Photostory

Social stories are short animated stories that help children learn a task.  Photostory is an awesome tool to get a certain point across to children.  It is useful to children so they can act appropriately in certain situations.  I would use social stories in a small group setting where I know certain kids will benefit from what is being taught.  While making a social story, you need to keep the child in mind.  You need to use vocabulary that they can understand so the social story is actually going to teach them something.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx8bF8q67YE


For my social story, I am teaching children the importance of eye contact.  Even at 23 years old, I still have trouble with eye contact so I understand that it is difficult or children to make eye contact as well.  I feel like showing children a social story about eye contact is important because eye contact shows respect and you can really tell when someone is listening to you if they are making eye contact with you as oppose to looking off into space.  Considering I've never used a program like this and have never created a social story, I liked using Photostory because it was straight to the point and was easy to use.

WebQuest

For module 9, we were to create a web quest.  When I first read the assignment, I was a little nervous as to how to go about this because I was unfamiliar with what a web quest was and how to go about making one.  My web quest was about visual impairment and blindness.  I found this topic interesting due to my horrible eye sight which has, according to my eye doctor, lead me to be legally blind (when I am not wearing contacts or glasses).  Web quests are an interesting way for students to learn about a topic rather than having the teacher stand up and narrate or have the students read about it off of a sheet.

I also learned more about AAC and AT.  These are essentials within a classroom where there are students with special needs.  Assistive technologies allow for students who need assistance with learning.  It allows students to learn more easily at their own pace.  I didn’t know about all the different AT’s and will definitely incorporate these into my classroom one day.