QUICK CHOICE - A Choice Board App


I wanted to take a few blog posts to share with you some of the apps I like to use in the classroom. Some are great for the kids to do, some save teacher time, and others are useful utilities such as the one I want to share today.
QUICK CHOICE by Happy Camper is easy to use and quick to set up for use. That's 2 big PROS for me when it comes to using things in the classroom.  Ease of use and quick setup saves me time as a teacher and time in class when using it with students.  This great little app only costs 99 cents, but its worth much more.

It allows those with language impairments as well as those that understand visual symbols better than spoken words, to express themselves using a choice board. I use it primarily for picking reinforcers at the end of work tasks, but the uses of it are really only limited by your imagination and need.  It could be used to communicate lunch choices for lunch count and in the lunchroom to select food choices. It could be used for communication if someone is feeling ill or hurts. It could also be used to communicate how the student goes home. These are just a few ideas.

One of the best features of this program is it lets you import your own photos to use. This is especially helpful in tailoring the board to specific students. If you use it on your phone as I do, you can use the pictures straight from your camera. The photos are easy to scroll through and will take you through your entire photo library.
I use it in my classroom with several students. Its great when offering the student 2 choice activities as reinforcers for their completed work. I primarily just use 2 choices with my students because of the needs of my kids,  but the program allows you to use 3 choices also.You can change from 2 to 3 pictures simply by going into the settings within the app and turning the option on. (See picture (left) below). When choosing this option, you have to use the phone in landscape mode in order to view all 3 pictures.








On the left is a picture of the settings screen where you can change from 2 pictures to 3 and on the right is a 3 picture choice board with pictures included.

Quick Choice by Happy Camper is also compatible with not only the iPhone but also the iPad and iPod Touch. It requires IOS 4.0 or later.

If you need a quick choice board, try this nifty app for yourself. It works great!
Have fun and stop back again real soon!


 12/30/13 10:30 pm
RECENTLY UPDATED!!! Please download again. Several typo errors have been corrected!

 Today, your FREEBIE is a small set of worksheets I am working on to accompany PCI Reading Program I use in my class.  Even though the worksheets focus on the PCI words, they are also common words you find in Dolch word lists and the Fry Readability Lists. I find my students often need extra practice on the words so I am hoping to get them done before school is back in session. I wanted you all to have a small sample of them first. The sheets are designed to provide a variety of modalities to practice the words in small segments.
I would love to hear your feedback about them and how you use them. The entire Level 1 word worksheets will be in my TPT store soon.

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Happy Holidays From My Family to Yours


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Krista-Wallden








HAPPY HOLIDAYS 
from 
SUPERTEACH'S SPECIAL ED SPOT


I hope each and every one of you are enjoying a wonderful holiday season with those you love and are managing to grab some down time for yourself as well. 

We've had a super Christmas here at Superteach's and are enjoying being together, and getting together with other parts of our extended family. 

The New Year is approaching quickly. I find it difficult, once again to believe that another year has passed and that this time we are entering 2014!  How quickly time flies! With the beginning of 2014, thoughts often turn to resolutions, new beginnings and starting over. 

This year has been one filled with much learning for me as I ventured into blog writing and making products and selling them on Teachers Pay Teachers. I am thoroughly enjoying sharing my ideas with wonderful blog readers such as you and want to continue writing, sharing and creating ideas and products that help students learn better. I have many goals I would like to fulfill in those areas 

New Year's Eve is just around the corner. Many people will be out partying and having a great time ushering in 2014. I tend to like to celebrate on a small scale - most of the time with a friend or small group. What are you planning for this New Year's Eve? Drop us a comment below! I would love to hear from you.

Happy New Year!
What will be happening on Superteach's blog in 2014?
More sharing ideas from Superteach and her students. More learning from others in Blog-land and of course - more freebies for readers.
2014's first freebie posting on January 1 !




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Sandy Hook - One Year Later

1 year ago today,  a horrible tragedy occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT. It was a horrific act of violence, committed in a place we often think of as safe and secure. It shattered our feelings of security. It left many wondering whether anything is safe? Where do we go now?


The Mayor and citizens of Newtown have asked people to commit random acts of kindness to honor the teachers and students who we lost this day.  Lets put more kindness out in the world and honor them. Don't do it just on the 14th! Do again the next day and again the next day.

Spread the word by posting this on YOUR blog or website. Share it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram; wherever you travel on the Internet.
As we prepare to remember the lost lives in Newtown, we are shocked once again with yet another  incident yesterday in Littleton, Colorado.

