Special Education Offers at PCI

PCI Education, which specializes in resources targeted for special education and struggling learners, is offering up to $125 off on orders placed by November 15, 2011. Discounts will be dependent upon the size of the order. Virtual catalogs available for browsing online include: Secondary Catalog (for Middle School, High School and Adult Learners), Elementary Catalog, Intervention and Alternative Solutions Catalog, ESL/ELL Catalog, and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Catalog. A free funding guide is also available on the site.

Helping All Students Through Teacher Websites

Chris Alper-Leroux’s Best Practice piece, Using Instructional Websites to Differentiate, provides suggestions for teacher sites that go beyond the usual “class syllabi”. As a Grade 8 Earth Science teacher, she and her co-teacher have found that using multiple methods for students to access content through their website is engaging for students and results in fewer behavior problems. They use online texts and texts on CD and post “textbook audio clips to the site....”  Their site also features chapter introduction videos; text chapter sections complete with audio, images and vocabulary videos; mid-chapter reviews, and practice tests.  According to Alper-Leroux, [T]he anywhere, anytime availability of a learning-goal based instructional Website, organized to match the sequence of a chapter or unit, allows in-depth, structured remediation for a student working with adults in resource rooms, study skills classes, support periods or outside of the school environment.”

PBS Teacher Innovation Awards

If you are an innovative teacher, you’ll want to apply for a PBS Innovation Award. Twelve teachers from different subject areas and grade levels will be selected to attend a week-long “Innovation Immersion Experience” at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan from July 31 to August 5, 2011. Each winner will also receive a wireless SMART Slate™ and a free PBS professional development course. Thirty-six other teachers will also receive prizes from PBS, and all 48 selected will be invited to partner with PBS and local PBS stations as leaders in classroom innovation. To enter, you’ll need to join PBS Teachers (It’s free.), share your innovative ideas through a video, and complete the application before March 31, 2011. Make sure to read the instructions about uploading of video larger than 3M.

ESL Programs from byki online

Byki online for Education features ESL programs for speakers of Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, German, Italian, Cantonese, and Haitian-Creole. It’s a Web-based learning program that includes over 100 vocabulary lists for each language, activities and pronunciation practice, tracking of student progress, and tools for teachers to create their own content, flashcards and assignments. For students, the programs target individual needs and helps them with reading, writing and speaking. It’s all online, so there is no software to load. Volume licensing is available with discounts from 20% to 46%.

Sing and Learn Languages

Recorded Books K-12 now offers Sing and Learn, a unique series of books and CDs designed to make foreign language learning easy. The products ($20.75 each), which feature languages such as Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, French, Italian, and German,use pictures and songs to make learning fun. The Sing and Learn Arabic!, for example, teaches through pop and jazz with the Arabic instruments oud, qanoun, and ney and includes the following themes: colors, greetings, animals,  parts of the body, seasons, foods, Arabic countries, and Arabic musical instruments. After working with these recorded books, your students may want to make their own audio or video recordings using the target language.  With a flip video camera or a recorder, they can input their work into the computer and share it in digital format.

Virtual Community for ELL Students

ePals and Heinle ELT have created The Heinle Community, a safe virtual workspace in which students practice using English while working with other students and instructors online. Teachers use the Heinle Community to partner with schools around the world in order to do projects together. Web 2.0 tools are provided to help students with their projects. According to Heinle ELT, there are more than one billion English language learners worldwide who could be helped by this type of online community.

Pearson’s Middle School Interactive Science Curriculum

MyScienceOnline.com is designed to motivate students to learn science so that they will be better prepared for the future and interested in careers in science. The program “enables middle school students to read, write, draw, graph and self-assess…”  Real-world content is in place online, as are videos, virtual labs, games, and interactive activities. There are visual cues and online tools to help students master the content. All students including English language learners (ELL) will find MyScienceOnline an effective learning tool. When using the program, students begin with a Planet Diary, a place to explore and blog about issues related to science. You can try some of the exercises and actually, well virtually, write in your answers in pencil.  To learn more about MyScienceOnline, watch the video that describes the program and check the FAQs. You can joint Pearson’s Interactive Science Mailing List as well.

Making All Children Feel Important

Giving that little bit extra, that lagniappe, as those from New Orleans would say, means so much when it comes to motivating children. Sometimes a compliment, or a happy note or email can make a great deal of difference in how children feel about themselves. There’s always something wonderful educators can say about every student.  An elementary teacher asked her students to send her digital drawings of themselves smiling and having fun—“pictures that will make me giggle and smile.” She told them, “When I see your picture, I’ll look at it every day and your smile will make me feel so good.” It’s not just elementary level children who need that something extra; middle and high school students can get down on themselves when things aren’t going well with school and/or friends. Teachers and administrators can’t solve all of the problems young people face, but they can do so much like that pat on the back, that encouraging smile, that time for extra help, that attention everyone needs and wants….

Follett’s eBooks & AV Resources

Follett, known for its excellent selection of books and materials for libraries, also offers audio-visual and eBook resources.  DVDs, Read-Alongs and audiobooks are included in over 100,000 titles from companies like Houghton-Mifflin, Disney Educational, DK Vision, Encyclopedia Britannica, Harper Audio, Sunburst, and WGBH. The site provides MP3-CDs (over 1000 titles) that eliminate lengthy downloading. For its eBooks, Follett provides an online reader through which students can see two-pages at once. With the reader, students can highlight, bookmark, take notes, and search while reading. Why not test-drive by downloading Call of the Wild from Follett?

Benefits of Recorded Books

You can download the pdf version of Recorded Books Work! From the Follett TitleWave site. The pamphlet contains research information mostly from a study involving 8^th and 9^th grade students and other studies involving research on this topic. The 8^th/9^th Grade study suggested that students listening to recorded books tended to write more in their journals about the books read than did a similar group of students not given the recorded versions. Researchers found that ‘modeled reading’ (parents’ reading, teachers’ reading, recorded books) is an important ingredient in helping students with fluency, readiness, and many of the other skills needed for reading proficiency. Activities involving recorded books and students’ reading to each other increased comprehension, reading rates, listening, understanding of new vocabulary, confidence, and reading pleasure. Recorded reading and ‘modeled reading’ strategies helped students acquire skills to read better silently on their own.