AT Tip of the Week

5/1/2020

Add-ons, Apps, & Extensions:

Thank you to the infamous Christina Guevara for this week's tip! I have spent way more time than I should playing around with these amazing apps and extensions. Have fun!!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DIVK9Jxyq3P_t7kG2mxi9TBbXYd8HqJLmxCQ_UZ1q3U/edit

3/27/2020:

Hi! Thanks, again, to Jonel Condra for this week's tip. Enjoy!

This table is a nice reference/resource for assistive technology options.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13hB2224kUgaGYBXanJ-RXQ2WEKcFkDSbc3GVKDOUGVA/edit

3/20/2020:

Visual Supports for Bookshare and Star Testing:

This week's tip is a 2-for-1, courtesy of Cari Hutchison. Thanks, Cari! (PS - if you don't know about Bookshare, and want to learn more, please let us know! It's an amazing resource for FREE audio and adapted books).

Here is the visual supported login How to for Bookshare.org. It also has a place that you can write the students login and password on and picture supports with Arrows, and 1 - 2 3- steps for students to follow for sequencing and helps.

Bookshare: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxurlG4MhAFMZkYxOXF1dXQyNmVJUkdTb0Z0X3hzQTN5RlFB/view?ts=5e5d926b

Here is my login sheet with visual supports for the Star Testing for students to keep in their class folder. It has helped SO much with helping them be independent on the technology and logging in independently. There is a spot at the bottom of the page for them to write their Star Login information in case they forget.

Just thought I would share in case anyone else could use them. I have them also for Readworks.org, and bookshare.

StarTesting: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxurlG4MhAFMVVF5Wm1tWG40YnVhY3Rra2hTSGxOTWhsSE13/view?ts=5e5d9058

3/14/2020

This week's tip is courtesy of Jaime Heiner. Thanks, Jaime!!

Have you heard of EDpuzzle? I've been playing around with it, and wanted to share! It's a free website that allows teachers to embed quizzes directly into video clips. There are videos already uploaded to the website, and you can crop the video to use only what you need for your lesson. Then, students can view the videos directly at the EDPuzzle website, on the app at home, or it can be embedded in your teacher website/Canvas page.

I think what I'm most excited about is that EDpuzzle collects student data as they watch and interact with the video, which makes it easy to track whether students are understanding the material.

I thought at first that you could only crop videos, but you can actually add in your own voice over, pause the video for an audio comment/further explanation, change quiz questions, and it even includes closed captioning! Don't mind me, totally nerding out over here :)

OH MY GOODNESS it actually includes videos from Khan Academy, National Geographic, TED Talks, and a few other really great sources!!

3/6/2020

Digital Promise.org

This week's tip comes from Shira Sanford. Thanks, Shira!

I found a great tool to help individualize learning. It also helps with targeting specific factors that you need to work on to help your students, such as Attention, Self-regulation, Visual Processing and so many more.

https://lvp.digitalpromiseglobal.org/

2/28/2020

EdTech Resource List:

This week's amazing tip is courtesy of Shira Sanford. Thanks, Shira!

"I taught at the last PD a class called Educational Technology. In it we covered some technology that might help teachers. And I realized that many of the items we covered were in your AT Tips. One of the recommendations that come out of the class was to put together a shared resource that has all the tips for teachers. So here it is! This google spreadsheet, Educational Technology contains all the AT Tips from this year and last year, plus teachers have edit access, so they can add their favorites, and we can all benefit from their knowledge."

2/21/2020

Activity Support Matrix:

Credit to Jonel Condra for yet another great tip!

Below is a link to a great Activity Support Matrix. This is most appropriate for students in Functional Skills, working with AAC, but could also be expanded for any student working on communication skills. This matrix provides a concrete, structured way to incorporate communication into daily routines. It would take a little (very little) time to set up, but would greatly increase the amount of success our students have while learning communication skills. Please contact your UAT Team if you have any questions or need support with this!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XA3xq1pKZ2cft0uip45NXrWPRB05YxIGleYg8MAyRGw/edit?ts=5e443211

2/14/2020:

Task Analysis Life

This week's tip comes from Jessie Gortsema, one of our UATT members and a speech therapist in PG. Thanks, Jessie!

