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Category: Resources That Make a Difference

Multiple tools to support the literacies

Autumn leaves and bench

It’s October… oops Almost November

Posted on October 20, 2021October 20, 2021

It seems like in a blink of an eye, the leaves have turned vibrant red, yellow and orange and the winter rains have struck. These are busy times and I know you are trying to balance the needs and wishes in your buildings. Just a heads up that our new licenses have been updated and…

Being Data Informed – Student Driven Conversations

Posted on February 8, 2017

Funny thing around data – when students are an intricate part of the conversation, it takes on a whole different meaning. Recently, I was facilitating one of our Joint Teams (LSS/Classroom partners and Learning Technologies) with a focus on supporting learners with written output challenges. There were several tools that provide significant success for  students….

Thinking Math Supports?

Posted on May 25, 2016

In partnership with Ron Coleborn (Math consultant), we are pleased to announce two Math softwares available for teachers: Dreambox Learning (Math) Skoolbo (Math and Literacy basic skills) (Canadian version) DreamBox is an online Math resource (K-8) intended to support personalized instruction for students from intervention to enrichment. The ongoing formative assessments within the program can align…

Assistive Software – Inclusion in the Classroom

Posted on February 10, 2016February 10, 2016

There are a number of assistive-type softwares that may help students with access to learning in the classroom. The following focuses on writing, reading, and vision supports. Most are free and can be easily downloaded by the student. EASE of ACCESS: This group of tools offers simple word prediction through the on-screen keyboard, magnifier (for vision…

When Opportunity and Resources Meet = Success Happens

Posted on January 6, 2015January 2, 2015

Connecting a ‘just right’ opportunity to engage in independent deeper thinking and a resource that allows that to happen is a challenge. When the two meet, it’s almost magical, especially when it can include students who struggle with reading and writing. For these, time is spent mostly on the mechanics of reading/writing, leaving little cognitive energy for…

Summer Thoughts

Posted on June 13, 2014June 13, 2014

As we go into the summer, a huge ‘thank you’ goes to teachers, students and parents.  To the students, you’ve practiced focus and attention and this is no easy feat. It takes hard work to build and exercise an efficient brain.  To our parents, you ensured your children had a good night’s sleep and a…

New Beginnings

Posted on January 27, 2014January 26, 2014

A huge welcome to our new sites – South Slope, Marlborough, Buckingham, Burnaby South Access Program and Moscrop Access Program.  A great time of learning with all teams and we continue to have more gatherings in the near future to continue the conversation of supporting our students. The days of January have been whizzing by,…

App #10 of “10 Apps to Countdown Season”

Posted on December 17, 2013December 17, 2013

App #10: Partner a beautiful image that you’ve drawn or photographed with interactivity and you’ve got Thinglink. These rich interactives provide another way to curate and organize information. I’ve written about this before using the SAMR Model as an example (developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, Ph.D) and also here where I was participating in CLMOOC. Thinglink offers interaction tools that tag photos or images…

App #9 of “10 Apps to Countdown Season”

Posted on December 16, 2013February 1, 2014

App #9: In our effort to highlight the SAMR Model of integration of technology, we’ve been considering what activities might fit into Redefinition (technology that allows creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable). What activities might have significant impact to student outcomes? The “tell your story” concept remains one of the powerful ways we have to teach others, to increase audience,…

App #8 of “10 Apps to Countdown Season”

Posted on December 13, 2013February 1, 2014

App #8:  Image editors are the tools that help your ordinary images dance off pages. IrfanView is a free program (on your school computers) that does a variety of basics like compression.  I love the “batch conversion” feature when I need a ton of images resized for the web.  (click here for instructions) When I need to add…

App #7 of “10 Apps to Countdown Season”

Posted on December 12, 2013December 12, 2013

App #7:  How do you present information from research projects?  Usually we default to PowerPoint.  Another option is Haiku Deck for all platforms. I wrote about this app for the iPad before (click here).  The presentation software offers a beautiful, yet simplistic way to to share information.  Each slide offers options for layout, format (bullet points), images (including…

App #6 of “10 Apps to Countdown Season”

Posted on December 11, 2013February 1, 2014

App #6:   QR Codes (or Quick Response codes) are everywhere – in magazines, on professional cards, on billboards, websites, newsletters all because those little squares can be packed with information. You can even find them at the grocery store gracing the fruit section (giving you additional details of the grower).  Teachers have used them to create…

App #5 of “10 Apps to Countdown Season”

Posted on December 10, 2013December 9, 2013

App #5:   Many of us have our students write stories and then illustrate the text.  While the artists in the bunch do flips and cartwheels (and I’ve had those students),  what happens to those who struggle with drawing the simplest shapes.  You know what I mean… somehow my tree just doesn’t quite look like a…

App #4 of “10 Apps to Countdown Season”

Posted on December 9, 2013December 8, 2013

App #4:  “I hate Google Docs!” stated a student in an advanced writing class.  The teacher being stunned by this emphatic state turned my way with a “now what!” look.  After probing, it became clear that this writer liked the thesaurus dictionary in MSWord.  A quick introduction to online visual dictionaries opened a whole different world…

App #3 of “10 Apps to Countdown Season”

Posted on December 6, 2013December 4, 2013

App #3:  What happens when you bring together an ipad, an app, words, thoughts, and sound?  Why Book Creator of course. This app for the ipad is a thing of beauty when it comes to creating ebooks.  Images can be drawn or photographed and inserted along with text.  As well, audio can enhance both the background environment and…

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