Making Brownies

For the last 2 Fridays, I have asked people to support the staff at the Red Cross call center by making a baked item. The first Friday, we had brownies made by the Gourmet Foods students, and last Friday, the students in my Functional Academic class baked. And of course, the teacher in me just couldn't pass up the opportunity to make this more of a learning experience. And so, I created a "How Many Different Kinds of Brownies" can you make activity. We've done some logic charts, and solved a few word problems based on the same concept.
The worksheets for the lesson are on the wiki. Scroll down to "Logic", because that seemed to fit best as a topic header.
One worksheet has the problem (You have 2 brownie mixes, 1 kind of icing, 2 kinds of add-ins... How many different kinds of brownies can you make?). The other set of worksheets is a data recording sheet, and a data collection mat with manipulatives. We cut out the manipulatives (pictures of the items they can use to make the brownies), and put them in the slots on the data chart, then recorded the information on the data sheet. It worked fairly well, and I think the concept has some possibilities.

Technology to Make the Job Easier

I have Mary Poppins singing "A Spoonful of Sugar" going through my head right now. Last week, the job coach that works with a lot of our students had the idea to label the shelves in the cafeteria kitchen so that the students could be sent to get something when they are working. She wondered if we could do it on the computer. And, as I mentioned, my duty this year is to provide tech support to the special education department. We looked at different label templates available in Word, and then the job coach and a student went back over to measure the front of the shelf.
The next day, the student came down with a list of items they had found by inventorying the shelves. I set up the template for him, and he started typing. The student already knew how to find clip art, and digital pictures, so only needed minimal assistance for that. In fact, he was able to get about 15 done in the period, with pictures, and ready to print. He only needed help when the picture wasn't clear.
The benefit to this, beyond the students being more independent, is that a lot of our cafeteria staff are not native English speakers. It will also help keep things organized on the shelves. Oh... and the student also learned a very valuable skill which he is starting to generalize to other areas.

Amusement Parks

Somewhere around 1999-2000, a video game called RollerCoaster Tycoon showed up. I remember first seeing it at an "educational" toy store that sold mostly videos and computer software. I purchased a copy, but found it too slow and too difficult for the students I had at that time to use. A year or so later, and I find myself covering for the 7/8th grade science teacher at my middle school who is on maternity leave. It was after state testing, and the 8th graders were antsy. In a few weeks, they were going on the annual trip to Six Flags for Physics in the Park, so I thought having them explore the science behind the rides might grab their attention. It did... We had two different software packages, a roller coaster simulator, and RollerCoaster Tycoon. I was surprised at some of the work that was turned in, and ultimately turned in the unit plan as the subject aligned lesson plan that my school required. Fast forward another year, and I was teaching technology education. On a cart. In 2 buildings. I decided to have the students do a unit using the software, and purchased 5 licenses of RollerCoaster Tycoon II. I created tutorials for the software, purchased several videos that showcased both the science around the rides, and why people went to the amusement parks. The students also had to create a PowerPoint presentation about a theme park they chose to research. Overall, the project was a huge success, and one group of students had the opportunity to present their projects at a student technology conference. Since that point, I have done at least one part of the project (usually the PowerPoint) with my students each year. The class is currently completing a webquest to find different things about amusement parks on-line, which we will turn into a simple slide show. Then, students will work on the research for an amusement park they've chosen (this year's parks are: Dollywood, King's Dominion, Six Flags, and Walt Disney World), and finish by creating parks in RollerCoaster Tycoon.
We'll be using 2 versions of the software: RCT II, and RCT III. For II, we have both expansion packs, and for RCT III, we have the waterpark expansion. Both groups of students have tried out RCT II on our older laptop, and we'll be doing RCT III together since it is only available on my laptop. I'll post a few of the files over on the wiki, feel free to take a look and/or use. The files that I've posted tutorials and such for are older versions and all matched to RCT II. I hope to get things created for RCT III soon.
Check out another post (in a few days) on an idea I had for making the tutorials more accessible to my students...

Masters of Disaster, Part 2

The Masters of Disaster activities that were uploaded to the IntelliTools Activity Exchange seem to be popular. I must admit that the more popular activities are the ones that are generalized to teach other skills, such as AM/PM Sorting or Peanut Butter Sequencing. I am hopeful that some of the more disaster-safety specific activities will continue to be downloaded (and they have been, just not at the same rate as the others). After several requests, I have also posted the ZIP files for the IntelliTools activities to my wiki. If I get permission from the Red Cross, I will post the paper-based activities as well.

