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Monthly Archives: August 2010
Gerls Rock Tour Summer 2010 – We Have a Winner!
Image via Wikipedia Brajkovič – 2009 Tour of California. As …” style=”font-size: 0.8em; border: medium none;” width=”300″ height=”201″> By now many of you know about my special education law summer 2010 speaking tour. I have been struggling with a… Continue reading
Posted in education, Gerl, Individualized Education Program, jim gerl tour, law, Lawyer, Special Education, special education law
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Parenting Children with Special Needs
An interesting link came across the QIAT board the other day for a new magazine. Parenting Children with Special Needs looks like a nice mix of articles about raising kids with special needs. A year long subscription is quite reasonable -$10.00. The premier issue includes information on special education services, finding a support group, and some personal stories. It looks like an interesting read.
Parenting Children with Special Needs
Patrick
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Posted in magazine, parenting children with special needs, related services, Special Education, subscription, support groups
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Moriah Read To Me Today!
Moriah read to me today. Not really! I read a book to her today that she absolutely loved. So, she had to read it herself. It was a medium length book, but she remembered what I read her. I was pretty impressed, considering she just turned 3 years old in July. I love that age. [...]
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Posted in teaching
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at least i didn’t tell her to shut up
So there’s this girl. This is her second time around in the (general ed) first grade. She’s receiving special education services through the resource room teacher, and to complicate things, she was in the bilingual program last year.
Basically this just means that she’s really low and speaks hard-to-understand “Spanglish”. Oh, and she’s a total sweetheart.
Yesterday at lunch (we have to eat lunch with the students during the first week to make sure they know how to behave), she was watching me eat my kiwis.
“What’s that?”
“These are kiwis.”
[spaces out for a few seconds]: “That kiwis?”
“Yes, these are kiwis.”
“You like?”
“Yes, I like them.”
“Kiwis?”
“Yep, these are my kiwis.”
“You like?”
“Yes, I like them.”
[eyes glaze over for a second or two]: “Is green?”
[Siiiiiiiiiiiiigh]: “Yes, they’re green.”
God bless her, she was starting to get on my nerves, but then I wondered if I had sounded just as lost when I was dumped into a French public school when I was seven. My teacher back then knew exactly two words in English: “Shut” and “up” (not kidding!). Somehow I became fluent.
I hope this sudden immersion in an English-only environment does wonders for her. For now, the bilingual teachers are right next door if I need help understanding her!
Posted in Classroom Life, Kids Say
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Tour Contest Winner
Look for new post tomorrow for the winner of the name the tour contest. Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from U.S. Cellular——-
Thanks for subscribing! Jim Gerl Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Threats to Eliminate Federal Gifted Ed Funding Loom; Grassroots Action Critical
Over the last month, CEC’s Policy Insider has shared that Congress has taken significant steps to eliminate the one and only federal program focused on gifted education, the Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act. CEC members together with the National Association for Gifted Children are answering back by urging Congress to reinstate funding for the Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act. Join educators, parents, and researchers from across the country in standing up for high-ability students! Taking action is easy and fast using CEC’s Legislative Action Center. Thankfully, Congressman Courtney (D-CT) and Congressman Gallegly (R-CA) have… Continue reading
Posted in CEC Legislative Action Center, Gifted and Talented, Opportunities for Advocacy, U.S. Congress
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U.S. Department of Education Solicits Feedback on Priorities, Share Your Thoughts With CEC
As previously reported in CEC’s Policy Insider, the U.S. Department of Education is soliciting feedback on two sets of priorities: for its research agenda and for its discretionary grant programs. These priorities will directly impact themes and focus areas within the Department. Earlier this summer, the Institute for Education Sciences – the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education – released its proposed research priorities which will guide the federal education research portfolio and impact the focus of research grants. Read more. Additionally, the Department has proposed 13 priorities that it may use in crafting requirements when awarding discretionary… Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Race to the Top Winners Announced: What Will it Mean for Special and Gifted Education?
Just as students around the nation are heading back to school, U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan announced which of these student’s states won the Race to the Top and which lost: 9 states and the District of Columbia are the Race to the Top winners in Round Two. Here is a list of the big winners, the amounts they will receive and their score:• District of Columbia: $75 million. Score: 450.0 • Florida: $700 million. Score: 452.4 • Georgia: $400 million. Score: 446.4 • Hawaii: $75 million. Score: 462.4 • Maryland: $250 million. Score: 450.0 • Massachusetts: $250 million…. Continue reading
Posted in Race to the Top, U.S. Department of Education
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Teachers: The Secretary of Education Wants To Hear From You!
This week, the U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. is beginning a back to school bus tour to hold conversations with and honor America’s teachers. The Secretary will begin in Little Rock, Arkansas and be stopping in several cities in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, New York, New Hampshire, and Maine – just to start. Throughout the tour, Duncan will be visiting classrooms breaking ground in closing the achievement gap, early education, school nutrition and safety and teacher recruitment. Duncan will be joined by public school teachers now serving as U.S. Department of Education teaching fellows as well as local leaders. All… Continue reading
Posted in Opportunities for Advocacy, U.S. Department of Education
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Boardmaker Studio
Mayer-Johnson is releasing a new product, and I was lucky enough to get a tour of it. Boardmaker Studio, which will start shipping Sept. 7, is a set of software based off the Boardmaker Plus series, but at the same time completely different. As communicated to me by a representative from the company, it is completely separate from Boardmaker and is not intended to replace Boardmaker Plus or Speaking Dynamically Pro (SDP).
I love Boardmaker Plus, I use it constantly, but it does involve some understanding of programming to get the most out of it. Yes, you can download materials from Boardmaker Share (previously called Adapted Learning) and use them, but I like to make things my own. Boardmaker Studio gives you the tools to do that. You can use Boardmaker Studio to create both print and interactive content. It comes with over 100 on-screen templates, 400 print templates, and 100 gadgets that allow you to create activities in minutes. All of them completely customizable. By understanding a few simple steps, basically how to edit a box, you have the power to make rich content. I watched as a simple matching exercise was created in less than 2 min. and was ready to use.
It also allows you the ability to save content “on the cloud”. No longer will you have to remember to transfer that file before a student can use it, the program is linked to Boardmaker Share and allows you to upload and use files from any internet connected computer. Boardmaker Plus & SDP v.6 files can be imported and converted to use with Boardmaker Studio.
I personally like the concept of Boardmaker Studio, it’s very similar to the changes that Intellitools made to Classroom Suite from ver. 3 to ver. 4. Boardmaker is at the very limits of it’s capability, it is based on coding that is over 10 years old. To make Boardmaker more versatile required a complete re-write of the code and that is where Boardmaker Studio comes from. I would love to have more hands on time to play with all the features.
At this time Boardmaker Studio is only available for Windows computers, the Mac program is in development, but there is no release date at this time. It comes with the full PCS library from Mayer-Johnson, just like Boardmaker. That being said, it is a $399 program, and in this time of budget shortfalls I’m guessing many districts will pass on purchasing at this time. I’m interested to see if Boardmaker Studio takes off, I think it’s an exciting new offering from Mayer-Johnson! You can check out more information and a demo here: Boardmaker Studio.
Patrick
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Posted in Boardmaker Share, Boardmaker Studio, interactive, mayer-johnson, new, program, windows
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