I came across a great app I thought I'd share - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/taskanalysislife/id1254481752

The app is called TaskAnalysisLIFE. It's a task analysis app that allows you to take video models of each step or add audio, pictures, or text. It would be great for functional skills students, students working on life skills, or an on-the-job support for older students! You can set different tasks for different locations (e.g. school, work, home). I believe it is only available for iPhone or iPad, however.

2/7/2020

Newslea:

This week's Tip comes from Jonel Condra. Thanks!

Here is a link to a student current events new platform that is different from News2you and might be useful for some of our teachers if they want to address current events, history, social studies, etc. Maybe our teachers already know about this.

Here is the link: https://newsela.com/about/content

It's free to sign up. There is some sort of fee for the Pro version but you can still get a lot of information without that version.

This is a review of Newslea from a teacher site:

Newsela is a database of current events stories tailor-made for classroom use. Indexed by broad theme (e.g. War and Peace, Arts, Science, Health, Law, Money), stories are both student-friendly and can be accessed in different formats by reading level. Use Newsela to differentiate nonfiction reading. Newspaper writers rewrite a story four times for a total of five Lexile levels per story. All articles have embedded, Common Core-aligned quizzes that conform to the reading levels for checking comprehension. An account is required to use Newsela, both for teachers and for students, but students sign up using a teacher or parent provided code rather than an email address. Teachers can create classes and assign reading-level specific articles to individual students, or download printable PDF copies of the article in any of its reading-level versions. There is an upgraded fee-based Pro Version that allows teachers or administrators to track reading progress and students to take constructed response writing assessments, but many of the features are free and there is no outside advertising.

1/31/2020

One Tab:

Thank to you Jeremiah Clark, the Principal of our NSL High School, for this week's tip!

Do you constantly have many tabs open on your computer? Do you need intervention due to the excessive number of tabs open at the same time? If so, this tip is for you! One Tab is a Chrome extension (meaning, accessible through the Chrome Store for free) that will manage all of your tabs. This handy app will compile all your open tabs into a neat list for easy access and reference. Everything you need is still available, but it helps to save memory and "tidy up" your computer so that it runs a little faster. Give it a shot!

1/24/2020

Gimkit:

Thank you to Kendra Hansen (NSL Intermediate School) for this week's tip! (I love receiving tips like this from teachers! Please send me what you have found that works for your classroom!)

I discovered Gimkit. It is the best tool that gamifies my classroom. Imagine if Kahoot and Quizlet had a baby, this would be it!. PLUS, it will import files from Peardeck. I played this with my students last week as a study guide for an exam. Three of my six class periods DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE!!!!! Plus, the test scores were amazing. When I asked students what helped them the most for this test, almost all of them replied, Gimkit.

There is a free version. You can make 5 Kits for free. Afterwards there is a subscription.

1/17/2020:

Podcasts are not just for binging with a bowl of M&M's and a Dr. Pepper!

Liz Patha, one of our SLT's in PG, passed along this week's tip. So many of our students struggle with reading, and podcasts are a great way to work on a variety of skills while eliminating that hurdle! (of course, our kids still need to read, but this is a way to change it up every once in a while!) Podcasts are great for working on:

- sequencing

- Offer a higher level of Listening comprehension (a lot to follow, no pictures, sound effects, ect...)

- vocabulary

- Inferencing

- Describing

- Character feelings and perspective taking

- comparing and contrasting

- The stories and topics can be very engaging

- Helps kids use their imagination

Liz has compiled a couple of lists of her favorites. I hope you find something you can use in your classroom!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14tdhtXqEGL7nAAvLTnkbt2zBnvEsPrG_4S8BAY6i2Rc/edit

PodcastRecommendations.pdf.download.zip

1/10/2020

Hi, everyone! Welcome back from Winter Break. I hope you all are feeling rested and refreshed.

