A Journey into Learning

If, like me, you often have the children look for images then you may find the Pictopus image library useful. E-safety is a always a hot topic in our school. As all the images are vetted by the Pictopus team you can be sure that there is no inappropriate material on the site and that all the images are copyright-free.

Thanks to Sharing Good Pratice for ictopus for this.

Starry Nights is a nice IWB/touchscreen resource suitable for SLD/PMLD students. Also – have a look at this wonderful Jackson Pollock online painting resource. Spotted yet again on the fantastic Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs blog – where do they find all this stuff?

I picked up a trial copy of 2Simple Do it Yourself at BETT – and must say that I have been very impressed. Like all 2Simple software the interface is simple and intuitive. It allows children to create their own games and activities and has lots of scope to be intergrated into our curriculum.

We’ve been playing with it this week. The work can be saved in both a 2simple format or as flash objects. It was all very creative and motivating – and was a big hit with the learners.

The work can be saved in a 2Simple format – or as a .swf – meaning that it can all be easily embedded in MLE’s or blog posts!

KS3 ASD learner (independent)

KS3 ASD non-verbal learner (indpendent)

KS2 GLD (supported)

Tutpup is a lovely online numeracy and spelling resource. Free and simple to use. Appropriate for KS1-2 and older SEN.

Koosh Generator is a lovely little online program that would work well with SLD learners using a touchscreen or interactive whiteboard and when teaching cause and effect. I spotted it on the prolific Teaching Learners with Multiple Needs blog.

Vocaroo is a great little web app. It has a beautifully simple interface. After recording a sound file it give the option to listen to it, post it on the internet (via an embed code) or send it via email. You can even download it.

I can see an application here with the work we have been doing using blogging with our pupils as well as building on our shared blog to build upon our international links with our partner schools in Ghana. I look forward to trying it out in the classroom.

Spotted on Doug’s blog.

This is a good emotions resource that I saw on the SEN ICT Nuggets blog. Beautifully animated and very useful in the ASD classroom.

e-motions

“The Feelings Game“ is a simple game teaching emotions. I works really well on an IWB. This would fit in really nicely with a lot of the work we do with our ASD learners.

I found it on the excellent Woodlands Junior School website, which has a page of useful SEN links.

Saw these ICT resources for the teaching of basic numeracy and literacy. Thanks to ictopus for the tip.

I subscribe to Sharing Good Practice from ictopus – which is always a fantastic source of inspiration. Thanks to Howard Lovell’s article in the current edition for this resource.

Poisson Rouge is a really high quality (and non-age-specific) site. Used alongside Basicmouse it will fit really well into the SLD curriculum. There is almost no text on the site. It consists of a series of games that fit together in the most intuitive and delightful way. The user guide describes the principles better than I could ever do:

There are no instructions on the site and there are some good reasons for that: most people, even adults, do not read instructions, children who cannot read will ignore written text anyhow, but most importantly for us, there is no need and in fact, instructions get in the way of the experience : the navigation through the various sections of the site is purposefully simple and intuitive, the functionalities within games are carefully thought out to afford a maximum of possibilities while keeping that special relationship to the real World.

When small children pick up objects, they invent new ways of holding and using them. Thus there is no right or wrong way of using anything on this site. It’s up to the children to find what they want and to grow their naturally exploring mind. We found that what they don’t discover straight away, they’ll find later, what they don’t know how to do at first, they’ll learn when they are ready and, as many of you know and/or have found out, that is extremely powerful and confidence building.

Take a look!