Special educational needs

Teachers—Special Education

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos070.htm




Commonsense methods for children with special educational needs: strategies ... By Peter S. Westwood

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9XSWmO2FGz4C&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=nature+of+special+education+needs&source=bl&ots=m6FvJCg6Rr&sig=AzkljqmGO7-47sEurm0lQ5o9ovk&hl=en&ei=OctCS7b_JZO60gTI7dCSBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CC0Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=nature%20of%20special%20education%20needs&f=false



Special Educational Needs and School Improvement
Practical Strategies for Raising Standards
By Jean Gross, Angela White



http://www.routledge.com/9781843120117

Let's Talk About It:
Building Language and Literacy Skills



http://www.pbs.org/wholechild/parents/talk.html


Let's Talk About It:
Building Language and Literacy Skills



Bilingualism
In today's world, speaking more than one language is a definite asset. At the same time, in order to get along in our society, children must be able to speak, read, and write English well. But speaking English doesn't mean children have to give up speaking their first language. There is no finer way to honor children's ethnic or cultural background than by welcoming and encouraging the use of their home language or dialect in other settings, including preschool.

Gaining a sense of belonging at school helps children become good learners. Even when teachers don't speak your child's language, you can help them to learn a few essential words or phrases, beginning with the correct pronunciation of your child's name and your family's names. Help teachers learn about your family's culture and heritage. Share songs and stories in your native language as well as cultural customs.

Emergent Literacy
Gaining literacy-the ability to read and write with ease-is an essential part of language learning. To achieve literacy, children must first acquire many basic concepts and strategies, including an awareness of the sounds that make up language, an ability to rhyme syllables and words, and a familiarity with print materials. By playing language games with your children (asking them to make rhymes or to think of words that begin with the same sound), you can help them get ready to read.

One of the most important things you can do to foster children's literacy skills is to read aloud to them every day and to encourage other caregivers and teachers to do the same. Chat about the story as you read together, bearing in mind that the talk surrounding the story is as important as the story. As children turn the pages, ask them to point to things that interest them. When they pretend to read, children are making progress toward reading.

Provide young children with plenty of opportunities to experiment with writing, including scribbling and drawing, but resist the impulse to pressure them to write correctly. You can also write down children's own stories and help them dictate and decorate letters to other children or adults. You can also encourage kids to add written materials, such as signs, phone books, or menus, to their pretend play.


Find more tips on encouraging your child's emerging literacy.


Implementing the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in schools and Early Years settings

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/sen/




Implications for Special Education on Teaching Math





What Teachers Need to Be More Effective

An important key to improving math education in the United States is improving the mathematical skills of teachers through professional development, Ball asserted. A person can hardly teach others a topic they do not understand well themselves.

“It’s worth doing some math practice themselves before teaching,” she noted. Teachers of math need knowledge of the math curriculum plus several additional layers of knowledge, including common content knowledge, specialized content knowledge, knowledge of content and students, and knowledge of content and teaching and curriculum. They need both subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge.

Ball concluded that content knowledge is crucial to teaching effectiveness, and the mathematical knowledge needed for teaching is both specialized and more than the common content knowledge known by any well educated adult. She said it is possible and important to assess this kind of content knowledge in mathematics.

Ball says that to understand the role of content knowledge in student performance, we must measure teachers’ content knowledge. Doing so would also provide useful information for designing professional development opportunities for teachers to expand their content knowledge as well as facilitate the evaluation of professional development and teacher education outcomes.

Strategies to Help Students

Of particular interest to Ball was the importance of fractions in elementary students’ learning. She demonstrated some of the kinds of work with fractions students are capable of doing and discussed the level of mathematical knowledge teachers must have.

Ball said teachers need to be able to use multiple types of representations for fractions and be able to help their students see how they are similar and how they connect. Different types of representations can help students understand different aspects of fractions. For example, a number line can help pupils understand pi. Visual tools such as three colored boxes within a group of four boxes to represent 3/4 or fraction points marked on a ruler can help students visualize and comprehend fractions.