Jonel Condra shared this list with our AT Team, and I thought it would be great to pass along as a tip! This list contains apps, programs, etc. that assist with reading. There is something for all grade levels and developmental levels, so take a look. thanks!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2KPz6CkSfaJZTVIMGw2VE5JbWhrUUV1aHpCX1EwYWEtek5v/view?usp=sharing

5/10/2019

Jonel Condra, one of our UATT members, sent this article. It contains some interesting research regarding the benefit of Text to Speech (TTS) versus a human reader, and discusses the benefits of using TTS. It's a less than 5 minute read, and well worth the time. Thanks!

http://blog.bookshare.org/2019/05/reframing-text-to-speech-vs-human-audio-debate/

12/20/2019

Credit to Jonel Condra for yet another fabulous resource!

Here is a link for a reproducible Speech to Text Questionnaire that teachers can use to explore whether speech to text might be a good option for their students:

https://qiat.org/resource-bank.html Evaluation of Student for Speech Recognition

12/12/2019

Did you know that Graphic Organizers count as Assistive Technology? Our amazing Jonel Condra found some great resources that we wanted to pass on to you!

https://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm

https://sites.google.com/isd423.org/draw/templates

12/6/2019

Mathshare:

Hello! I am so excited about this new resource. Please take a look and let me know what you think!

https://benetech.org/our-work/mathshare/?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=125

11/22/2019

This week's tip is courtesy of Shira Sanford, one of our fantastic teachers in North Salt Lake:

I have a number of students who have difficulty spelling. I've found something very useful to them. I give them one of our Kindle tablets and have them say, "Hey Alexa," and then say, "How do I spell ____?". This has worked very well and seems a quicker and easier solution for some students to use. The tablet displays the spelling on the screen, as well as spells the word out loud.

Thanks, Shira!

11/18/2019

Tips for Parents:

I recently found this helpful article containing tips for parents and teachers, and thought I'd pass it along. Thanks!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OKEHXcIWi31ZufHS6MOxW52lHrt-JZ-d/view?usp=sharing

11/8/2020

ClassroomScreen.com:

Another fantastic tip from Sam Lovett!

Here's something that I found this weekend that I'm going to start using this week and I thought other teachers might be interested in it. Classroomscreen.com is a website that provides visuals from voice level to timers to visual schedules all on one screen that can be projected for the whole class to see. I think it could be really helpful for paras too because the teacher can post instructions for each station and everyone can see how much time is left in each station, keeping everyone on the same page. The link is to a YouTube tutorial that I thought was really helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePmzqHbK9vg

10/25/2020

This week's tip is from Sam Lovett, our newest UATT member!

Hi all! I have recently started using something in my classroom that I thought might be helpful to others. My class now uses the Closed Captioning tool in Google Slides. When in presentation mode, if you slide the cursor anywhere on the screen a menu bar will show up on the bottom of the slide. From there you can click on "CC" and the closed captioning will show up as the presenter speaks. CC helps students who are hearing impaired but it also helps the students who are listening to better focus. Also, students learn that they need to be quiet so the CC only picks up the speaker's voice.

10/22/2019

We have a wonderful opportunity to have a Language Acquisition through Motor Planning Words For Life workshop at our North Salt Lake campus. We will be holding the training on Friday, November 1st from 9:00 to 3:30 at the Highschool in North Salt Lake.

Many of our students in Functional Skills, Strats and General Ed. are using LAMP to communicate and expand their vocabulary overall. Many of them will be transitioning year to year to different classrooms with different teachers. The more teachers and staff who understand the system, the more we can all support and communicate with our students who use this system.

The LAMP Words for Life language system is a full language program. It is appropriate for a wide range of individuals, from those just beginning to communicate to those with advanced language skills. Throughout the language learning process, the motor patterns used to say words remain consistent to allow for the development of quick and easy communication.

Click on this link for more information: https://www.prentrom.com/prc_advantage/lamp-words-for-life-language-system/

Sign up for the training here: https://www.aacandautism.com/training

Thanks so much for supporting communication for our students!

10/11/2020

We have a wonderful opportunity to have a Language Acquisition through Motor Planning Words For Life workshop at our North Salt Lake campus. We will be holding the training on Friday, November 1st from 9:00 to 3:30 at the Highschool in North Salt Lake.

Many of our students in Functional Skills, Strats and General Ed. are using LAMP to communicate and expand their vocabulary overall. Many of them will be transitioning year to year to different classrooms with different teachers. The more teachers and staff who understand the system, the more we can all support and communicate with our students who use this system.

