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Thinking Blocks was developed by Colleen King in 2003 to help students who were struggling with math word problems. Before creating Thinking Blocks, Colleen was using problem sets from Singapore Math texts in a course for accelerated students at a math enrichment center. The model drawing approach in these texts gave upper elementary students a path to more advanced concepts and algebraic reasoning. Colleen sought a more flexible solution for struggling learners and designed a model drawing application called Blocks. The first group of students to test the program often made comments about how smart they were when using Blocks and how Blocks made "their brains work better". Colleen observed students who were reasoning, understanding, and problem solving. Her students were using thinking Blocks. Today Colleen uses Thinking Blocks and, more generally, the Singapore model drawing approach with students who have very diverse mathematical backgrounds. While the concept of modeling word problems is most closely associated with Singapore Math, Colleen has found it to be compatible with all elementary math programs."

The Three Block Model of Universal Design for Learning is an effective approach to classroom management, planning, instruction, and assessment that creates a compassionate learning community from K-12. Developed by Dr. Jennifer Katz, The Three Block Model of UDL has been implemented in elementary and high schools across three provinces, and has been shown to increase student engagement, self-concept, respect for diverse others, prosocial behavior, and teacher satisfaction and self-efficacy.

Pattern blocks - use on an interactive whiteboard!

"THE THREE BLOCK MODEL OF UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING (UDL) Inclusive Education & Teaching Diverse Learners"

"This week the teacher-turned-entrepreneur officially launched eduClipper, a platform that allows teachers and students to explore, share and contribute to a library of educational content. In both function and design, it's essentially a Pinterest for education, with one notable difference: Because eduClipper is built exclusively for teachers and students, unlike Pinterest, you probably won't find it blocked by your local school"

"My oldest son likes games and Web surfing, but we don't want to give him full access to our PC, or to the entire Internet. We've experimented with various ways to block him off, with varying success. It wasn't long ago that I found just the program for which I was looking, a customizable application launcher that serves as an alternate Windows shell. That program is KidsMenu. I should back up for a moment and explain what the "shell" is. The shell is what allows a user to interact with the operating system. For most of us, the default Windows shell is Explorer, which includes the Start Menu, desktop icons, System Tray, etc."

an online data visualization tool developed by IBM. Many Eyes provides tools for creating a wide variety of data visualizations using your data sets There are six categories of data visualization types offered by Many Eyes. Within each of those categories you will find three or four tools for creating visualizations. You will find common visualizations like line graphs, bar graphs, maps, and word clouds. You will also find some less commonly used and or more difficult-to-create data visualization displays like treemaps for comparison, block histograms, bubble charts, and phrase nets.

"Dynamic Paper Need a pentagonal pyramid that's six inches tall? Or a number line that goes from ‑18 to 32 by 5's? Or a set of pattern blocks where all shapes have one-inch sides? You can create all those things and more with the Dynamic Paper tool. Place the images you want, then export it as a PDF activity sheet for your students or as a JPEG image for use in other applications or on the web."

"EduApps is an initiative developed by the JISC Regional Support Centre Scotland North & East and consists of four different collections of incredibly useful software: * AccessApps provides a range of solutions to support writing, reading and planning, as well as sensory, cognitive and physical difficulties. * TeachApps is a collection of software specifically designed for teachers or lecturers. * LearnApps, as its name implies, is specifically designed for learners. All learners or students can benefit from LearnApps. * MyStudyBar is our new kid on the block, providing a suite of apps to support literacy. Currently we host over 90 open source and freeware software applications which can be entirely used from a USB stick on a Windows computer. "

So who wants to test this out and see how it all works? Sounds promising!

Patti, BIll Nellis has develolped PD using these apps. He shows the participants how to create their own Thumb Drive with a collection of AT apps that run entirely from the Thumb Drive. It is a WONDERFUL idea and has tons of application for therapists or AT professionals who travel from school to school.

"If you'd like to take any block of text and have it easily transferred as spoken text to your iPhone or iPod, I found this feature is now built in to Snow Leopard as a Service. "

"Being a writer can be an enlightening, wonderful experience when you're creating work that you love, but it can also be incredibly frustrating when you get writer's block or are struggling to find inspiration. There are plenty of places on the web, however, where you can find inspiration and instruction to help you overcome your biggest obstacles or help you to see writing in a new light. Here are 100 videos just for writers, many from well-known authors offering their help and guidance."

"BlockCAD is a freeware program for building virtual models with Lego-like bricks. You can save your models, or save pictures of them (.bmp, .jpg), even reuse a complete model as a part in another model. Everything can be controlled with the mouse, but it's also possible to use the keyboard for most of the commands, making 'routine building' more effective, and there is a minimum of text involved, to make it easier for kids, "