Toad-ally Exceptional Learners: Januay Show and Tell

Happy Happy Snow Day from Denver. I'll linking up with Forever in 5th grade for this months sneak peak into my Special Education resource room. Life in my room has been nuts since coming back from Winter break. Last time I said I was looking to bring "A Little Bit" of tech into my resource room. Seeing my most challenging student light up with having even a tiniest bit of access has changed how they come in and work. Mind you it is by no ways not messy but they love playing with apps right along with me. To help facilitate this--I needed a place that was student login friendly regardless of grade level. I started the year with Google Drive and Classroom but I HATE having to log in my students. I needed them to take responsible for that- not me. Over Winter Break, I came across SeeSaw. After a little of playing I was able to create sign-ons withe QR Codes (which with 1st graders is the best thing ever). Student's create portfolios to share just like with Drive and it can every be shared with parents without having to worry about other student's safety.

This example was created for a summative assessment on non-fiction features. As they started to play with app-smashing. I started with Popplet lite (free version) and then put it in Explain Everything ($) to create the audio. I do really do try to play before giving it to them to do. This way I can work out the kinks but also problem solve and anticipate how they interact with the app. Besides--I LOVE to play.

In playing with apps before letting my students' have a go has been how I do the vast majority of my tech work. From iPad apps to web based to summative assessment. It gives me the chance to find the best way to create, save, and send work. It makes problem solving easier if I've had a preview. In this case, I took a group though Tellagami ($). They share one iPad and started with pictures of their pre-assessment. The group put the photos in PicCollage (free). I then had them put it all together in Tellagami. They have created a character to share what this task was about. As far as pre-assessments go-they rocked it. They worked together to create it and I had not seen it before that afternoon. The fun of playing.

I have a group of first graders how are working on their sounds/letters. I created this game to help them "Race to Top" to work on their sounds/letters with a dice. They have mastered sounds and letters but they need to work on seeing that in writing. I started to have them create pages of the alphabet which are going to be up-loaded to a Book Creator (still looking for one.) Students are taking beginning letter pictures and then creating a short video with a cover page with Shadow Puppet Edu. They love Shadow Puppet it however videos do not import so well to book creators. After 45 minutes of trying I have (for the moment) walked away from it. FYI: Students created the cover page in PicCollage. Shadow Puppet like Book Creator can and my students have up-loaded them to Seesaw.

We have been very bust since returning from Winter Break. I can't wait to see what my students create as I push their critical thinking skills using app-smashing to reach those I have that are most difficult to reach.