The LAMP Words for Life language system is a full language program. It is appropriate for a wide range of individuals, from those just beginning to communicate to those with advanced language skills. Throughout the language learning process, the motor patterns used to say words remain consistent to allow for the development of quick and easy communication.

Click on this link for more information: https://www.prentrom.com/prc_advantage/lamp-words-for-life-language-system/

Sign up for the training here: https://www.aacandautism.com/training

Thanks so much for supporting communication for our students!

10/4/2019

Hi! This week, I wanted to make sure you all are aware of a fantastic resource available to you and your students. Grammarly is an app that will check spelling and grammar, and provide feedback regarding any mistakes made. It is so much more reliable than standard "spell check", and it will tell you why a grammar mistake is incorrect and how to fix it. The premium version will also provide suggestions for vocabulary enhancement, will perform genre-specific writing style checks, and contains a plagiarism detector.

But wait, there's more! The fantastic Alex Veater has pushed the free version of Grammarly out to all Spectrum chromebooks! This app will show up after you reboot your computers. Enjoy!

9/27/2019

Do you feel like your students could benefit from assistive technology, but you aren't sure what they need? USBE has released a Consideration Support Document that is very helpful. This document outlines common types of assistive technology for each area that should be considered when thinking about AT needs. This document is available in every conference room for use in IEP's, but I have also included it here. Thanks!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jdt_cuypYkEIQH9WePlnW9-MeWYjU7i4pUGTqpcm_fg/edit

9/26/2019:

Hello!

I wanted to make sure everyone is aware of an amazing FREE resource available to our students and teachers. Bookshare is an online library of almost 800,000 books. Each of these books is available in a variety of adapted forms, including audio book and large print. Students need to qualify under certain criteria (most of our students meet the qualifications), but then are able to access almost any book. This means that you can assign a book to your classroom to read, and then adapt the format of that book to meet the needs of individual students! Some students can read the book in standard print format, while others listen via audiobook, while others can access it through highlighted text, and still others read large print. Assigning a book takes only minutes!

You can learn more by visiting their website, and anyone on our UAT Team can get you set up!

8/30/2019

Hi! This is a two-part tip this week! First, I wanted to introduce our Assistive Technology Team and make sure you all know how to access us. Our team is responsible for making sure that our students have the assistive technology equipment, training, and services that they need. You can access us through your sped coordinator, or by emailing any one of us directly. We will also have additional training soon, reviewing the referral process and the services we offer. But, for now, here is a list of your team, along with their office locations and positions:

• Krisanne Lewis (NSL HS) - OT
• Kaley Veater (PG) - Vice Principal
• Jonel Condra (NSL IS) - speech therapist
• Sam Lovett (PG) - teacher
• Allison Schuette (NSL ES) - speech therapist
• Brandi Eggett (NSL IS) - Instructional Coach
• Lauren Haslam (NSL HS) - Assessment Coordinator

Second, Kaley Veater sent me the following video that perfectly illustrates the power of giving someone a voice (thanks, Lauren, for the quote!). It is funny and a little irreverent, but also shows how giving someone the gift of communication can open up an entire world for them. Take a minute to watch and laugh...you won't regret it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsqInns6LXQ

5/3/2019

Hi all!

Allison Schuette and I listened to a webinar this past week which introduced this cool new Chrome Extension called WriQ that you can use with Google Read and Write. It lets you objectively analyze students’ writing by breaking it down into level of vocabulary used, number of words, minutes they worked on it, etc. It even provides cool graphs and a rubric if you want it. Here is what the site says about it:

“We’ve created WriQ to provide a standard measurement for writing. We’ve done this to help teachers and parents monitor and manage the progress of each student’s writing.

Just as importantly, we’ve designed WriQ to help teachers provide more meaningful, personalized feedback, with greater clarity to improve student confidence.

To build WriQ we’ve collected an enormous data set that has allowed us to create standardized norms for assessing writing, which we combine to create the WriQ Score.

Through these norms, WriQ will help teachers evaluate their students' written communication skills and provide meaningful feedback to improve their students' writing over time - just as Lexile levels do with reading.”

