Student Guide Corner

It's the weekend - time to catch up and take advantage of the opportunity to review what's in my reader. So many treasures to share with you, in no particular order! 1. Do you work with students who may benefit from speech recognition software ? This topic frequently pops up in IEP team discussions about students with written expression issues . Who are the ideal candidates? What are the necessary prerequisite skills? Use the Custom Typing comprehensive online form to guide your decision about the effectiveness of speech recognition for a student. (Explore their resources under the Special Needs tab for a wealth of additional information). 2. Facilitating Online Class Discussions : the Why and the How - Many struggling students fear participating in class discussions for a variety of reasons. Will they give the "right" answer? Do they have enough time to formulate a verbal response? Will they humiliate themselves in front of their peers? (My son told me he pr...

It's not often you come across a teacher like Lisa Parisi. Lisa co-teaches in an inclusion classroom where there is no distinction between regular education and special education kids. Kids are valued without labels. And success happens here. Lisa's most recent blog post, " A Perfect Storm? " details what successful co-teaching in an inclusive classroom looks like. There are four components: 1. A shared philosophy 2. Universal Design for Learning embedded throughout the curriculum 3. Project Based Learning 4. A belief that children work better in small groups Additional factors that promote success: We both work very hard to make our classroom engaging, fun, and supportive. We spend a great deal of time teaching the children acceptance and respect for each other. We both are capable of showing our students that we are learners, too, and as such, have our own struggles to overcome. We both believe in telling children the truth. We want them to understand their strugg...