Teachers should also examine textbook math definitions and restate them in multiple ways to ensure the concepts make sense to all of their students.

Additionally, teachers need to understand and be able to explain to their students why mathematical rules work the way they do, for instance, why we obtain an accurate answer when multiplying two numbers with decimals by moving the decimal point.

Students also need to learn to “talk mathematically,” Ball asserted. They need to be able to describe and explain math to justify their answers. Helping students learn to do this may require quite a bit of effort by the teacher, but it is especially crucial for learners with exceptionalities.

“Teachers need to have a lot of flexibility to see things not only from their own perspective, but also from the perspectives of various students – especially when helping students who are struggling,” Ball said. “They need to be able to access a number of pedagogical techniques.”

Read the Math Panel’s full report here: http://www.soe.umich.edu/downloads/MathPanelFinalReport.pdf

Find more information about Ball and her work here: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dball/


http://www.cec.sped.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=10148

Larry Page’s speech at the University of Michigan graduation ceremony

Full transcript:

Class of 2009! First I'd like you to get up, wave and cheer your supportive family and friends! Show your love!

It is a great honor for me to be here today.

Now wait a second. I know: that's such a cliché. You're thinking: every graduation speaker says that -- It's a great honor. But, in my case, it really is so deeply true -- being here is more special and more personal for me than most of you know. I'd like to tell you why.

A long time ago, in the cold September of 1962, there was a Steven's co-op at this very university. That co-op had a kitchen with a ceiling that had been cleaned by student volunteers every decade or so. Picture a college girl named Gloria, climbing up high on a ladder, struggling to clean that filthy ceiling. Standing on the floor, a young boarder named Carl was admiring the view. And that's how they met. They were my parents, so I suppose you could say I'm a direct result of that kitchen chemistry experiment, right here at Michigan. My Mom is here with us today, and we should probably go find the spot and put a plaque up on the ceiling that says: "Thanks Mom and Dad!"

Everyone in my family went to school here at Michigan: me, my brother, my Mom and Dad -- all of us. My Dad actually got the quantity discount: all three and a half of his degrees are from here. His Ph.D. was in Communication Science because they thought Computers were just a passing fad. He earned it 44 years ago. He and Mom made a big sacrifice for that. They argued at times over pennies, while raising my newborn brother. Mom typed my Dad's dissertation by hand. This velvet hood I'm wearing, this was my Dad's. And this diploma, just like the one you're are about to get, that was my Dad's. And my underwear, that was... oh never mind.

My father's father worked in the Chevy plant in Flint, Michigan. He was an assembly line worker. He drove his two children here to Ann Arbor, and told them: That is where you're going to go to college. Both his kids did graduate from Michigan. That was the American dream. His daughter, Beverly, is with us today. My Grandpa used to carry an "Alley Oop" hammer -- a heavy iron pipe with a hunk of lead melted on the end. The workers made them during the sit-down strikes to protect themselves. When I was growing up, we used that hammer whenever we needed to pound a stake or something into the ground. It is wonderful that most people don't need to carry a heavy blunt object for protection anymore. But just in case, I have it here.

My Dad became a professor at uh... Michigan State, and I was an incredibly lucky boy. A professor's life is pretty flexible, and he was able to spend oodles of time raising me. Could there be a better upbringing than university brat?

What I'm trying to tell you is that this is WAY more than just a homecoming for me. It's not easy for me to express how proud I am to be here, with my Mom, my brother and my wife Lucy, and with all of you, at this amazing institution that is responsible for my very existence. I am thrilled for all of you, and I'm thrilled for your families and friends, as all of us join the great, big Michigan family I feel I've been a part of all of my life.

What I'm also trying to tell you is that I know exactly what it feels like to be sitting in your seat, listening to some old gasbag give a long-winded commencement speech. Don't worry. I'll be brief.

I have a story about following dreams. Or maybe more accurately, it's a story about finding a path to make those dreams real.

You know what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night with a vivid dream? And you know how, if you don't have a pencil and pad by the bed to write it down, it will be completely gone the next morning?