Click below for a demonstration and try it out.

Try out the WriQ Chrome extension

Please let an AT team member know if you have any questions,

Thanks so much!

Jonel

4/26/2019

Hi all!

Our wonderful Middle School SLT, Shantel Resare, created a great tool for students and teachers to learn all of the features that can be used with Google Read and Write. Please see her description below and click on the link to gain access to the checklist.

The purpose of the Google Read and Write Feature Checklist/Passoff is for students (and teachers) to get familiar with and gain confidence using the features of Google Read and Write. Having a working knowledge of this accommodation can make a big difference in our students learning process. This document is meant to be used on Google Docs so that the students can edit their copy of the document while having access to the Google Read and Write chrome extension via internet connection. To distribute this document, first make a copy of the community shared document as your personal copy. Then send each student a copy of your personal version of the document so that they can work on it on their chromebooks.

You will notice some of the check off instructions require students to visit a student friendly news website outside of the document because a few of the features only work on documents that are not being edited. For example, the "Hover Speech" feature will not appear on the Google Read and Write taskbar in google docs, but will appear on the taskbar news website.

Lastly, if you find that some of the features are not showing up on the taskbar, you can enable these through the settings on the top right of the taskbar (click more>options>features>enable feature.)

Please email me at shantel.resare@spectrumcharter.org if you have any comments or questions or if you run into any trouble accessing the document.

4/19/19

Hey all- I'm Kaley and I am a part of the assistive technology team! I am an assistant principal at the Pleasant Grove Campus and taught middle school social studies for three years in North Salt Lake! I recently attended the UCET Conference (Utah Coalition for Educational Technology). I wanted to share what I learned with you all and hope you enjoy it

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You guys.... the future is HERE. Digital Notebooks are the coolest thing since... well... (insert thing you think is cool here). Here is an example of what one looks like (that is not filled out)! Here is a student example (that is filled out) from the session I attended at the conference.

I attended a session on digital notebooks and I am so stoked about them. In my class, I used interactive notebooks, which I thought were so much fun, but they were a little messy and time consuming. Digital notebooks are definitely not messy and guess what... THEY CAN'T GET LOST because they save to the student's google drive!

I have attached some examples that I have created and some examples from the session that I went to.

The cool thing about digital notebooks is you can take the worksheets that you currently use, scan them, download them, and then insert them as a background on google slides. This makes it so the student cannot manipulate the template or the worksheet.

Then you insert text boxes or things they can drag and drop to fill out the notebook. If that sounds confusing... I have some examples attached. The best part... if a student has lost computer privileges, (we all know how that can happen) it is OKAY because you can just print the digital notebook for them. I had NO idea that you could go in and actually manipulate the size of your google slide or powerpoint slides so they are the same size as a piece of paper.

Here is an example of how it is set up and how students can manipulate the digital notebook. (So- what it looks like when the student gets it!) Then I have included the steps on how to make a digital notebook.

Here is how make your presentation slides the same size as a piece of paper.

Here is how to put the worksheet or picture or template as a background in google slides. (There is NO sound in this video)

Here is the folder that the presenter shared with us that has more examples and resources. There is a video in the folder where she explains how she sets up digital notebooks for your reference.

And below are some examples that I created... I have forced you to make a copy.. but you can see how you can manipulate the text boxes or drag and drop things onto the page, but you can't mess up the background image (unless you actually go in and change the background image... but just don't do that!) To have your students have a copy of the digital notebook, you would send them the link that would force them to make a copy (please see previous AT Tip of the Week from March 14th).

Ancient Rome Example

Graphic Organizer Example

Secondary Vocabulary Example

There are so many templates, blogs, examples, whatever else on google, pinterest and TPT. They take a little bit of time... but I promise.. it's so worth it.

Have fun. AND AGAIN, please reach out if you want to use these and need help!

4/12/19

OK, y'all. This tip seriously changed my life when I learned about it. It's amazing, and has so many uses! (PS - I apologize to all of you that have had to listen to me talk about this a million times, but I just really, really love it)

In case you do not already know about Google Task or Google Keep, they are task management systems that are already part of your gmail (free for all staff and students). They are on the right hand side of your window when your email is open. Google Keep is the lightbulb, and Google Task is the pencil.