Be sure and share this post (with the hashtag #love4SH) . Let's  spread the word.

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Functional Vocabulary for Children

Product Image



I wanted to share with you this great set of books by Christine E. Reeve and an activity I have been using in my class lately to foster communication, expand language and work on social skills as well.
Functional Vocabulary for Children is a set of 10 books.
These books each contain a simple story with repetitive language about every day routines. The story we have been using is "Kai Gets Dressed". 
I wanted to find an activity that I could do with my whole class that would foster language on many different levels so that it fit the many levels of my students. 
First we start off by reading the story from start to finish as a whole group; encouraging them to chime in on the repetitive portions on each page.
These books are wonderful because they  there's a sentence on every page that repeats itself making it easy to get the kids involved in the story. 
As we read through the story and the kids become familiar with it the students with higher language skills are able to join in and help read the story.
Once we become familiar with the story pattern then we include the individual Velcro pieces that are unique to each book. 


In the book  "Kai Gets Dressed", there are individual pieces of the clothing that Kai uses to get dressed. Part of the activity of the book is to match those pieces to the identical pictures in the book. Below you see a student matching the clothing piece to the identical picture in the book.


As a way to involve everyone, I vary this part of the activity when using it with the whole group by distributing those clothing pieces to the students in the group. 
As we read the story again, the group with a clothing piece hold their pieces up so that everybody can see what piece they have. I let one of my youngest nonverbal students practice his matching skills by locating the student with the piece that coordinates with the picture in the book. He then has go to the student, retrieve the piece and return to the book and place the piece in the book. All the students repeat the story aloud as we read it aloud.
This activity has proven invaluable for the interactions the nonverbal student has with all the students, the vocabulary used in the activity, matching skills and language skills.

Does anyone else have these books? What have you done with them? Please drop me a comment and let me know. 

Until next time!



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TPT CYBER MONDAY SALE

CYBER MONDAY SALE!

December 2nd and 3rd

After the turkey is gone and a only a fond memory, after the visiting relatives have returned home and you are looking at returning to the normal routine, there is one more thing to check out this Thanksgiving weekend.
IT'S the CYBER MONDAY and TUESDAY SALE at Teachers pay Teachers. 
MONDAY DECEMBER 2ND AND TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3RD use the code: CYBER at checkout and you will receive not only my 20% store discount for the sale but an extra 8% off.

Everything in my store will be 20% off so shop till you drop!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Superteach56

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

As we get ready to begin the Thanksgiving holiday, I am very thankful for all of you, my blog readers. You have made sharing about myself and my teaching lots of fun; more fun than I ever thought possible. So THANK YOU! I am very thankful for each and every one of you! Please keep reading and share with others.
This week, even though I am fortunate to have the entire week off I was up with the sun working on school things. Hard to believe I know!
I have been working on a new product and of course it has a freebie for you guys . So even though I am running a little late getting this post up this week, getting ready for the holiday, I hope you will enjoy it!

Opposite Cards Freebie
OPPOSITE CARDS FREEBIE

Don't forget to check out Manic Monday Freebie

Classroom Freebies Manic Monday





Happy Thanksgiving from Superteach's Special Ed Blog!










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GoodNotes- a versatile app for the classroom! Monday FREEBIE!

GOODNOTES APP

Has anyone  used the app GoodNotes in the classroom?
I know this is been on several blogs, but I thought it deserved another look because it can be such a versatile tool in the classroom.
 When I first read about it I downloaded the app and I now have several sets of worksheets in the app and have been using with my kids for a while now and thought I would share my experiences with you about it. Below you can see screenshots of my bookshelf in the app where I have added a few of my teaching worksheet sets.

When you initially open the app you view the  empty shelves of your bookshelf.  Select  the  + button and you open an entire world of possibilities. With GoodNotes, you can create your own notebook and take notes, import notes and worksheets into the product.
GoodNotes



Selecting the + produces a blank sheet of paper.  You have choices of lined, unlined, grid paper as well as music paper. I find the line paper  particularly useful when having parent conferences or phone conferences to take notes with. You can use a stylus or just your finger, making it convenient when you get those impromptu phone calls from parents and don't have paper/pencil. The notes you take with this can then be printed or exported. When you export, you can email, save to places such as SkyDrive, Google Drive, Box , or  Dropbox.
My favorite thing to do with GoodNotes is to import worksheets for my students to complete on the iPad.  Select the + button once again and choose your preferred online storage option as your source and download PDF files and even PowerPoint files. I have had a few minor problems with the PowerPoint files. I think it depends on the size. Some of the PowerPoint files downloaded fine and then were converted to PDF by GoodNotes. The possibilities are endless as to what this app can do for you in the classroom.
One of the biggest advantages for me is using it is as an incentive for students to complete their work. Some of my students will complete anything when its on the iPad! What about YOURS?