Well, I had one of those dreams when I was 23. When I suddenly woke up, I was thinking: what if we could download the whole web, and just keep the links and... I grabbed a pen and started writing! Sometimes it is important to wake up and stop dreaming. I spent the middle of that night scribbling out the details and convincing myself it would work. Soon after, I told my advisor, Terry Winograd, it would take a couple of weeks to download the web -- he nodded knowingly, fully aware it would take much longer but wise enough to not tell me. The optimism of youth is often underrated! Amazingly, I had no thought of building a search engine. The idea wasn't even on the radar. But, much later we happened upon a better way of ranking webpages to make a really great search engine, and Google was born. When a really great dream shows up, grab it!

When I was here at Michigan, I had actually been taught how to make dreams real! I know it sounds funny, but that is what I learned in a summer camp converted into a training program called Leadershape. Their slogan is to have a "healthy disregard for the impossible". That program encouraged me to pursue a crazy idea at the time: I wanted to build a personal rapid transit system on campus to replace the buses. It was a futuristic way of solving our transportation problem. I still think a lot about transportation -- you never loose a dream, it just incubates as a hobby. Many things that people labor hard to do now, like cooking, cleaning, and driving will require much less human time in the future. That is, if we "have a healthy disregard for the impossible" and actually build new solutions.

I think it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. I know that sounds completely nuts. But, since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition. There are so few people this crazy that I feel like I know them all by first name. They all travel as if they are pack dogs and stick to each other like glue. The best people want to work the big challenges. That is what happened with Google. Our mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. How can that not get you excited? But we almost didn't start Google because my co-founder Sergey and I were too worried about dropping out of our Ph.D. program. You are probably on the right track if you feel like a sidewalk worm during a rainstorm! That is about how we felt after we maxed out three credit cards buying hard disks off the back of a truck. That was the first hardware for Google. Parents and friends: more credit cards always help. What is the one sentence summary of how you change the world? Always work hard on something uncomfortably exciting!

As a Ph.D. student, I actually had three projects I wanted to work on. Thank goodness my advisor said, "why don't you work on the web for a while". He gave me some seriously good advice because the web was really growing with people and activity, even in 1995! Technology and especially the internet can really help you be lazy. Lazy? What I mean is a group of three people can write software that millions can use and enjoy. Can three people answer the phone a million times a day? Find the leverage in the world, so you can be more lazy!

Overall, I know it seems like the world is crumbling out there, but it is actually a great time in your life to get a little crazy, follow your curiosity, and be ambitious about it. Don't give up on your dreams. The world needs you all!

So here's my final story:

On a day like today, you might feel exhilarated — like you've just been shot out of a cannon at the circus -- and even invincible. Don't ever forget that incredible feeling. But also: always remember that the moments we have with friends and family, the chances we have to do things that might make a big difference in the world, or even to make a small difference to someone you love — all those wonderful chances that life gives us, life also takes away. It can happen fast, and a whole lot sooner than you think.

In late March 1996, soon after I had moved to Stanford for grad school, my Dad had difficultly breathing and drove to the hospital. Two months later, he died. And that was it. I was completely devastated. Many years later, after a startup, after falling in love, and after so many of life's adventures, I found myself thinking about my Dad. Lucy and I were far away in a steaming hot village walking through narrow streets. There were wonderful friendly people everywhere, but it was a desperately poor place -- people used the bathroom inside and it flowed out into the open gutter and straight into the river. We touched a boy with a limp leg, the result of paralysis from polio. Lucy and I were in rural India -- one of the few places where Polio still exists. Polio is transmitted fecal to oral, usually through filthy water. Well, my Dad had Polio. He went on a trip to Tennessee in the first grade and caught it. He was hospitalized for two months and had to be transported by military DC-3 back home -- his first flight. My Dad wrote, "Then, I had to stay in bed for over a year, before I started back to school". That is actually a quote from his fifth grade autobiography. My Dad had difficulty breathing his whole life, and the complications of Polio are what took him from us too soon. He would have been very upset that Polio still persists even though we have a vaccine. He would have been equally upset that back in India we had polio virus on our shoes from walking through the contaminated gutters that spread the disease. We were spreading the virus with every footstep, right under beautiful kids playing everywhere. The world is on the verge of eliminating polio, with 328 people infected so far this year. Let's get it done soon. Perhaps one of you will do that.