Masters of Disaster

Last year, I learned that most of my students had no idea what to do in a disaster! Soon after that conversation, I read an email written by a parent of a kindergarten-aged son who uses both a wheelchair and a voice-output device. His class was studying fire safety, and she was worried that he would feel unsafe and left out as the class practiced "stop drop and roll", but gave him no opportunity to truly participate. What to do???? How do we get this information out? I decided that the easiest way to do it would be to adapt and modify or add activities to the Masters of Disaster curriculum.
And so, all last summer for several hours a week, I took up table space at my local chapter and worked on creating activities. Overall, we spent about 25-30 hours at the chapter creating activities, with another large amount at home researching. We created activities that could be done on paper, and also a number of activities for IntelliTools' Classroom Suite. Toward the end of the summer, I asked a group of parents who had children using Classroom Suite to examine the activities for me. These parents deserve a special thanks for taking time to look through the activities, and suggest changes or improvements. In addition, thanks go to a teacher at my school who was kind enough to look over the paper-based activities for me and the staff at my local chapter who gave me space to work. The activities are targeted at students with significant disabilities at the middle and high school level, or regular education & students with special needs in grades K-4.
Unfortunately, around this time, I had some computer issues that resulted in an upgrade to Vista. This has meant the project was shelved in fall as we decided how to approach this problem, as well as the release of Classroom Suite 4. It was decided to post the completed activities and then to go forward using Classroom Suite 4.
You can find the IntelliTools Activities in the Exchange by searching for Masters of Disaster. You can get more information about the Masters of Disaster curriculum at the Red Cross website.

Google My Maps

One of the last of my projects for my graduate class is a group work on a Google Tool. Each group had to choose any Google Tool, explore how to use it, and then come up with ways to use it in the classroom. My group is rather diverse: myself, a special education teacher, a librarian at an inner city school, and a guitar/history teacher in Southern Maryland. Given our unique make-up, it was a little tough to find a tool we would all benefit from... And then, somebody posted a website that was created to explore the assigned challenge of telling the same story 50 different ways. The website included a story that used Google's My Maps. I was convinced this was it, and fortunately, the others in the group agreed! I've spent the last few days learning how to create my own maps. The first one is rather dull, being just a list of places that I've visited over the years; the only interesting bits there are the few sites I included articles on, or photographs. But, my second map is far more exciting (at least to me!), and shows pictures of my trip to Seattle. I used the hybrid settings on My Maps to create a tour of Seattle using the pictures I took, and some wikipedia articles. I was even able to find a YouTube video about the Pigs On Parade. I can just imagine how this could help my students see and learn about places in the United States, or other countries. It gives the hook to get their interest, but also teaches to their strengths by providing visual and kinesthetic opportunities. My only issues are that, as near as I can tell, the Map program doesn't work with assistive technology such as screen readers, and text-to-speech, and I didn't really see a way to add a caption to photos I embedded. It is also rather time consuming to pull all the media files and articles onto the map. I think that for some large units, its worth the effort. It would certainly be a good project for students to complete to show off what they've learned. Here is a quick video about how to make a Google My Map of your own:

Unleavened Bread

Yesterday, we played Best Guess and then made unleavened bread in class. The bread was supposed to come out as "crisps", but even though we flattened the bread out pretty well, it wound up more like pita bread, soft and kind of chewy. I thought it was okay with butter, but not all of the students enjoyed tasting it. I was again reminded that cooking requires that the students use all of their skills to make a finished product: we read the recipe, we did math when we measured, and set the timer on the oven, and we have already been talking about how different cultures make different kinds of bread. Last year, we had done some hands-on work with equivalent fractions, and 3 of the students were able to tell me what we could use if I lost the 1 cup measuring cup: we could use 3 of the 1/3, 2 of the 1/2, and 4 of the 1/4. They didn't necessarily SAY it that way, but they picked up the correct cup when given a choice, so I think that means they know it! One of the students was the official photographer, and followed instructions beautifully when told to just take pictures of hands, not faces or bodies. Since she did such a nice job, I was able to put together a very quick slide show. Enjoy!

Best Guess!

I am always looking for ways to encourage my students to guess. Guessing is a very hard thing for them to do, because they do not ever want to appear wrong. And yet, guessing is something that we always have to do, because there is no way to always be correct. To encourage this, and sneak a bit of science into our classroom, I made a "game" called "Best Guess!". It was really simple.
I used 2 sheets of inkjet magnets from Avery (see a this post for where to buy the sheets). On one sheet, I made 2x4 sized name tags for each student, along with the two choices for today's round. On another sheet, I made a question prompt (today's is: The bread we made is ___________________), and a cut-out star shape with "BEST GUESS!" written on it. The directions were printed on a sheet of card stock. The directions were pretty simple: choose one of the words and put it next to your name. If you're right at the end of the block, you get 2 extra tickets in our weekly drawing (which is how they earn money to buy rewards at our classroom store).
Today's drill tells the students to look on the back of the door to find the game.
We'll see how it goes...

