Student Guide Corner

Have you ever heard teachers (or parents) disparagingly call the use of assistive technology a crutch? Can we still see the "crutch" as a negative when it allows a student to read TEN TIMES faster in HALF the amount of time? True story. I worked with a high school student who "eye" read ten pages in four days on her own and then used text to speech ( VoiceDream Reader ) to "ear" read ONE HUNDRED pages in two days . Do the math. That's an impressive difference. And she was independent. Not all crutches are bad. Let's embrace what works and give all students what they need. photo attribution: http://fortyfiedbeauty.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/stock_crutches_guy_sm.jpg

I just checked the statistics for this teaching blog.   Sometime over the next day or so, it will likely reach a total of 200,000 page views.   I am always amazed and pleased that so many teachers read these essays.   Since there is no publicity, the word only spreads because readers like you pass along the URL.   Thanks for doing that!!  Whenever you read an idea that you like, I hope you will share it with your colleagues, friends, neighbors, and even your enemies.   I love it when people send me teaching ideas.  Likewise, I appreciate your sharing my thoughts with others.  Teaching ideas should be shared and not hoarded. ** If you have read this blog for long, you know that I am always thinking of possible ways that I can improve my teaching.   I am a big believer that the more ideas you have then the more ideas you will have.  If you have one idea, a second idea may be difficult to produce. ...