My Dad was valedictorian of Flint Mandeville High School 1956 class of about 90 kids. I happened across his graduating speech recently, and it blew me away. 53 years ago at his graduation my Dad said: "...we are entering a changing world, one of automation and employment change where education is an economic necessity. We will have increased periods of time to do as we wish, as our work week and retirement age continue to decline. ... We shall take part in, or witness, developments in science, medicine, and industry that we can not dream of today. ... It is said that the future of any nation can be determined by the care and preparation given to its youth. If all the youths of America were as fortunate in securing an education as we have been, then the future of the United States would be even more bright than it is today."

If my Dad was alive today, the thing I think he would be most happy about is that Lucy and I have a baby in the hopper. I think he would have been annoyed that I hadn't gotten my Ph.D. yet (thanks, Michigan!). Dad was so full of insights, of excitement about new things, that to this day, I often wonder what he would think about some new development. If he were here today -- well, it would be one of the best days of his life. He'd be like a kid in a candy store. For a day, he'd be young again.

Many of us are fortunate enough to be here with family. Some of us have dear friends and family to go home to. And who knows, perhaps some of you, like Lucy and I, are dreaming about future families of your own. Just like me, your families brought you here, and you brought them here. Please keep them close and remember: they are what really matters in life.

Thanks, Mom; Thanks, Lucy.
And thank you, all, very much.

Really Portable Computer Concept

this is nice........


Really Portable Computer Concept

iphones application : five essential

1. Pidoco°

Starting off, this isn’t strictly an iPhone app, but Pidoco’s software has been developed to be compatible with mobile browsers and the iPhone. I saw them demo the software at a recent UX Brighton event, and they impressed upon me that it was built with usability in mind. Pidoco offers a quick way to collaborate on the design of wire frames, and quickly show these to the user or client, without the need to be in the same geographic location as them. The easy to use nature of the system means it’d be ideal when iteratively testing an interface with users, and is a mid-fi alternative to paper prototyping. Currently offering a month’s free trial, there’s no excuse not to give it a go!
Pidoco°’s website: https://pidoco.com/en/
2. Mocha VNC

Need to mock up a mid-fi prototype of an iPhone App? You obviously don’t have time to make the app in Xcode, buy the iPhone developers license, link the customer’s phone to the computer and copy the app over. Instead, how about making a prototype on your Mac, or PC and using a VNC client to make the iPhone look at the prototype. The user will still be able to interact with the prototype by clicking, or navigating around, and the ‘controller’ sat at the server can display the correct pages to the user. Easy mid-fi prototyping, on an iPhone, without the long set up costs and investments required to actually have the app running on the iPhone.
Mocha VNC’s website: http://www.mochasoft.dk/iphone_vnc.htm

3. Camera

Watching someone perform a task is an important part qualitative usability testing. What about those moments where you weren’t looking, or noticed something that you wanted to ask about later, but forgot about? Looks like you need to be recording your user tests. Camera comes with all iPhones, but is only available for video recording on the 3GS. Since you are always likely to have your phone with you, it’s a handy mobile solution that allows you to record your usability sessions without requiring any additional equipment, so that they can be analysed later. Maybe buy a stand for it though!
4. exZact Data Collection

Quantitative research is also an important part of establishing user requirements, and working towards a design that meets their goals. The Data Collection iPhone app aims to allow you to create, and answer, custom surveys on the iPhone, collecting information like geographic location, and responses in a variety of forms (1-10 ratings, drop down lists, yes/no responses, and comment boxes). They then offer real time analysis, so you can see the results as they come in, and claim to be massively scalable. Offering a month’s free trial, it seems an effective solution if you require your data collection method to be mobile, and accessible anywhere.
exZact’s website: http://www.iformbuilder.com
5. Insight – Basecamp on iPhone