Bake Sale!

I'm afraid this is another post that doesn't have a whole lot to do with technology, although I will post some picture recipes that I've made to use with my students. There is an explanation of the recipe format with the recipes as well as links to two very good cooking in the special education classroom resources. I have loads of cook books, including Emeril and Rachel Ray cooking with children books, Better Homes & Gardens, but the ones I've listed were specifically designed for special education.

I've always run a community service club of some type at the school where I teach. I have already shared my belief that volunteering in the community you live and work in is incredibly important, but I actually think it might be just a little more important for students who receive special education support. Often, students have low self-esteem, or problems with social skills. Volunteering is a good way to improve all of these skills, plus get some good experience for job applications, college essays, etc. But, beyond that, it gives the volunteer a sense of ownership and pride. The something to point to that makes the other things we do that aren't so fun possible. A sense of pride for these accomplishments can go a long way with students.

Anyway... I am one of 3 sponsors for the Key Club/Community Service club at my high school. We are having our first fund-raiser this year for the club on Wednesday. The club officers decided that Halloween was the perfect day to have a bake sale. I have always enjoyed cooking and baking, but I can't eat most baked good anymore, and so I don't bother. This gave me a chance to go a little wild...
3 pans of brownies: plain, white chocolate & mint, and white chocolate
12 pumpkin raisin/cherry/white chocolate muffins
12 plain date muffins
1.5 loaves of banana oatmeal cinnamon bread (I was a little shy on the batter for some reason, hence the "half a loaf".)
20 mini-star shaped Funfetti (the Pillsbury mix stuff) cakes

I hope it all sells so the Key Club students can attend the division conference in April, and the Red Cross Convention/Roll Call in March. I've never been to a Key Club conference, or the Red Cross Conventions, but I know the latter has a lot of networking opportunities for youth volunteers. For those that can't make it to the bake sale, here's a picture...

Bookmarking

My students always have problems getting to a website that I want them to use for a class. We have tried using a variety of on-line sites and lists in Microsoft Word. Last year, I was introduced to a site called PortaPortal, which I liked because it was available at school (not blocked!) and because I could set up categories to put the bookmarks in. By using categories like this, my students can find "pictures" and look for the specific link, or "free time" and choose a game without my help. The only thing that would make it better is if the bookmarks had pictures! I've considered using del.icio.us as well, but I am worried it might be too complicated. Today, I discovered that I could export the PortaPortal links, by category, to a document which will then open in IE! I can now send my students to our global drive, and they can just find the link instead of having to retype it.
When I have, I think I'll add some Boardmaker pictures to ease the reading requirements, which then adds the pictures that I figured would make it better. You can look at the text list here
On other fronts, just about everybody has finished their Illustrated Poems, and I'm looking forward to introducing the next unit & project. The students surprised me today when I told them we'd be moving forward on Thursday by wanting to know NOW what the next project would be!

Low-Tech & Simple

I've always wanted a word-wall in my classroom for my students to refer to, in order to make them more independent. This way, they can check the word-wall for spelling before they ask me. The problem has always been organization, coordination, and space. I know that there are a few other special education teachers at my school who would also like vocabulary walls, but because they travel from room to room, they would need words for each room they were in OR a way to quickly pull down and hang up a set.
Enter: Magnet sheets! Woo hoo! I've been looking at these in Staples for years, and trying to find a way to use them for something. Staples, and other office supply stores, along with Borders, are my preferred shopping locations! I love colored pens, too. ;)
Anyway, I used my favorite label template in Microsoft Word. Using a 2x4 shipping label template, I can make 10 vocabulary magnets per sheet, and 50 per package. The package of magnet sheets was about $12 from Staples, but I did find it cheaper at some other on-line stores. I was able to use a nice font at about 36-40 point, and include a picture of the word to help with comprehension, and with the visual learners who remember pictures better than words. And, of course, you could make the magnet any size you want up to 8.5 x 11. It worked really well, and should be fairly portable. I'm thinking that teachers that move classrooms could store them in a coupon box or index card box sorted by letter (or topic). Hanging back up again could be part of a drill/bell-ringer activity for a lot of different concepts: alphabetizing, categorizing, synonym/antonym, etc. Here's a picture of the one in my classroom: