WISD Educational Subscriptions
Washtenaw Intermediate School District has several subscription-based educational tools available for teachers and students to use for learning. Here is a brief description of tools available and resources to get started with them. Check in with the WISD Assistive Technology Coordinator with any questions or if you need an account. New account purchases need supervisor approval.
Jamie Mayo
AAC Language Lab
AAC Language Lab is a comprehensive collection of materials, ideas and strategies designed to support language development and promote communication through AAC.
Who has access: All WISD SLPs
Website: https://aaclanguagelab.com/
Resources to help you get started: Register for a webinar to give you a tour of AAC Language Lab. https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/3355194222642809357
Boardmaker 7
Boardmaker 7 is a complete system for delivering personalized instruction and therapy while also measuring student progress.
Who has access: Most WISD teachers and SLPs
Website: www.myboardmaker.com
Install the Boardmaker Editor and Student Center Apps on Windows, Mac, Chromebook or iOS devices.
Resources to help you get started:
What is Boardmaker: https://goboardmaker.com/pages/what-is-boardmaker
Boardmaker Instructional Solutions: https://www.myboardmaker.com/Bis#/
Webinar for Boardmaker Activities-to-Go: https://goboardmaker.com/blogs/recorded-webinars/overview-of-boardmaker-activities-to-go-1
"Special Education with Pat" YouTube channel focused on Boardmaker tools
New Boardmaker 7 Webinars
Bookshare
A library of books for people with qualifying print disabilities. Bookshare includes over 600,000 accessible books that can be downloaded in many formats to access the text. The Bookshare services are free for U.S. students.
Who has access: All WISD staff and students
Website: http://www.bookshare.org
Resources to help you get started:
Boom Cards
Self-grading exercises that are gamified for students and provide the data teachers want.
Who has access: Some WISD Teachers
Website: https://wow.boomlearning.com/
Resources to help you get started:
BrainPop
BrainPop is a group of educational websites with over 1,000 short animated movies for students in grades K-12, together with quizzes and related materials, covering the subjects of science, social studies, English, math, engineering and technology, health, and arts and music.
Who has access: Liberty YA Program
Website: https://www.brainpop.com/
Resources to help you get started:
Canva for Education
Canva allows teachers and students to work with photo editing, design layout and more, using a simple drag-and-drop interface that works well even for younger students. Users can choose from thousands of pre-made templates or create their own designs from scratch. Canva can also integrate with Google Classroom and Zoom. In addition to posters and charts, users can also design video lessons, social media posts, slideshows, and more! Don't forget about LessonPix, also! It is very easy to copy and paste graphics from LessonPix into Canva to unlock a whole new world of design capabilities for our students!
**Note: Be sure to create your account with your @washisd.net email address.
Who has access: All WISD staff and students
Website: https://www.canva.com/
Resources to help you get started:
Discovery Education
A simple-to-use K-12 learning platform that combines dynamic curated curriculum resources with on-demand teaching strategies, personalized for your needs as an educator.
Who has access: All WISD staff and students
Website: http://www.discoveryeducation.com
Resources to help you get started:
Professional Learning Teacher Support Channel (must login to view)
Google Classroom
Google Classroom is a learning management system, developed by Google for schools, that aims to simplify creating, distributing, and grading assignments in a paperless way. The primary purpose of Google Classroom is to streamline the process of sharing files between teachers and students.
Who has access: All Washtenaw county schools staff and students
Website: in your GSuite account
Resources to help you get started:
Help Kidz Learn
Help Kidz Learn is a collection of simple activities, including lots of switch games, for young children and those with learning difficulties to play online. The software is split into five sections: Early Years, Games and Quizzes, Stories and Songs, Creative Play & Find Out.
Who has access: All High Point School Staff
Website: www.helpkidzlearn.com
Learning A to Z
An education technology company dedicated to expanding literacy through thoughtfully designed resources.
Who has access: Some WISD Teachers
Website: https://www.learninga-z.com/
LessonPix
The online tool for: Personalized schedules, learning tools, communication materials, anyone creating cards and supports for homes, customized games (bingo, flashcards, bingo cards, dominoes, lacing cards, puppets) ‐ all simple to create.