You’ve seen from the diversity of the apps above that a usability specialist has to be experienced in a lot of areas, and its often hard to keep on top of these. A tool that I have found invaluable in project management is Basecamp, which allows you to collaborate on projects, assign tasks and see what everyone is up to. Insight is a mobile version of Basecamp, and will allow you to keep up to date with how everyone working with you on the usability project is progressing from one easy interface, and keep on top of projects. As a busy person, it’s likely to be an invaluable tool to any usability specialist or contractor!
Insight’s website: http://www.encampapp.com/
Conclusion

Its clear from looking for the most useful usability apps for the iPhone that this is a largely untapped market – although there are tools available to help with the individual steps in the process, there is no one ‘go-to’ app for usability and UX professionals. What is needed is a more holistic solution, one that can work with a usability professional in every step of the process, from the initial requirement gathering stage, through building up personas of the customers, to the iterative design process and beyond. Until then we’ll have to make use of the wide range of apps covered today to achieve these tasks.



source


http://www.stevebromley.com/blog/2009/12/11/five-essential-iphone-apps-for-usability-professionals/

let buy a laptop

sound of sea

IgniteNYC presentation

future writing of me....

want to write like this in future...........


I did a not-so-stellar job of meeting my not-so-stellar goals for writing and research in November, but I did get some stuff done.

Done! Accepted!!!!! Finish revisions on the paper-that-won't-die (goal: November 13)

Done! Internal release time application (due November 18)

Read some, but not nearly enough. Read around proposed grad student topics enough to ensure we're not reinventing the wheel/pursuing proven dead ends (amorphous, I know)

Made progress, not enough to strike-through. Finish GIS work left-over from 2008 AGU poster.

Done! Draft abstract that is due in early December, so that I can get my co-authors' approval.

Done! Write the letters of recommendation that have piled up because of graduate fellowship season.
And, I did get some reflective clarity on what my research (and consequent writing) goals are for next semester.
Get 4 grads to the proposal defense stage, get one grad to thesis writing stage, get one grad's first paper out

Do a good job writing my first PI NSF proposal and submit in June

Write my side-project paper (or at least finish the analyses for realz)

Continuing laying groundwork towards a collabortive proposal pushing edges of PhD work

Women-in-geo paper and/or diversity grant coalition forming


More than an ambitious list given my teaching load and home-life responsibilities, but, hey it's good to have ambitious goals, right? And having them as an ordered list should help me cross some of them out, rather than having all of them turn out to be half-finished in May.



Posted by SciWo



Inadwrimo is over, but the work never ends.
Category: SciWo says... • academic adventures • publish or perish



source

http://scienceblogs.com/sciencewoman/2009/11/inadwrimo_is_over_but_the_work.php

Top 100 Science Professor Blogs

Top 100 Science Professor Blogs



i like this


source


.....


http://www.onlineuniversities-weblog.com/50226711/top-100-science-professor-blogs.php






Technology, Information & Computers
These blogs offer a view on computers, information, and technology.
Educational Technology Professor: Find reflections from a female professor in educational technology on this blog.
EagerEyes: Read Robert Kosara’s blog about information visualization, visual analytics, and more.
Billso: Bill Sideman discusses information systems and more on this blog.
Deltoid: Tim Lambert is a computer scientist at the University of New South Wales.
Hilary Mason: Hilary Mason is a computer science professor, data scientist, and web geek.
Harga-Blog: Andrew Hargadon’s blog offers a conversation about technology, design, and creativity.
Technology and Organizations: On Terri Griffith’s blog, you’ll read about the perception and use of technology in organizations.
Shtetl-Optimized: Scott Aaronson’s blog discusses theoretical computer science and more.
The Audio Prof: Check out Rob Potter’s blog about the cognitive processing of media messages.
Computer Science Department Blog: On this blog, you’ll be able to stay up to date on the computer science department at Virginia Tech.
IT Compliance: Privacy professor Rebecca Herold discusses IT compliance on this blog.
Daniel Lemire: Daniel Lemire is a professor of computer science at the University of Quebec at Montreal.
Technology & Marketing Law Blog: Read Eric Goldman’s blog to learn about the laws that surround technology and marketing.