The Tech SSP

Teachers here have been busy providing in-services for other support services beginning their tech journeys. Many are interested in the lessons we provide for our students delivered by tech means across KLAs and grades.

Many are surprised by the type of content an SSP provides in it's courses.

The old Institution view of 'Special Schools' as places built around deficit is more a misconception of the uninitiated.

Our specific special school puts an emphasis on the enabling qualities of technology

and what they do and might provide for the student with a specific need.

Tech comes and goes, teachers learn it, use it and teach it. In our setting more than most we adapt it

.

All teachers in every school in the public network of schools across Australia are daily making learning more accessible to students. This is the context that a child with a learning difficulty, disability, behaviour or mental health problem lives in, a changing world with lots of learning to be done and technological change taking a bit part in that mix. Teachers work to make learning relevant to the individual child.

There are many programs that run simultaneously at our school. Like any busy school. Teachers here run those staple subjects of maths, english and science, tackle social and welfare issues and catering for need, preparing students for transition into the same world that everybody walks in, making the most of what is there.

In-servicing the interested

There are many visitors to our busy tech habitat. Some who have checked us out on the net before arriving. Hello to you, you know who you are ! Reassuring that we must be doing something right when we hear echoes of ourselves coming from people who have never met us but know us virtually through things like this very blog. Such is the connected world.

A Change in School Culture

Over the past 3 years I have been involved in introducing and implementing IWBs to the Special School Environment aswell as sharing & educating a broader range of Primary school teachers in the use of Interactive technologies that deliver Higher Order Thinking skills.

We have been recording video of the results. Review of our programs and footage show a mix of uses being adapted by teachers and students alike.

SilverBulleteers Using Tech to Teach !

Had a great day at the Connected Learning Conference at Brighton Le Sands between Semesters. Halinda is a member of the WSR PSP IWB action research project and we had a great opportunity to share our journey with other teachers and presenters. It is great to see a network of educators jumping in and collaborating.

Feedback was great. I enjoyed presenting and had a good time answering questions and posing possible futures. Well done all involved in the project !

MD

http://silverbulletwsr.edublogs.org/

Staff Development Day Term 2 2009

Support Staff, Teachers & Execs. from Tallowood, The Hills, Caddies, William Rose Windsor Park, Kurrambee and Halinda Schools all came together for Development Day this term.

Many workshops were held that catered for specific concerns and learning of Western Sydney Region SSPs. IWBs and internet based support for learning were key focus areas.

Dr Tom from the North Metro area gave a talk on supporting carers via consistent structured plans posted via blogs on the net. Mathew Dollisson gave a talk on IWBs, Intranets and Teaching Futures. All SSPs are increasing their exposure to web technologies and IWBs.

Good Teachers do good things with good teaching tools

Technology can be seen as a labyrinth for a teacher landing in a Special School.

On top of all the heightened strains of the Support learning environment, the ever changing fast paced world of technology can seem like a test. For the teacher who has to educate where mainstream schools can't cater to the specialised degree involved, a technology curriculum can seemingly be harrowing, complex and expensive.

But there are some quite easy to use and readily adaptable software tools that are very useful to the wise 'Special' teacher and even may be seen as standard kit.

Something as common-use as Power Point is a staple in the staffroom professional learning environment, but it can also be a great and easily accessible fund of daily learning and activity in the classroom. Digital stories can be set up using common routines and individualised priorities for students. Immobile and high support students can gain excellent 'click-through' reward from interacting with this program.

Publisher can deliver a blank comic book for an age appropriate activity in the savy teacher's classroom or a set of flash cards to the particular needs of a student.

Photo-story makes photos come alive for student projects. It is simple to use and rewarding for involving young minds with new ways of looking at images.

I have used Movie Maker with my secondary students as a social learning tool, involving role play and with primary students as a a part of daily routine and mass practice. Students can rehearse what they see, and the higher functioning student can collaborate with peers to generate personalised content relevant to their interests, keeping them engaged and learning as well as sharing.

Each of these software packages are standard in the DET and Special schools can use them readily for daily teaching and learning.

IWB Teachers tips

Thinking about some aspects of tech in class today.

1. Engage with Content, don't be content just to engage them !

2. Trial, Plan and deliver.

3. When it goes wrong, move on.
 [Have an analogue 'lo-tech' plan B]

4. Trial, Plan and deliver some more.
 [Remember we're all learning here]

5. Share.

Mathew Dollisson.

Action Research - Quality Teaching and the beauty of invisible tech.

Technology functions best for educators when it is 'invisible'. That is, when it is working.

The delivery of lessons needs to be enhanced, not hampered or completely waylaid by incompatible technologies, faulty hardware or lack of time and support. A teacher at any school needs to be able to go to the IWB and trust that the lesson that they want to pull up is available within the attention span of the student. Teachers at SSPs need to have this capacity in spades !

High support special needs students benefit from routines that deliver their priority learning needs at call.

A Quality Teaching action research project at Halinda this year looks at delivering Higher Order Thinking skills to the capable student through appropriate technologies and carefully prepared teaching materials. It is a steady task. Teachers assess the needs of students and consider how IWB content can be tailored to deliver replicable results.

We have focused before on the delivery of engaging materials via technology, and this is almost a given with students of the 'online' age. Now we turn to encapsulating a mode within IWB delivery that fosters higher learning and experiences.

2009 the rise of the Intra Net !

This year technology continues to complement the hard work of the staff and students at the special school that is Halinda.

The School Intranet is in growth madoe this term [term 1] and new content is added each day. There are over 70 Smart files in place already which provide lesson for classes equipped with IWBs. Classroom teachers can now access support materials for their hands on lessons in the class room with the speed of logging on to their class computers.

Mass learning and rehearsal opportunities are vital to SSP outcomes. Students benefit from being able to practice lessons from desktop terminals in classgroups, in the school library and at their own desks if they have access in their rooms.

Learning can be delivered at the IWB then students can be assisted to carry on at their own pace at PCs!

Sturdy computers with access to an increasingly tailored Intranet environment presents continuing learning opportunity for our students.