Tag Archive: schools
August 27, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
“How was school?” (Good) “What did you do?” (Nothing) This scenario plays out in many cars and kitchens in the after school hours and it can be hard to know who is more frustrated: the kids for being asked or the parents for not getting satisfactory answers. And still, we repeat the process day after day. Of course, we want to know the fine details of what happened and how our children felt, but in some cases, we’d settle for ANY school-related conversation at all. I’ll be the first to admit that it took me way too long to get the hang of how to get information about my children’s school days, and it seemed like just when I did, pow! They were pre-teens and then teenagers. New rule book. Here are some ‘lessons learned’ along the way about those afterschool conversations and some suggestions for parents of the kids... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: families, home, implementation ideas, schools, visual supports
August 22, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
We tried to be patient. We really did. We tried to wait until we had the new venue for our site all figured out and ready to go, but the truth is, we missed blogging and hated the thought of going a few more weeks without being able to post. So we decided to reactivate our old site for the time being and post occasionally to this site. Pardon our dorky look, please. In case you missed these on Facebook, here are are a couple of things we shared in the past few weeks: Lemonade: http://screencast.com/t/xaFcbxySW Building Classroom Participation: http://www.screencast.com/users/CZee/folders/Jing/media/15818f72-c49f-4da6-a12d-e52250794234 PrAACtical Alert: Online Trainings: http://bit.ly/NZ9HYT COCOA: http://www.edutecher.net/educlipper/index.php?shareImgid=2478 AAC Rating Scales: http://www.edutecher.net/educlipper/index.php?shareImgid=2499 and http://bit.ly/Ocgte5 And now onto something new… Last week, I had the chance to talk with Karyn, a mom whose adorable daughter with significant vision impairment and multiple disabilities is entering school for the first time. As she helped... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: families, schools, tangible symbols, transitions
July 29, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
It was another wonderful day here in Pittsburgh at the 15th Biennial ISAAC Conference. It was a special day for me because I had the opportunity to speak about a really fun topic, core vocabulary teaching for young children with AAC needs. It was certainly a group effort! A talented graduate student of ours, Tathiane Paiva, and I shared a framework for developing a curriculum to teach core language in preschool classrooms, and used the curriculum I developed with Lori Wise (special educator and literacy specialist with UM NSU CARD) as an example. The basic principles behind the approach we shared are listed below. – •Language and literacy learning happen all day long. •Children learning AAC need high-quality instruction to learn and use basic vocabulary. •Children learning AAC need frequent opportunities for learning and practice. They need dozens of carefully planned opportunities to use their new words each day. •The focus is on... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Conference, curriculum, ISAAC, ISAAC 2012, language intervention, preschool, presentation, schools
June 10, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Schools are out for the summer in our area, but that doesn’t mean the work or planning stops. In fact, summer is the time when we catch up on projects, learn new things, make materials, and plan for the fall. One of my goals is to do some thinking and planning about how to help some of our preschool AAC kids make a good transition to inclusive environments in the fall. – One of our little AAC friends will be starting kindergarten in a few months, and the excitement is infectious. Support for the SLP and the teachers, both new to AAC, is high on the priority list. Something I hadn’t thought about until a recent team meeting, though, was the role of the administrator, particularly the principal. We’re big believers in the notion that the school culture is built by the principal, so it stands to reason that if... [Read More...]
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: AT, schools
May 20, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
– For many people who use AAC, one of the biggest hurdles to communicating more effectively involves physically accessing their SGDs and/or mobile devices. – In this week’s video, we feature a collection of resources on this topic by SET BC. The collection has 7 complete modules, with print information, presentations, and videos. We’re linking to the series here so that you can explore any of the ones that are of interest to you. –
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: access, alternate access, schools
May 16, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Since Robin has been doing such an awesome job of talking about Twitter and sharing AAC-friendly Twitter resources, I thought today we’d shift gears slightly and talk about applications for the classroom. – 1.If you’re new to Twitter, you may want to start with this helpful post on GeekSLP. 2. Great ideas for using Twitter in the K-12 classroom, many of which can be adapted for SLPs. 3. More ideas on how to use Twitter for teaching and learning 4. Beyond K-12 Twitter is just as useful. Here are some great resources for using it in Higher Education from Edudemic and Web 2.0 Teaching Tools 5. Twitter Professors: 18 People to Follow for a Real Time Education http://on.mash.to/IS5rej –
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: BSHM, resources, schools, twitter
May 13, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
If you follow our blog, you know how strongly we feel about the wonderful work done by the team at SET BC. This week we feature a set of videos and supplemental resources on AT considerations for school teams. This 5-part series by Penny Reed has a wealth of prAACtical information.
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: AT, resources, schools
May 12, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Spring is in the air and that means the thoughts of many school-based clinicians and teachers turn to…survival! If our recent conversations with colleagues and families are any indication of what’s going on in the rest of the AAC world, it’s been a long year. – Sometimes that means that kids get antsy, professionals feel a little worn out and stressed, and families begin to worry about the long expanse of unstructured time from June to September. Here are some of the resources we’ve been looking at and sharing lately. — Solid information on positive behavior support from Florida State University’s program, Positive Beginnings A host of wonderful visual supports for behavior from SET-BC Ideas for visual supports for behavior regulation from Lisa Geary, SLP, of LiveSpeakLove Love this DIY calming jar and these prAACtical ideas from the forum at A-Z Teacher Stuff Helpful downloads for visual supports from Geneva Centre... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: behavior, schools
May 6, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
AAC Extreme Makeover: Classroom Edition is a recorded presentation based on a full workshop for educators and clinicians. In this 3-part series hosted by SET BC, Gail Van Tatenhove provides an overview of 6 fundamental concepts for implementing AAC in special and general education classrooms. Each segment is less than 30 minutes and has narrated PowerPoint slides.
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: intervention, schools
March 14, 2012
by Carole Zangari -
Stand Tall, Mary Lou Melon by Patty Lovell is a fun book that we like reading online* with kids who use AAC. Many schools have anti-bullying campaigns and read this book and others as part of their efforts to help children recognize and respond appropriately to unkind words and deeds. There are a lot of great resources for reading this book on sites like this one intended for use in general education classrooms. We decided it was time to HijAACk Mary Lou and share some ideas for using this wonderful story to build AAC and language skills. – 1. Beginning communicators could certainly contribute to the ‘read aloud’ portion of the activity with repeated lines, like “So she did.” Recording that into a single message device, an SGD, or an AAC app gives our student a terrific way to be actively engaged. 2. Students who can discriminate between two options can... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: bullying, HijAACked, intervention, schools