This extremely versatile app lots of great features, but I am just going to highlight a  few of the most useful to me. Here are some of my favorites.
Shape Recognition
Turn on shape recognition, select the pen color and thickness you desire and you can circle important items on the screen. When you hand draw your circles, lines or boxes on your notes, it immediately changes them into proper shapes.
Text Boxes and Images
When creating or presenting a document, you can add text boxes and images to your document. I can make a worksheet of math problems and add clip art or photos to it, straight from the iPad camera or from an online storage location.
Lasso Tool
Move things around on your worksheet/ notes using the lasso tool.

 In the example of the Choice Board above, you will see several of the items circled, but prior to circling the grapes on the bottom row, I used the SHAPE tool and it immediately turned my hand drawn circle around the grapes to a formal circle.

In the example above I imported some task cards for number recognition. You can see where different colors of marker were used to select the answers for the task cards. A great opportunity for saving paper, awesome incentive for those kids that hate worksheets ....the possibilities are endless.

Have you used GoodNotes? If you have, share how you have used it!  If you haven't used it, give it a try. There is a free version and a paid version.


Its Marvelous Monday and here is your freebie for the week. Here is a small gift of one set of my alphabet bingo cards.
Alphabet Bingo Freebie
ALPHABET  BINGO FREEBIE
Classroom Freebies Manic Monday

Be sure and check out our friends at Manic Monday!

Have a great week! We will see you soon!






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Its Marvelous MATH Monday today!



Hi Friends - Its a great Monday here today! So much going on and as usual, never a dull moment in the classroom. Just thought I'd share this in hopes it may give someone else a chuckle today.

I have a little one that is a very prolific complainer. Most of what she says is nonsense and just a way to get some attention.You never know what she is going to say next. She came in today telling me her finger hurt - nothing new there- she wanted a band-aid. I just dismissed it as there was no cut, nothing to bandage and we went on our merry way.
Next, she told me her head hurt and she just couldn't do her work. When I told her she could put her head down for a few moments, she said, "No, Ms Reeve I need to play with the iPad. I explained (again) that it wasn't choice time and she had work she needed to do. She need to get her work done then she would be able to choose a choice (freetime) activity such as the iPad. She returned to her desk and was suppose to be doing Math, but her sitting was short lived as she popped right back up and walked up to my desk, raising her hand as she came. I called on her, and she continued to approach me...coming right up to my face, putting her pointer finger inside her mouth. As she continued to get closer, she pulled her cheek aside as if she wanted me to look at something and said...Ms Reeve, my brain is hurting. See, its right here and it hurts! Well I lost it. I can keep a straight face through a lot of  things with students,  but not this time! I totally cracked up! I mean totally LOST IT!

So whether your brain is in your head or inside your mouth like my little one's was today, I hope YOUR Monday was a good one! You just never know what will come out of their mouths.

Reading is coming along and everyone seems to be making good progress. My focus this week in planning and making materials is  Math at the moment. I am trying to find some new activities for four of my little ones that need extensive repetition of numbers 1-10. They need help with everything! Rote counting, one to one correspondence, and number concepts just to name a few areas in need.
I made them a set of touch number cards that can be pair with card having counting dots on them. Each day they must pair the numeral cards with the counting dots cards that match. 
Check out the touch number match set at my TPT store
5 sets of number 1-9



The students must also put the numerals in order, provide me with the correct numeral when I ask for it out of order and we also play GO FISH with them. It works great and provides lots of versatility for a skill set that needs to be worked on frequently.

Next I developed a set of worksheets to complement the cards. Below you will see an example of the worksheet on the left. I am please with the way it worked with the students. They loved it because all the activity sections were short.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Read-Write-and-CountSampler-972104


The set also includes other worksheets for number recognition such as this matching sheet that matches number words to pictorial representations (in this case dice numbers) and then to the numeral. It will be a little bit before my young ones are ready for this one because of the number words on it, but who knows.


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Read-Write-and-CountSampler-972104
For your Marvelous Monday Freebie, please stop by my TPT store and download the freebie of this product. Click the worksheet above or the Marvelous Monday FREEBIE title. It will take you straight to the FREEBIE!

