Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Able AAC free
Able AAC Free is a free evaluation app to help evaluate two other paid apps called Able AAC and My Daily Tasks Able AAC. This app is designed specifically for individuals who have difficulty speaking or are nonverbal. There are categories listed on the right side of the app, such as, Simple Interface, Advanced Interface, Type & Speak, My Stored Sentences, My Tasks, My Audios, and My Videos.  There are subcategories listed under each one that you can access.  It can tell you the days and months, about animals, emotions, and math just to name a few.  It is set up where you can teach and learn on different levels. This app has different languages and multiple voice engines that can be used also. Once a child has completed a certain level they can move on up to more advanced levels. This is an awesome app and I would definitely use it in my classroom. This app appeals to different cultures and makes it one of the best apps out there. Also built into the application is a configurable home/school daily schedule check able task list, reminder list, reward/motivational system, video and audio learning system


ABA Flash Cards and Games – Emotions
In my review of this particular app, I liked it. It is fairly easy to use and it allows you to change the settings that can be customized for each student.  This app also gives you the option of creating your own cards, which again is good, because you can tailor it for each individual student. It is a simple app that is good for learning emotions and how to connect those emotions with body language and facial expressions. I would definitely use this app with my students especially with the ones who may have difficulty displaying or understanding emotions.

Model Me Going Places
This app was probably one of my favorites because it is designed to help children with autism and development issues. However, it is friendly enough to be used for students on the other end of the spectrum that may not have those issues. It teaches kids how to develop good social skills in six different locations and also how to model good behavior while visiting those places.  In my opinion, the only drawback is not being able to customize the social scenarios to cater to each child and the places they may go. However, the six that were chosen were ones that the majority of children can relate to. So, I would say yes to this app as well. I would use it with my students because it’s them a good model on how to behave in social settings.
Model Me Faces and Emotions

This is an awesome app as well because it helps children with autism and other special needs to understand emotions. There was a time when we were not as well informed about autism and how to teach autistic children or even knew what the meaning of autism. Therefore, to see great apps like this being made to help special needs children is a great thing.  This app is instrumental in helping students learn about different emotions, such as, happy, sad, calm, and proud. The music and pictures add wonderful elements because it can cause the children to be more engaged.  There are different slides that tell about each emotion. You can choose the emotion that you want to hear and see about. These tools are also available on DVDs. This is a great app to use in the classroom to help students that may not be as advanced as others.
My Visual Schedule Lite


This app was created for children with special needs as it relations to audible and visual support. It allows you to create schedules to increase a child’s independence. There are sections that allow you to add lunch and activities and to check those things off the list once completed.  It also allows a user to create multiple schedules for children for different days of the week. This is also a good app that I would use to help students who may struggle in this area.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Great Articles to Read!!!

I really enjoyed reading the article below. In this article, the third grade teachers at Charles R. Drew Charter School wanted to see if their students could figure out a problem within their community that they could solve using heat, since it was a huge snowstorm in Atlanta, GA last year. The teachers collaborated in planning each Project-Based Learning unit to come up with one driving question across the grade level, and I think the students worked extremely hard to come up with an answer. Some of the students decided to create a safety kit that would help people stranded in the snowstorm. I was very impressed!

When I read this article, I immediately begin to think back to the snowstorm that we had last year in Jacksonville. I have never seen anything like it. It was crazy! Although I was safe in my dorm, my heart went out to the people who couldn’t make it home to their families. I feel like most people (including myself) never really think about how important it is to be prepared for the smallest things in life. 

The article below provided very good information about different apps to support diverse learners in the classroom. Not only are the apps beneficial towards diverse learners in the classroom, but they are beneficial towards teachers and parents. I firmly believe that all of these apps are beneficial to me in some kind of way, and they can be beneficial to you. Although all of the apps are great, EpicWin and Duolingo stood out to me the most.

EpicWin-When I first read about this app, I immediately related it to school. When I have a lot of assignments that I need to complete, I will write me a list. Every time I finish an assignment that I included on the list, I will mark it out. It is such a great feeling to mark out assignments that I have completed. It makes me feel like that I am making progress. This app is amazing!
Duolingo- this app is the best new way to learn a language. I actually just downloaded this app because I have always wanted to learn a new language. The app is free and very easy to use!

The article below have provided amazing 14 virtual tools for math to use in the classroom. Growing up, math was my least favorite subject. I am not sure if it was the teacher or I, but I didn’t understand math nor did I like math until fourth grade. My fourth grade teacher made math fun, and most importantly, she made it understandable for me. I wish these amazing apps that are in the article below were available when I was in elementary school. Children in today’s society don’t understand how lucky they areJ. Every assignment that I did in math required only pencil and paper. Now, students can do math on their tablets and iPad's, such as using a protractor, geoboard, ruler, etc.  Also, students have a variety of apps to help them practice on whatever math concept they are learning in class. It amazes me of how things have changed!


Wow! The article below gave me a lot of important information that I need to consider when I get my future classroom. This article talks about managing a technologically equipped classroom. There are two things that stood out to me in this article. The first thing is always having a plan b when it comes to integrating technology into a lesson. My instructors always tell my teacher candidate friends and me to make sure we have a plan b ready to go. Using technology in the classroom, I never know what may happen at the last minute. Therefore, I always have something as back up to keep the lesson on task at all times. The second thing is always using technology in the classroom as a purpose (meaning do not give iPad’s to students just to keep them quiet or just for fun).

This article was very interesting!  I love reading articles like this!