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sconsin Assistive Technology Initiative (WATI) AT Tools and Forms. Alternate site

communication initiative forms and standards steps to achieve

"Parents need to know that We Give Books is an educational site that not only allows children to read for free, but also supports worldwide charities. It is a Pearson Foundation initiative. Members can pick from a variety of organizations that they want to donate to, and each time they read a book, the site in turn donates a book to that charity."

Confirmation Bias is a psychological principle/logical fallacy. This recent (2015) study documents how people will seek out ways to justify or confirm their beliefs when presented with cognitive dissonance. Date: November 16, 2015 Source: University of Iowa Summary: Once people reach a conclusion, they aren't likely to change their minds, even when new information shows their initial belief is likely wrong and clinging to that belief costs real money, new research shows"

"A comprehensive suite of supports for struggling students; including reading, writing, study skills, and test taking." comprehensive supports for their communication initiative.

Large variety of webinars (only available 6 months after original live streaming date). Topics currently include discipline, online learning, social media initiatives, school climate, flipped classrooms, rti and data driven strategies, print to digital transition, enhancing teacher effectiveness, etc.

Universal Design for Learning has also been in the news lately as a new report Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Initiatives on the Move was released by the National Center on UDL, May, 2012. This post describes the principles of Universal Design for Learning and how they naturally occur when a full cycle of learning, including ideas related to the flipped classroom, are used within the instructional process.

word wheel

Monica Kissel and Adina Popa from Loudoun County Public Schools, both Innovative Educators of the Year, will discuss kinesthetic learning. Sponsored by the Innovations Committee. How do we engage our 21st Century students? How do we help them understand that the material covered in class is relevant to their lives? In his book "Motivating Students to Learn," Jere Brophy suggests that students learn best when they are actively engaged with the content. Through kinesthetic learning, they develop lasting skills that many times translate into higher levels of student achievement. But how does kinesthetic learning look in a 21st Century classroom? The answer is simple: gesture-based learning. Does this initiative belong to the future? Not according to the 2011 Horizon Report which highlights Gesture-Based Computing as one of the six emerging technologies that will likely enter mainstream use within the next four to five years. The purpose of this session is to identify current technologies that employ gesture recognition, and then present innovative and replicable ways through which these technologies have been used at Steuart Weller Elementary. From turning shy students into persuasive public speakers through Avatar Kinect, to opening a world of possibilities to students with special needs though Kinect Adventures, to saving animal species with partner classrooms across the globe using multiple technologies, to exergaming, children have been immersed in a world of learning that they love. Attendees learn not only what relevant technologies are available, but also how to use these technologies in any curriculum area

Why and how to buy products that have been built with accessibility in mind.

Adobe Youth Voices is the Adobe Foundation's signature philanthropy initiative empowering young people to Create with Purpose. Youth use digital tools to express themselves about issues important to them.

The Actuarial Foundation supports mathematics achievement among students in grades 4-12 through an array of educational initiatives. The Foundation inspires this new generation of "math skilled thinkers" by delivering educational resources and activities tailored to students and educators. All of these lesson plans, discussion materials, posters, online activities and competitions are free! Browse these math resources by subject area, or view the Foundation's classroom materials by title.

"We Give Books is a new digital initiative that enables anyone with access to the Internet to put books in the hands of children who don't have them, simply by reading online."

"Videos created by CALL Scotland, funded by the Scottish Right to Speak initiative, 2012-2015"

The AssistiveWare Core Word Classroom is a large collection of learning resources which are designed to support implementation of any AAC system that is based on core words. They emphasize the use of AAC best practices such as modeling, communicating everywhere, and communicating for a wide range of reasons beyond requesting. You can find out more about the Core Word classroom here [http://www.assistiveware.com/assistiveware-core-word-classroom-now-open ] . The Core Word Classroom is a beta release. They will be improving it and adding more resources based on feedback. The focus in this initial release is on schools, but the materials can easily be adapted to home use and use with adults who are learning AAC. During this beta release the materials are available free!

In this blog post by a famous AAC clinician named Gail Van Tatenhove she tells the story of Velma, an employee at an adult facility who witnessed Gail talking with an AAC user by modeling on the device. Velma was inspired to become "America's Next Top Modeler" with Gail acting as her coach. In the article, Gail outlines some initial scripts she gave to Velma to use when chatting with the AAC user. These scripts were necessary because Velma couldn't be expected to know where every word was she might ever need to say. The scripts took the pressure off! Velma only needed to find these few words. Guess what happened? In time, Velma learned where all of these words were so she didn't need to use the scripts at all.

So this year the speech path in our building went to a conference about the core vocabulary board. Before being introduced to this we were solely trying to use the PECs (Picture Exchange Communication System) and with only myself and an aid in the room regularly it was challenging to initially teach the students how to use it. So after she attended this conference she said this may be a great supplement to PECs and may be easier to use with just two adults regularly in the room. 

The National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA's 3 million members work at every level of education-from pre-school to university graduate programs. NEA has affiliate organizations in every state and in more than 14,000 communities across the United States. Read Across America supports and ideas can be found under the Grants and Events tab