​Cool things about Google Keep:

• ​You can take notes and create lists
• You can download it onto your phone (via the Google Keep app), and it will automatically sync with your computer! That means you can update your lists, check items off, etc., from anywhere!
• You can create checklists just by clicking the checkmark in the app.
• You can add collaborators, set alarms, color code notes, or send notes to others through the app
• The best part? You can use this with students to help them track their assignments or tasks. Teachers/paras can be added as collaborators and all your info is in one place!! You can even create picture schedules for kids who don't read!

Cool things about Google Tasks

• You can create personalized, electronic to-do lists - it's soooooo satisfying to check items off your list!!
• You can download it onto your phone (via the Google Tasks app), and it will automatically sync with your computer! That means you can update your lists, check items off, etc., from anywhere!
• You can create multiple lists and sort lists, and can see a running list of all the tasks you've completed

Give these awesome tools a try, and let us know what you think!

3/29/19

Hi! This week's tip comes courtesy of Jonel Condra. Thank you!

We all use visual supports in the classroom, but they can be expensive and time consuming. Here are a couple of sites where you can make free visual supports for your classroom!

http://amy-laurent.com/category/supports-resources/page/18/

http://www.do2learn.com/

One more inexpensive site is www.lessonpix.com. It is $36.00 per year and has dozens of templates for communication boards, visual schedules, behavior charts, tally sheets, etc.

Thanks!

3/22/19

This week's tip is again provided by Kaley Veater. Thanks, Kaley!

Here's another cool tip you can use with your students! (Honestly... you might want to use it too!) There are two ways that students can split their screen on a chromebook. This means that they can have two windows up at a time and can see both of them, without having to take time to resize things and what not.

You can use this when your students are reading an article and taking notes, or following your lesson using nearpod or pear deck and taking notes on another window. There are so many possibilities!

Here is one way on a chromebook:

Here is another way:

Here's how you can do it on your PC if you are using chrome:

And here's how you can do this on a Mac using chrome:

Have fun!

3/15/19

Thanks, again, to Kaley Veater for this week's tip:

Hey y'all! It's that time again... the AT Tip of the Week!

For some of you that use google docs with your students, you may find it difficult for your students to all have their own copy without making an individual one for each student. Here's a DOPE trick:

If you go into the sharing settings for your google doc, and get the shareable link, if you change the word "edit" to "copy", it will force the person opening the link to make a copy of the document and it becomes their own!

Here's an example:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B0Kf5iU8fFI9bk4o_60xsBqXJ0reDVGIvjutLS_bFis/copy?usp=sharing

Here is the link for a video on how to do this!

3/8/15

Thank you so much to Kaley Veater for this week's tip!

Have you ever come across an awesome video on facebook and thought, "my students would LOVE this!!"? Here's what you can do to SAVE the video so you can show it without having to login to facebook and try and find it. On the step that asks you to open an incognito window, you need to NOT be logged in to your Spectrum Academy email account - it will not give you the option for this. When I logged in to my personal email account, it worked like a charm!

If the video is saved on your computer, you can insert it into your powerpoint or just save it to your desktop to view it.

2/1/19

Hello! Did you know that Assistive Technology includes more than devices that plug in? The AT umbrella includes ANY device that is needed for a student to access his/her educational plan. That includes visual schedules, organizational binders, tally sheets, etc. Shira Sandford, one of our teachers at the NSL HS, shared some amazing visuals that help educate about terminology/issues common to autism, and could also be used for social skills instruction for our students. The link to the blog is below. Enjoy!

http://quirks-and-chaos.blogspot.com/2015/09/there-is-no-ham-in-hamburgers.html

1/25/19:

I have copied an email from USBE below regarding AT and State Testing. Thanks!

Tracy Gooley, the Special Education Assessment Specialist at USBE, has provided me some important information about the RISE and Aspire tests and the use of Assistive Technology.

Please review this information and pass it on to the special educators you work with.

It is important for students to practice these tests and practice using the tools and assistive technologies to help them be successful.

