Intellitools Classroom Suites Activity for Black History Month

Of course Black history should be taught as part of American history so that some day we will not have to have a special month. But until then, I have created two Intellitools lessons on the activities exchange for Intellitools Classroom Suites entitled Famous Black Americans and Famous Black Americans 2.

To download them you will need to open a free account and have the Classroom suites program already installed on your computer. There is a free trial CD/download for Classroom Suites 4 (http://www.intellitools.com/CS4_request_trial.aspx?site=itc)that will run the activities although they were authored with CRS3.

I hope you and your students enjoy them!

Cheap Finds to Use with Children with V.I.

LASER TOP: This toy was at Walgreen's drug store in the sale bin It requires batteries. I thought of it as visual stimulation for low vision multi-disabled kids as it can be spun for them on their wheel chair trays. It lights up, spins and makes a sound. It has a hazardous choke warning so for children who can grab and handle it themselves I'd be certain they have an MA of 5 years and over, as it says on the package, so they will not be tempted to put any parts of it in their little mouths.



VIBRATING BALL: I've had this one for a few years, also with multi disabled children in mind. I had a child with cortical visual impairment and deafness. Pull the string and this one vibrates. Use much supervision as the string may detach. For the kids I used it with, I would pull the string for them. Some were able to let me know they wanted the action repeated by either grabbing my hand or in the case of a nonverbal child with modified signs, she would sign "again." It doesn't make a sound, though. This one is hand sized. There is a larger version of this one that runs by batteries and makes a sound as it vibrates.



TEACHING COINS: I saw these in another teacher's class and thought, Wow! I have needed something like that for my low vision kids when I was teaching money!

She was going to let me borrow hers to make copies. But in my travels I saw these at Dollar Tree in the school supplies section. I have found coin worksheets on line AND placed real coins under the CCTV for students with low vision. When you don't have access to a CCTV or can't carry several in your back pocket, these are a cool alternative. They are printed on front and back. The adult size scissors didn't show up too clearly, but I placed them in the picture to give a size reference.

I've had these laminated and I will have them brailled for low vision students who read braille

Word's of the Day

A nice person said to me, "You know those Word of the Day cards you had posted in that classroom many months ago? They are still there. There are no new ones at all; Just the ones you made. That means that the teacher who is in there is not continuing what you started nor using the cards. So they are yours and I got them for you."

So I have taken pictures of them so that my readers will see how they are done. There is braille on each card. The later ones have sentences authored by the children. Remember these kids are eight to ten years old so don't ever think that the words have to be limited to third and fourth grade words. They were from the school-wide word of the day, current events, class activities, web sites and from those the children brought in themselves.

When our WOD Word Wall was full, the WOD was "ARCHIVE." The children would then pull the words down and put them in the archive-- which is simply a large manila envelope taped to the wall--and we'd fill the wall with new words. Sometimes for fun I would make an Intellitools activity from about ten of the words. I'd ask the children for their own sentences for the activity. They loved this and they'd get extra points in laguage arts.

If you should go to the Intellitools Activity Exchange site look for my uploads under the screen name "MsKathy0724."

Joyful Stress

Many years ago I read an article about stress. The article said there were different types of stress and that "joyful" stress was of the type experienced with something we enjoy. That was me today. I am exhausted yet I feel so much was accomplished and that getting that way was such a joy.

First, I went to a center school this morning. I had to leave from the burbs to get to the opposite side of town to get to a young man's IEP meeting. Can you say seven-thirty in the A.M. boys and girls?

Yesterday I'd warned the secretary of my HQ school that I'd have no time to stop in first thing. The young man, J, is quadriplegic, visually impaired and basically nonverbal. One can tell that there's a lot going on upstairs when he thinks you've said something funny. He has the greatest big ol' grin!

I told his teacher and his caregiver that he would benefit from the age-appropriate lessons on Intellitools Classroom Suites and from registering for talking books at the State Library's Blind and physically Handicapped Section. So I'm going to email the form or the link to it. I need to scan a signed copy--signed by me that is. It will be easier than trying to remember to get a copy for the kids who are not yet registered. I could just email a signed copy to their teachers for the parents to fill out and mail straight from their homes.

By the way, every state has a blind and physically handicapped section. If your child cannot read standard print or turn a page in a standard book then he/she can register to receive talking books from the state library.

While I was at that school, I stopped in to see two of my other consult students. "Miss L" is quite the independent old lady. She types and reads large print. She was reading when I came into her classroom. She has a child specific because she uses a motorized chair and needs a little help around the school. She told me that she and a former student of mine--another old lady--were going to meet up over the weekend. When they were younger and both my students, I got them in touch with each other since they were both visually impaired, wheelchair users and teenagers.

"Mr. K" is on the other side of the room in another teacher's class. He's quite the opposite. He's cortically visually impaired, nonverbal and very dependent. Many times he does not acknowledge the presence of others. Yet there is something pleasant about him.

On another side of town, in a regular elementary campus I went to meet some of the assistive tech team for my Hebrews 1:13 angel. He was in reading block and I didn't want to disturb him until they were ready to see him. Sam, who is one of the assistive tech specialists emailed me yesterday and asked me to call him about the young Mr. H. Today was the best day before the Mardi Gras break because I'll be leaving early tomorrow and out all day Friday for Kairos (No, I don't do Mardi Gras).

I didn't expect so many people to show! There was Sam, Edna who is tech specialist with a concentration on speech therapy; Janice, whom I used to work with at another center about ten years ago. Then there was an OT (Occupational Therapist) and another speech therapist I'd met before who handled the Intellitools keyboard for Mr. H. They asked questions about the CP (cerebral palsey) and the speech. Mr. H has speech that takes getting used to. It's very slurred due to the CP but he will manage to say some very "old" things.

I told them I wasn't sure how much braille he was actually learning because he has such a good memory. he has learned the "Lot's of Dots" book for memory and his favorite double vision book, "That's Not My Bear." The para went to get him and the speech therapist who handled to Intelli-keys showed him the keyboard and how it talked when one put a finger inside one of the shallow holes where the braille letters and symbols were. Immediately Mr. H started to explore the keyboard to see what the other letters and symbols would say.

While we were talking about whether he was memorizing or whether or not this was a good tool for him, he found the letters "O" and "P" and typed "pop" and then "poppop." He laughed and said "P-O-P, pop! Pop pop!"

I said, "Hey he's purposefully spelling that word! He's spelling 'pop'?" Then Mr. H told me and the OT that he could also spell Momma, M-O-M-M-A.

"Well, he's let us know that he is interested in this!" Sam said.
"Now we know where to start! said Edna.

Before they arrived they thought that puffy braille would be appropriate for his CP. The OT had put some on another overlay for his keyboard in the classroom. I told them that regular braille was best for getting used to and that he'd already been exposed to it in his classroom with the cards and books I'd brought. Real braille--at normal size is more realistic.

Meanwhile Mr. H. was exploring the keyboard and making it say all sorts of numbers, letters and symbols. he's also enjoying the heck out of all the attention.

Sam and Edna asked me to stop by after the Mardi Gras break to help them make braille overlays for some other activities they can make available for Mr. H.

I'm excited about that and so is the para, Ms. Williams. Most of all Mr. H. is the most excited of all!

That is how to have a joyfully stressful day!

Intellitools Activities

I like Intellitools Classroom Suites. I have some braille lessons there like this one which uses apples for the braille dots.

If you go to the Intellitools web site and sign in to the activities exchange (http://aex.intellitools.com/), look for my screen name "MsKathy0724." Then you can look at all of the activities I created.