Special Ed in the 21st Century

This is a great website for resources, especially LD and ADHD. Definitely worth bookmarking and subscribing to their free newsletters.

world's leading website on learning disability and ADHD-excellent articles, teaching strategies and tools for teachers, parents and students. Companion sites are Reading Rockets, Colorin Colorado and Adolescent Literacy.

Amazing description of the life of Michael Phelps in his earlier years as told by his mom--what a tremendous example of overcoming challenges and also an important statement to educators about teaching to student strengths and not trying to make them all fit into a conforming mode. Stresses need to find what students CAN do and not focus on what they CAN'T DO. Also great example of importance of parent advocacy and high expectations along with belief in them.

Powerful narrative story based on an interview with Michael Phelp's mom who is now a Middle School principal--wow, did he overcome his earlier challenges! Great story to share with students!

Another great suggestion for instructional modifications using technology to work with special needs students.

Excellent suggestion for using video iPods with special education students. They can listen to content or tests being read and follow along with both the visual on the iPod and the hard copy.

Amazing story of a school that uses technology to include a homebound student in everything going on in the classroom.

This is an incredible video that tells about how one school has found a way to include a long-term homebound student in everything going on in the classroom-instruction, interaction, friendships and much more. Very inspiring and a simple solution using an Activboard, iChat, iSight camera and Mac computer.

Research paper on the use of Smartboards with E/BD adolescents-very positive results.

Very informative research paper on the use of Smartboards to help adolescent special education students (E/BD) develop appropriate social skills.

There are some great article available on this site as well as materials that can be purchased. I own many of their books and found them really valuable as a principal and university instructor.

This site contains fantastic resources for understanding the laws and advocating for special needs students. I have purchased many of their materials and found them really valuable.

Excellent blog with links and resources from an experience special education teacher.

Fantastic blog maintained by a special education teacher. Lots of great links to resources for integrating technology in special education.

Shahnaz Khan believes in working in an inclusive classroom, with activities appropriately differentiated. In this programme, we see how she works with her KS1 class at Bangabandhu Primary School, in Bethnal Green to recognise speech in text. Shahnaz adapts her teaching style to encourage all the children to participate, and uses differentiated questioning to ensure every pupil benefits from the lesson.

One of the videos featured this week on Teachers.TV-15 minutes. There are some good links on the resources page for special education.

It's Special Educational Needs Week on Teachers TV and we are showing your favourite SEN programmes. Differentiation in Action shows how you can differentiate tasks in the classroom to aid inclusion. The primary (Wednesday 4pm) episode looks at how puppets and text can be used to recognise speech in a KS1 class. The secondary (Tuesday 7.30pm) episode follows a history lesson where differentiation is used to great success and the pupils assess their own achievement as well as discussing which teaching styles they prefer and their preference for mixed achievement groupings. Also on this week is Being Different May be Cool, (Friday 7pm) an honest look at the challenges of dealing with children on the autistic spectrum through the lives of three autistic brothers and their mother.

Looks like some great shows on the Special Educational Needs Week programming this week-Teachers TV in the UK. This is an excellent site to bookmark and join their email list to be notified of new programs. Great videos for teachers.

Outstanding resources from Karen Janowski, Joyce Valenza, Jeff Utecht and others for using UDL in ALL classrooms.

Fantastic resources to explore-Alice Barr suggested that maybe even students could create their own tool kits.

Universal Design for Learning calls for ... * Multiple means of representation, to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge, * Multiple means of action and expression, to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know, * Multiple means of engagement, to tap into learners' interests, offer appropriate challenges, and increase motivation.

Another great resource for Universal Design for Learning

Here's a great toolbox for a variety of strategies for differentiating instruction--assessment, curriculum, teaching strategies and organizers.

Excellent resources for implementing differentiated instruction-quiz to assess your knowledge of differentiation, and many tools for managing diferentiated instruction.

Learning How to Learn Assistive Technology (one of my presentations) "Toolbelt Theory" suggests that we must teach our students how to analyze tasks, the task-completion environment, their own skills and capabilities, an appropriate range of available tools… and let them begin to make their own decisions.

This is definitely a "must read" blog by Ira Socol. This post discusses the "Toolbelt Theory" but there are tons of other valuable resources and important ideas throughout the blog. It's something you should plan to subscribe to via RSS feed so you will get the latest updates. Includes many technology tips and information about Universal Design.

Another great blog post written as a response to Lisa Parisi's blog post related to inclusion programs.

Excellent blog post by Ira Socol in response to the blog post written by Lisa Parisi (Successful Inclusion Program). Great food for thought and some really valuable links to other resources.

Lisa Parisi is an amazing educator with a Master's in Special Education who has been an inclusion teacher for many years. She has done some fantastic things with Voicethread in the MathCast project. Spend some time exploring her blog and you'll get some great ideas for integrating web 2.0 into working with special needs children.

Lisa Parisi's blog post on "The Successful Inclusion Program". Lisa is an outstanding 5th grade teacher who regularly blogs, twitters and hosts ustream.tv sessions to share her tools, tips and strategies. She includes some excellent advice about inclusion programs in this post.

This blog and live show is always excellent. On this particular session (July 16, 2008) Lisa Parisi is interviewed about her successful inclusive classroom. Lisa is an awesome web 2.0 educator and her blog is definitely worth following!

LD LIVE! Living with Learning Disabilities Connecting Innovators, Ideas and Individuals in the Field of Education and Learning Disabilities! Melinda Pongrey, MSED, hosts a weekly conversation exploring learning, learning difficulties, and learning disabilities with featured leaders in the field of medicine, science, education, ADHD, and various learning disabilities, including dyslexia.

What is RTI? Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tiered approach to help struggling learners. Students' progress is closely monitored at each stage of intervention to determine the need for further research-based instruction and/or intervention in general education, in special education, or both.

Response to Intervention could easily be implemented through the use of web 2.0 tools. Maybe we should start a discussion forum on RTI and have people contribute specific ways/tools that could be used.

Excellent special education blog with lots of great links to other resources.