Re: smart boards

September 9, 2004

In a message dated 9/9/2004 2:10:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

russandluann@... writes:

The teachers ALWAYS balk at sending home copies of notes (extra work, and

" note taking is an important skill that Matt needs to develop

independently. " ) I sure don't think it is a good strategy for him to have to

ask to copy some other student's notes.

I wonder how much a half dozen of those babies would cost?!?! Should make

for some interesting dialogue at our next IEP meeting!

LOL ... oh asking for those to be put into all classrooms is guaranteed to

give a CSE Chairman heart failure -- and I don't even know what the cost is.

Our high school is new --onl;y 2 years old. The corner rooms in each hall have

smart boards. (4 halls, two stories each ... 2 classrooms per ... that makes

for 16 rooms with smart boards.)

We have not wanted to get Ian a note taker and the elemetary years proved

that relying on another child fro notes is a mistake. Each kid writes down what

will (theoretically) propmpt their memory. What strikes Ian as a cue for a

memory would not cause Matt to remember anything.

Instead we lobbied for the FMs. At first they made note taking a breeze for

him to learn. He developed the ability to identify key points and take good

notes. Suddenly the teacher was talking in his head. He did a lot of catching

up. But then he lost 20 dbs in his " good ear " and the slow deterioration that

is simply occurring, is once again making note taking difficult. Plus the

content is not longer based on words/concepts that are familiar. Once you get

past the elementary levels, you're not building on established information or

skills. You're adding comletely new concepts and information. Math and

science classes have specialized vocabularies that are often only heard in

those

classrooms.

Ian is taking Earth Science. He'll get to learn about plate techtonics,

water budgets, dew point, plotting hurricane paths, locating the epicenter of

earthquakes ... and so much more. How much of that vocabulary is heard in

normal

conversation? Words like strike, dip, sheets, cleavage and foliation will be

used in ways that the students have never encountered before. Try taking

cohesive notes when you're not even sure you heard the words correctly. We

expect that when it comes to science classes, Ian will be using quite a bit of

pre-teaching for vocabulary. He's learned to read his textbooks ahead of time,

if only to identify and absorb new vocabulary.

We've requested the Dayna so that Ian can type his notes while watching the

teacher. Eyes up and paying attention to the action, but his fingers can be

busily typing the notes. He won't have to look down to take notes. Sounds like

a great solution to me. He's been typing alot more so he can improve his

skills

There are also captioning services that these kids can use. CART is one.

There's another one that looks really cool. It takes the spoken word and

captions as well as shows it in ASL (Or is it SEE, or ASL in English word order?

I'm

not sure) I printed out info on it for the CSE before our last meeting, just

so that they have information on the new technology that is developing.

There's some pretty cool stuff out there.

Well ... enough rambling.

Jill

September 9, 2004

Jill,

What is the Dayna and how does it work? What age child is capable

of using it? How is it different from a laptop?

Thanks,

Lydia

....

> We've requested the Dayna so that Ian can type his notes while

watching the

> teacher. Eyes up and paying attention to the action, but his

fingers can be

> busily typing the notes. He won't have to look down to take

notes. Sounds like

> a great solution to me. He's been typing alot more so he can

improve his

> skills

>

September 9, 2004

I am glad to know that there is such a thing out there. Jake has

ADHD/processing issues and apparently some sort of sequencing and

memory issues. They say it is memory because he can't remember his

ABC's, but he can count forever so I am confused. He knows them all

and they sounds and reads well, but can't remember them past L or

somewhere in there. Apparently is is tied into the processing

issue. He also has writing issues. He can say what he wants to

write but when it gets to the paper it is not what he said. I guess

that is processing too. The school psychologist suggests he use a

computer for writing at school and they have 5 in each class so he

can use those. He also has trouble copying from the board to his

paper or from the book to his paper. Writing definitions to spelling

words is a NIGHTMARE! So I am trying to teach him more keyboarding

stuff.

Elaine

September 9, 2004