RISE

grades 3-8

• Built in UDL resources: strike out, mask answers, bookmark, notes, zoom, text to speech with descriptive audio, calculator (sections of 6th only, can bring handheld), highlighter, line reader, spell check.
• Visual representation for math if noted in the IEP, 504, or EL plan.
• Background color or reverse contrast. Must be enabled in the student's PNP.
• Additional accommodations as outlined on the IEP, 504, EL plan are as follows:
  • Braille, large print, refreshable braille devices, screen readers need to be enabled in the students PNP. These do not need a request form, however we are looking for LEAs to reach out about any braille needs so we can make sure we are providing appropriate support for these students.
  • Other Assistive Technology AT: 3^rd party devices or software; speech to text, zoom AT, switches, eye gaze, communication devices needed to use within the testing platform will all need to have a request form submitted so that I can enable this in the students PNP.

Aspire

for grades 9 and 10

• Built in resources: browser zoom, strike through, calculator (can bring approved hand held), bookmark, line reader, color contrast, answer mask, highlight, visual timer on or off, text to speech.
• Additional accommodations that must be enabled in the Personal Needs Preferences: These AT must be an accommodation on the student's IEP, 504, or EL.
  • They include: Spanish transadaptation and other language translation locally provided, Screen Reader (with orienting description)
• 3rd party AT: These AT must be an accommodation on the student's IEP 504, or EL. Must complete a request form through USBE to turn on specific settings. This includes: speech to text devices, switches, zoom AT, eye gaze, others. This will also need to be set by the state, plus a Human Reader companion book will need to be ordered as the use of these devices will disable text to speech.
• Large print and braille tests need to be ordered. Should be ready in February.

All of the following accommodations will need to be outlined in the IEP, 504, EL plan and are locally provided to the student via the test administrator: stop clock breaks, test over multiple days, extra time (1.5x, 2x, 3x), human scribe, word to word dictation, human reader only available for those who use AT that will disable text to speech, sign interpreter, cued speech, abacus.

Contact information for Tracy Gooley:

Tracy.Gooley@schools.utah.gov

Below is a Utah Aspire Plus accessibility and accommodations document.

Thanks!

11/30/18

For this tip, we are covering Chromebook Accessibilty. The following 3 videos walk you through accessibility features on a chromebook, Google Docs accessibility, and the Chrome Store. Enjoy!

11/9/18

Hello! Did you know that Spectrum Academy has an access to Bookshare? This is a resource of 650,000+ audio books. Titles include everything from early readers to college textbooks. Students with qualifying disabilities are eligible for a free account through Spectrum. Please let a member of our UAT Team know if you feel this resource would be appropriate for one of your students! Your UATT members are:

• Krisanne Lewis
• Lauren Haslam
• Brandi Eggett
• Allison Schuette
• Jonel Condra
• Jesse Fleming
• Kaley Veater

11/5/18

This week I'd like to share a way for you to spice up your Google Slides presentations!

Pear Deck is a FREE Google Slides add-on that makes any presentation more engaging using interactive questions for students to respond to on any device with a web browser. All you have to do is create an account, open the add-on within Google Slides, and create. I use it in my classroom every day to allow all my students a way to participate in class discussions.

Here is a video to give you a quick tour!

9/28/18

This week, I wanted to provide a link to a great website for all things assistive technology. Please take a minute to check it out!

https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/assistive-technology

10/26/2018

AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) devices are awesome! Their use is research supported to help increase communication attempts, increase verbal language, decrease behaviors, and increase satisfaction between communication partners. However, using AAC Devices can seem intimidating. Luckily, we have some tips to help make this easier! Please take a look at this flip book. In addition, our speech staff are always willing to help provide tips for using AAC in your classroom. Please let us know what help you need!

5/4/2018

Happy Friday, everyone!

This week, I wanted to talk about Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is the development of flexible learning environments in order to support the needs of all students. This is particularly important for the population of students that we see at Spectrum. Our students all learn differently, and require individualized supports. When we base our teaching in Universal Design, we can meet the needs of many of these students with very little extra effort. Our AT team will be placing a strong emphasis on using Assistive Technology as part of UDL. We want Assistive Technology to be a part of EVERY classroom at Spectrum, and want to support you in implementing this. Please take a minute to watch this informative video about the benefits of UDL. Then, feel free to contact any member of you Assistive Technology team for ideas for implementing AT into your classroom. If you are extra motivated, the above site also has numerous short videos regarding specific tools and strategies. Let's do this!

