The Magnifier application on the computer is very beneficial for those students with visual impairments. With this application, there is a second screen that pops up with anything seen on the computer screen. The magnification can be changed according to the severity of the child's visual impairment. This would be an easy fix for a teacher because in a few short clicks, the student can read off a computer screen much easier.
High Contrast Color Scheme with visual notifications for sound (Sound Sentry) is also for the visually impaired. It helps them see drastic differences in the color on the screen which makes everything easier to see. The visual notification for sound pops up a flash active caption bar with any notifications. This helps the child hear the options as opposed to just seeing the options. In addition, we changed the cursor size so it is easier for the student to follow on the screen.
The On-Screen Keyboard would be great for any student who cannot use a regular keyboard. This allows the student to use their mouse to click on the letters and type that way. If for any reason a student doesn't have full access to both hands, this would be a good choice for an assistive tool.
I completed this assignment on my own. Each part had rather clear step by step instructions that were easy to follow. We were instructed to take a poll of student's favorite sports in a class size of 22 people. We were to make a table with five different sports on it (basketball, baseball, football, volleyball, and soccer), and tally the students favorite under the correct sport. From there we took the results and made a pictograph out of our data using KidPix. Finally, I made discussion questions for the students.
For the second part of the activity, we were instructed to create a snowman glyph using KidPix. We answered questions by adding features to our snowman. For example, "If you are a girl, draw a blue hat on your snowman. If you are a boy, draw a red hat on your snowman".
My Work:
Here is a snapshot of the Microsoft Word document I created to tally the favorite sports among the 22 students. As you can see there were 6 tallies for basketball, 5 tallies for baseball, 4 tallies for football, 3 tallies for volleyball, and 4 tallies for soccer.
I then used the program KidPix to create this pictograph. Each basketball, baseball, football, volleyball, and soccer ball represents one student. The pictograph is just another way to let the students view and organize their data collected.
After completing the pictograph, I made some questions for discussion to go along with the data.
1. What sport has the most tallies?
- Basketball
2. What sport has the least tallies?
- Volleyball
3. If we were going to choose one sport to play at recess, what would be the best choice? Why? -Basketball would be the best choice because more people like basketball than any other sport.
4. If we play the favorite sport for half of recess, what would be the next best choice for the second half of recess?
-Baseball, because it has the next highest number of tallies.
The last part of the assignment was to create a snowman glyph using KidPix. I began by drawing 3 circles for the body of the snowman. Because I am a girl, I was instructed to draw a blue hat on the snowman. Each additional part of the snowman was some characteristic of me. For example, how many people were in my family, if I have pets, my age, etc. I thought this was a very creative idea to have each child make their own unique snowman.
As for my follow up questions....
With the snowman glyph and the favorite sports activity, what does that show us about how unique each person is? Do all of these differences in people show that no two people are exactly alike?
- Individuality is very important and these two activities show this. Each person is very unique and the differences in these pictures show differences in people.
I really liked the idea behind this activity. Students can collect data and organize it through helpful programs such as KidPix. However, I don't know that I would use this site with my elementary students. I thought drawing the snowman was a little difficult because you cannot rearrange the items drawn on the page. Everything must be exact and there is little room for error. Overall the idea of the activity was great but I would personally choose a different program.
Kidspiration is a great Content Exploration tool to use in an elementary classroom. A teacher can use previous layouts to help children reference information regarding reading, math, health, science, social studies, or any other topic they may think of. In addition, teachers may also create interactive games on this site for the children to really learn the information or idea by the "drill and practice" method. Students can type their ideas and thoughts in the "writing view" of Kidspiration. Kidspiration could be efficient because it takes less time for the students to look through textbooks to find the information. Instead the can quickly look at their Kidspiration and learn all about adjectives or nouns, etc. It can enhance the children's minds through referencing information for them as well as the interactive games to help them remember the information. Any topic can be discussed through this program... there are no limitations! The more the teacher is creative with the program, the more the children will get out of it!
"A Day With Fractions" was a blog that showed how to introduce fractions to elementary students. Fractions can be a difficult concept to understand at first, so the podcast explains how to apply fractions to the real world. The podcast shows how students keep track of all the places they use fractions throughout the day. It starts with the children waiting for the bus and making fractions out of everyone's clothing color. The video shows the children making fractions at recess and how many kids are playing sports. It also shows them making fractions of how many people are in certain reading groups. Having students apply their fraction thinking to everyday life will help them to make sense of their thinking.
Tutpup is a useful resource to cover areas such spelling and math. There are interactive games for the students to play that improve their overall understanding of the topics.
Tutpup is a tool that would be enhancing for the students. It enhances their learning experience and possibly teaches them an easier way to understand math and spelling or gives them the extra practice they need in that area.
Math Playground is an online interactive game that helps children improve all areas of their math skills. This is a good resource for children to explore if they are struggling with a certain aspect of math.
This website is efficient in that it saves time for the students and the teacher. If the student is struggling with a certain area of math, you can go directly to that area in place of teaching the entire lesson over again.
http://www.funbrain.com/index.html Funbrain is an interactive education website that allows children to play math online. It has both math and reading on this website so this would be a beneficial resource for children to use.
Funbrain is quite effective because it allows children to play games with the math and reading problems and make it more of a real world application. It is enhancing as well because it aids in the childs learning experience and helps them to grasp the concepts.
