Ms. Miller's Class

I had the chance to work in the class today and I discovered that our class computers are in terribly sad shape. We have 4 class computers and two of them are not operable and the other two are slow and need new mouses and headsets. Ms. Miller told me that there is only one computer tech for the whole district, so the hope that these computers can be saved is minimal at best.

(This might be a slight visual over exaggeration)

Then a large light bulb went on over my head and I said our kids don't need new computers - they need ipads. As we all know ipads have an amazing amount of technology in their tiny little silver bodies and the knowledge that they can provide for our children is amazing.

There is a great deal of research that is available on the success of utilizing this technology for our special students . Most of our children do not learn in the traditional manner and they have other sensory challenges that make the task of learning even more difficult. Many of the programs on the ipad have been designed for students with special needs in mind.

Here are some of the examples of the skills that they can practice:

Fine motor skills - learning to write can be practiced with the alphabet program - it does not matter if your child can hold a pencil or not - it can benefit both students.

How about practicing sight words :

Need a little practice with articulation:

Who does not need a little help with patterning (geometry here we come):

Number sequencing :

These are just a few of the programs that are available. My hope is that when our children have time in the computer center they will have the opportunity to access the programs that will make a difference in their lives.

Ms. Miller's Class

Help - Our computers are dead ...........or almost

Check out this video - iPad in the class room