Don't forget to check out our friends at Manic Monday this week!
Classroom Freebies Manic Monday 
 
 
Thanks for stopping by!
Hope you all have a fantastic week! I look forward to sharing again real soon!
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Math Skills

Hi Everyone!
Its Marvelous Monday again  and I wanted to share a little with you about part of my math class. One of my math groups in my classroom consists of 4 girls ranging from kindergarten through 4th grade all working on number recognition and some form of counting. A couple of them know how to rote count, one of them understands one to one correspondence.

One of the best things I have found to help these girls is touch point counting. It works so well for so many students. The touch points are on the numbers so once they have learned the point system, the counting system is always there for them, whether the points are visible or not.

So this is what we have been working on that since the beginning of the school year. I feel like I have had them count just about everything, realistic objects, pictures, touch points, and pennies.  

What do you use that has worked for you? I would love to hear from you!

However, we are far from mastering this skill at all so I have infused the counting into everything in the classroom. I made a set of touch point numbers 1-9 and laminated them. I redesigned my work systems task boxes so they were number driven and labeled them with touch point numbers.
The girls have a schedule on the board with numbers denoting which task boxes they are supposed to do and in what order. These numbers include the touch points so they can count and read their numbers.
I've incorporated the touch points into a line up system so I can tell them to find a certain number to line up on it. I also incorporated the number words for exposure even though they don't read the yet.

What ways do you use to work on concepts such as counting when you need to repeat and repeat? I am always looking for new ways to work on concepts such as these.



For Marvelous Monday Freebie today, I'm giving you a set of touch point numbers that can be used as a choice board for non verbal students when questions require a numerical answer, used in schedules as seen above or any way you can think of.
Touch Point numbers
Don't forget to check out Manic Monday Freebies!
Classroom Freebies Manic Monday 
Take it easy everyone! Have a great week!
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Objectivity

Step Back to get some Objectivity


Last week I took a few days to travel with my sister to the wonderful state of North Carolina. As a native Floridian, life long resident and dedicated teacher, I have had few chances to view the wonderful spectacle known as Fall. So as I was traveling last week and enjoying all the beautiful fall colors, I was communicating with my classroom on a few behavior problems that came up, mostly because of the routine changes.
As I was traveling up and down mountains and going in and out of good cell reception, I realized that I was able to come up with solutions and ideas to try, much quicker than when I was in the classroom. I was shocked and surprised at how quickly I could come up with some viable solutions for them to try in the classroom. I got a social story written, visuals made and sent back to the class for them to use. It made me aware that objectivity is so important! Perhaps even when I am at school and dealing with the behaviors, I need to find a way to step back from the situation and determine the best course of action sometimes. I might want to find a way to obtain more objectivity.
Do you have students that run away from class? I have two right now that like to do it and of course, they try it when I am not at school. So when I received the information that they were attempting to run, I first determined, from information my paraprofessional gave me, what the cause was. What are they getting out of the behavior. Once I had the reason behind it, I was able to tell her what needed to be done to help stop the problem. One child was running to get attention and one was running to escape the disruption of the classroom schedule caused by my absence and just different people doing things differently. I adjusted the frequency of the the reinforcers to an reinforcement everytime he did something correct instead of every other time. This helped and things got back to normal...well close to it.
Through this experience, I came to realize that sometimes stepping back from situations such as behavior problems in the classroom can actually give you more  perspective you need to see what really needs to be done and see the behavior for what it really is.
Take a look at these visuals for a variety of behaviors. As I was traveling, I realized there were many behaviors that I needed visuals for...poking, hitting, too close, and pinching, just to name a few.




One of the things I did was put together a social story for running away from class. Check it out.

Here is your Monday Freebie for today Enjoy.


Classroom Freebies Manic Monday
Have GREAT week!

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Choice Boards For Lunch Time

Dear Blog reading friends; You know I appreciate every time you visit my blog and every time you share it with others. This is awesome and I appreciate it so much. I am currently on a short vacation seeing fall leaves and visiting friends of the animal kind. This "guy" I just met today. Cute, huh?
So my blog friends, this is going to be short and sweet. And while I'm not in my classroom right now, I  did want to get this to you for this week.

Last week I was sharing a little about how I was using choice boards in my classroom. I'm still focusing on choice boards this week because these have become especially helpful for two of my students.
Another type of choice board I am using is a lunch time choice board. The board has items from the cafeteria on it the student is allowed to pick from.
He selects the items he wants and places them on his own lunch time board which he takes to the lunchroom with him. This helps him make his decisions prior to going to the lunchroom which facilitates time in line, and helps him communicate his wants to the lunchroom ladies.

Enjoy this choice board freebie and have a super week!
Classroom Freebies Manic Monday
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