4/13/2018

Happy Sprinter!

Today, I wanted to introduce you to Grammarly. Grammarly can be downloaded as an app, as an office add-in, or as a Google extension. The free version fixes grammar and spelling errors, checks punctuation, and checks spelling context ("their" vs. "there"). The advanced (paid) version checks sentence structure, enhances vocabulary, utilizes style and document-specific checks (meaning, differentiates between personal and academic writing), and has built in plagiarism detection. You can also sign up for weekly summaries, which provide data regarding productivity (how much writing was produced), accuracy, and vocabulary.

For our students, Grammarly is a fantastic tool to assist with everyday writing. It requires no extra work for you, but will help improve grammar, spelling, and punctuation. It also assists our students with editing their own work, and allows them to focus on the content of their writing.

Click here for a demonstration and summary of all the cool things that Grammarly does, with the benefit of listening to a really cool accent!

Give it a try, and let us know what you think!

3/16/18

Graphic organizers are a widely used and very effective tool for teaching and expanding writing skills. We now have access to Kidspiration and Inspiration, which is software designed to assist students with visual thinking, writing skills, and even math skills! If your students are tired of worksheets, this might be the tool for you!

With Kidspiration, you can design electronic graphic organizers, create sorting activities, create math games, design science lesson supports, etc. It is fun and engaging, and there is even an app for that! Kidspiration Maps is a simplified version of the program that is available on the iPad. Click here to see some really cool informational videos.

Inspiration is designed for older (junior high and up) students and adults. You can create presentations, graphic organizers, brainstorm ideas, etc. Click here to see what else you can do!

3/2/2018

Do you like interval timers/motivaiders? Welcome to the next step! The Self-Monitor app allows you to program in a task (are you on task? turn in your work. Can you read your work?) for up to 9 students. Here's how it works:

1. Assign a task to a student. You can program in their name, give the task a title (handwriting), and program instructions.
2. Program the time interval, and ending time
3. put the iPad on the student's desk. While running, there is no irritating timer to distract, and you can use guided access to keep them on the screen.
4. When the time is up, your task is displayed, and the student checks "yes" or "no"
5. That's it! You can monitor their data, and they can see how they are doing. It couldn't be easier to collect IEP data!

Pro Tips:

1. You can also program multiple tasks for the same student. You would just need to switch between them when needed
2. While teaching, you can wear an interval timer to remind you to monitor your student's self-monitoring skills

Give it a try sometime! As always, please let your UATT team members (Jonel Condra, Allison Schuette, Ariel Cook, Lauren Haslam, Sally Thompson, Krisanne Lewis) know if you need help!!

2/23/2018

Did you know that Google Read and Write can read PDF documents aloud? And, that it has a function that allows you to type or write directly onto PDF documents? Cool, right?!

Sally Thompson has put together a short powerpoint walking you through the process:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1R20IPz5m7t9rKCDTNY2TxvVINo9TUaWwfq0pYP2hQks/edit?ts=5a8df607#slide=id.p

2/16/18:

Hello!

Welcome to the first installment of our Assistive Technology team's Tip of the Week! This message will be an introduction to our team, but we will send out tips, articles, and information regarding specific devices in coming months.

If you feel one of your students could use assistive technology, your first step is to contact the speech therapist or OT on your campus. Often, they can get you set up fairly quickly, and can answer many of your questions. If they are not able to help you, they can help you complete a referral form (please use this new form and discontinue using the old form). Our UAT team will then follow up. They may complete a full assessment, or they might be able to provide you with solutions right away.

When a complete assessment is needed, a meeting will be set up with the parents, UAT team, and teacher(s). In most cases, the student will also be part of the assessment.

Our team is happy to help answer questions, train staff, and screen students...you just need to ask! Team members are:

• Sally Thompson
• Lauren Haslam
• Allison Schuette
• Jonel Condra
• Ariel Cook
• Krisanne Lewis

Please let us know how we can help!