ...doesn't matter
The colors are pretty pink, blue, purple,                                                                              ..drabble. 
 Maybe it's better her hair is all knotted ... layers of hairspray to keep lice out ...                                                                              undoubted
More kids means more money. 
                                                 Don't worry honey. Brothers and sisters are built in friends
             Maybe it's better they love to the ends 
Holidays are grand, people give this is 
                                                                normal.
                       Mom and Dad are always cordial.
Thanksgiving turkey...
Christmas rum balls, cheap toys  make                                                                      everyone perky.
Maybe it's better she never knows how far the                                                     world really goes.
Parents, kids, cats, dogs, mice, sleep on the                                                                                 floor,
surrounded by trash, chip bags, beer bottles                                                                            galore. 
Maybe it's better she never knows how far the 
                                                    world really goes.
Life in this podunk town makes fewer foes.
The neighbors' life story is simply the same,
as the little girl next door who isn't yet the one
                                                                   to blame.
So to those who know how far the world goes
            who never would wear tattered clothes,
Think of the children who will be lost forever 
in filth, poor education, poverty, however....
If those who know how far the world goes would take a few minutes to reach out and                                                                                care 
             Perhaps a little girl may someday dare
to reach beyond her podunk town
to find a world so sweet and sound
To learn that going to school was more than                                                               free lunches...
That book or two and that teacher who                                                                                    taught,
Gave her a ticket to see past her zone...
She saw the world...
She came back to help her own.

Starting the School Day Right

    I recently started teaching in a new school. I can only send praise to my predecessor. She was brilliant. Since I began my new assignment in an established classroom, I decided to not make any major changes until August when the new school year begins.  The kids in this classroom already had a routine and a certain way of doing things. Instead of changing what they knew, I decided to change my ways to adapt to them. 
   One of the most outstanding things my predecessor did was to start the students academic day with daily classroom news. First thing every morning after breakfast, my students begin by reading our classroom newspaper. The newspaper highlights what we are learning in school, upcoming events in school, real world news, what's for lunch and more. The newspaper doubles as a point card on the back to track the students behavior. The students bring their newspaper home every night so it is also an easy way to communicate with parents. There is a place for comments on the point card side so if a student does something really well, or something s/he shouldn't have done this can be written on the back side of the newspaper too.
   Now this is where the true genius of the newspaper comes in: There is a joke in it everyday that the students must solve! There is a weekly joke person who's job is to find the daily joke for the newspaper. So now the teacher is linking reading, current events, challenges of the mind...and wait...there is more! The newspaper also has a wordsearch built in! Each day the students are asked to find five words present in the articles of the newspaper! This gives the students more reading power and vocabulary! What more can a teacher ask for than to have a meaningful activity every day to ease the students into their day of learning! So kudos to the teacher before me in this classroom who found a stress free  way of starting the school day right! I sincerely praise your efforts.

A Newspaper sample:

P.S. The names in the sample have been changed for anonymity.