Who has access: Some WISD Teachers
Website: https://lessonpix.com/
Resources to help you get started:
Life Centered Education
An all-in-one set of 1,200 transition lesson plans with related tests, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)’s Life Centered Education (LCE) is a fully online, secure transition curriculum that students and teachers can engage with 24/7. LCE’s online portal tracks and reports on progress and outcomes and is specifically designed to help meet Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals.
Who has access: Some WISD Young Adult Teachers
Website: https://lce.cec.sped.org/
Resources to help you get started:
News2You
News2You is a weekly current events newspaper for literacy and learning differentiated to 4 reading levels.
Who has access: Most High Point and Young Adult Program Teachers
Website: www.n2y.com
Resources to help you get started:
Getting started with News2You: https://pd.n2y.com/learn/course/12/getting-started-with-news-2-you
Objective Ed
Objective Ed provides students with disabilities, and the parents and professionals dedicated to their education, digital curriculum and integrated performance monitoring and reporting tools that will help the students achieve their best educational outcomes.
Who has access: Some VI teachers
Website: https://www.objectiveed.com/
Pear Deck
Pear Deck is a Google Slides add-on designed to help teachers create engaging slide show-style content for the classroom and for remote learning. Since this is Google-integrated, it allows teachers to create or edit presentations right there from within their own Google account. The idea is to combine slide presentations with interactive questions to help advance inquiry-based learning. This allows students to work independently both in the classroom as well as remotely.
Who has access: All WISD Staff using their @washisd.net email address
Website: https://peardeck.com/
Resources to help you get started:
Readtopia
Readtopia is a comprehensive reading curriculum for middle and high school students with autism and other complex needs. It brings first-hand experiential learning into the classroom—teaching students standards-aligned social studies, ELA, and science content
Who has access: Limited High Point School classrooms & Liberty Young Adult
Website: https://myreadtopia.com/
Resources to help you get started:
Check out the Video Tour here: https://demo.myreadtopia.com/
Read&Write for Google with Snapverter
Read&Write for Google is an extension for Google Chrome that is primarily a reading support, but also provides writing supports. Snapverter works with Read&Write to make .pdfs more accessible.
Who has access: All WISD staff and students
Website: https://www.texthelp.com/en-us/products/read-write/read-write-for-education/
Resources to help you get started:
Recordings from Tech Tools for TAs series in February 2021:
Session #1, Intro and Reading Tools
Session #2, Reading Tools continued
Session #3, Writing Tools
Session #4, PDF Tools and Snapverter
Realize Language
Realize Language is an online service that gives parents and professionals powerful ways to monitor, measure, and maximize a child's use of an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) speech device. Works with:
Saltillo NovaChat
PRC Devices (e.g. Accent, ECO, Vantage
TouchChat HD on an iPad
Words for Life on an iPad
Who has access: All WISD SLPs
Website: https://realizelanguage.com/
Resources to help you get started: Register for a free webinar: https://realizelanguage.com/info/training
Starfall
Starfall is a website that teaches basic English reading and writing skills by using games and phonics.
Who has access: Liberty Young Adult
Website: www.starfall.com
Resources to help you get started:
SymbolStix
SymbolStix is a new and dynamic symbols set. Originally designed and developed by News-2-You, Inc for use in its internet newspaper and online curriculum, SymbolStix depicts activities and people as lively, vibrant stick figures, drawn with a distinctive flair to create “stick figures with an attitude”.
Who has access: Anyone who checks out the licenses in the ATAC Lab library
Website: www.n2y.com
Teachers Pay Teachers
Teachers Pay Teachers is the go-to platform created by teachers, for teachers to access the community, content, and tools they need to teach at their best. Founded in 2006, TPT provides a marketplace for teachers to exchange instructional materials and access easy-to-use digital tools. Today, TPT empowers teachers with the world's largest catalog of over 5 million pieces of educator-created content. Our community of more than 7 million educators — including 85% of PreK-12 U.S. teachers — use TPT to save time, support students, and learn from each other.
Who has access: WISD Teachers
Website: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/
Resources to help you get started:
Coming Soon!!
Unique Learning Systems
Unique Learning Systems is an online, interactive, standards-based curriculum specifically designed for students with special needs.
Who has access: Most High Point and Young Adult Program Teachers
Website: www.n2y.com
Resources to help you get started:
Getting started with Unique Learning Systems: https://pd.n2y.com/learn/course/11/getting-started-with-unique-learning-system