Lauri Carpenter Share's How She Uses Unique Learning Systems at Del Mar Heights Elementary (DMUSD)

Lauri Carpenter and her awesome Paraeducators.  They work tremendously well as a team!

Lauri Carpenter is a Moderate/Severe Education Specialist at Del Mar Heights Elementary School. Lauri uses the Unique Learning System (ULS), which aligns with the Common Core. She uses Adobe Acrobat Pro to adapt ULS materials to provide additional differentiation for students.  Instead of highlighting specific, topic-based nouns during the ULS lesson, Lauri emphasizes and focuses on "core/power" words such as: different, said, story, because, temporal words: morning, night, and core question vocabulary words such as: When, Who, How, and What.  In doing so, she facilitates a higher degree of generalization of learned vocabulary and comprehension across environments and activities.   This empowers her less verbal students with access to more vocabulary for expressive output across a range of communicative functions.  

Realizing that watching videos is highly motivating to many of her students, she presents the ULS story of the week on a flat screen monitor.  She prefers to use this method over SMART boards or projectors because she found that her students were more  engaged when focusing on something that they are used to (TV).  Students are engaged from the start and, therefore, more willing to participate. 

Watch how Lauri incorporates the ULS theme in a math lesson.

Lauri learned how to use QR codes in the classroom at one of  NCCSE'S Technology Summer Institutes. She uses them as an interactive part of her circle time to create a deeper understanding of the concepts presented (days of the week, months of the year, and weather).  By using these various forms of AT during circle time, Lauri increases her student's level of engagement and peer discussion of the topics

See how Lauri uses QR codes during circle time

You can find light/low-tech to high-tech options being used in Lauri's classroom!

 A job well done team!

The First Ever Ability Awareness Week at Capri Elementary! (Encinitas)

Capri held it's first Ability Awareness Week January 25-29, 2016.  It was organized by Jen Simons.  She's a parent and the Special Education Liaison for Capri.  She asked if we could host a table during lunchtime at both the main area (grades 1-5) and the kindergarten area.  Students were able cycle through and learn about/experience various technology used by students with varied abilities (including text-to-speech, speech-to-text, Alternative Augmentative Communication and switches).  We were happy to be a part of it!

Jen Simons (Special Education Liason for Capri) & her boys

  

  

Jen Inaba, School Psychologist and Debbie Burke, Ed-Specialist (pictured above-left) were both crucial to this event along with Nancy Jois, Kindergarten teacher (pictured above-right).  Nancy organized the "Kindness Challenge"

Teachers & General Ed Students at San Elijo Middle School (SMUSD) use a SMART board and a SMART table to support students!

Shannon Dudley (Special Education teacher- Mod/Severe) and Allen Brooks (General Education teacher-Technology )
San Elijo Middle School

At any given moment, you can be sure to see technology in action in Shannon Dudley's classroom supporting students with moderate-severe disabilities! Students are immersed in technology from everything from augmentative & alternative communication for students who are non-verbal to SMART board technology for lessons.

VIDEO: Sierra (student in Mrs. Dudley's classroom) and Advanced Technology students work with the SMART table

One of the many highlights in the class is the peer collaboration between 8th grade general education students in the Advanced Technology class headed by teacher Allen Brooks. For the past 4 years, Mr. Brooks and Mrs. Dudley have cultivated a collaborative working environment that brings students from a mod-severe environment together with their gen ed peers via technology.  

Students in the Advanced Technology class creating programs for the Smart board and Smart table

The general education 8th graders in Advanced Technology class have been working with Shannon's class since September.   They first came in to observe, meet kids, talk with them, make connections. Following that, Shannon came and talked to the technology class about the needs and individual strengths of the students.

Last year, Shannon and Allen received a SMART Table for Shannon's class to create and use activities that were motivating and more individualized to the needs of Shannon's students.Their semester assignment is to create, trial (beta phase), and implement programs and activities for Shannon's SMART board & table using SMART software to create programs. Their design was based off particular subjects, then slowly catered to individual student's interests: such as a love for french fries, text size specific to student's fine motor, placement of material on the screen, color/background for vision differences, and even large, hard hitting selections for student's with higher degree of sensory needs.

Temple Heights Elementary (VUSD) Creates Access!

Heather Love-Fleck (5th grade teacher), Alyssa Prouty (Paraeducator) and Penny Stephenson (Education Specialist) worked as a team this week to discuss ways to make the curriculum more accessible for a student!

Mrs. Love-Fleck uses technology regularly in her classroom.  The students have access to iPads and can retrieve and submit assignments via Google Drive.  The team met to discuss additional ways to give more access to a student that has difficulty with fine motor skills.  He is capable of producing written language, but his fine motor skills present a barrier.  Some of the ideas that the team came up with include:

• Access to worksheets (including district assessments) using an app called Notability.  This app was purchased by the district for all students.  The app allows the student to annotate on the document and then submit it to his teacher using a shared folder in Google Drive.  He will also do this to create math journals!
• Mrs. Prouty learned how to use the "Scan to PDF" feature on the school copier in order to get the worksheets into the student's Google Drive account. 

The team plans to have collaborative meetings like this on a regular basis to discuss how to create access on upcoming projects/assignments.  Way to go team!!!

Alyssa Prouty scanning worksheets to send to the student's
Google Drive.

Penny Stephenson & Heather Love-Fleck

                              

Ability Awareness at Richland Elementary (SMUSD)

The "Talking Station" Lydia, Shannon & Hilary

   

Lydia shares how and why students use
Augmentative and Alternative Communication

 

  Jeff shows how speech-to-text can support students with fine motor
difficulties.

Richland Elementary School had their 2nd annual Ability Awareness week Sept 28th - Oct. 2nd. On September 30, 2015 we were invited to participate.  Members of our AT team shared how we support students by providing access and tools for communication.  The students got a chance to use some of the devices and programs.  It was a wonderful event.  Way to go Richland team! 

 

Students accessing a reading passage via text-to-speech..  Denise helps students understand
what it's like to have fine motor difficulties.  The goggles help them understand what has more barriers.