Flipgrid + ECC =Success!

Have you heard of Flipgrid? Before I can tell you why it's so awesome, let me explain what it is.
From the website: Flipgrid is the leading video discussion platform for millions of PreK to PhD educators, students, and families in 180+ countries. Teachers set up "grids" which are topics. Teachers post questions or topics and students comment on them individually with their own video. General education loves using Flipgrid. I'm always thankful for our education technology specialist who keeps me in the loop of these things. We tested it with our AT specialist and realized that Flipgrid is very accessible (especially on Apple products with VoiceOver). Now that I understood what Flipgrid was, I knew I could use it teach the Expanded Core! The first thing I do is head to my ECC assessment tools and start making a list of EVALS skills. This helps me infuse skills into lesson plans. I always write lesson plans so I can focus on what my objective, procedure, ECC skills and instruction cues will be.

How can you use Flipgrid to teach the Expanded Core? 
This is an awesome idea for itinerant teachers. It allows me to do a lot of teaching remotely. I can post topics/questions/assignments and then students can respond to them. I use it in a variety of ways. Flipgrid is very helpful because it allows me to teach students who live close and students far. I currently have students that live 2 to 4 hours away from me. Important: you can't teach everything from the ECC on Flipgrid. But you can teach a lot of things! In fact, simply using Flipgrid is an ECC lesson because it alone has ECC skills. I love when I hear my students using VO when starting their videos. 

 I've included some screenshots. Below you will see my homepage with 3 of my most current "grids" (or topics). I use them in a variety of my classes. Currently I have 3 live grids: Study Abroad Canada, Accessible Arts Academy and Expanded Core.

I post a variety of topics each class. This allows you to encourage students to "field trips". I assign students to do certain tasks and then video their responses. Don't just limit it to you (as the teacher) posting assignments. For my Study Abroad Class, I have a few students who are leading the discussions and posting topics. As the teacher, you can grade, provide feedback, etc. to students. I even invite guest teachers to join me and help teach. 

It's hard to coordinate your schedule and student's schedules but Flipgrid allows you to (almost) have an authentic conversation on your own time. I post my topic/assignment/lecture thought and then I give a deadline for my students to reply. I also love that Flipgrid connects students. They don't have to be in the same place to interact with each other. They can reply directly to other's videos. It's a great way for students to get to know others. I also have my mentors join me as guest teachers (or called "co-pilots" on Flipgrid). 

Another feature that I like is that this mainstream general education. My students are using the same educational technology that their peers in their own school are using. They learn to upload videos, links, etc. and develop their tech skills. You can also use Flipgrid for PLCs!

I've used Flipgrid for discussions, assignments, quizzes and even field trips! Sometimes I take my students on a "field trip" somewhere and video where I am or I have them take me on a field trip to show me how they would access a location. There is a time limit for a maximum of 5 minutes per video. I like that because it allows me to give direct feedback on a particular skill. They may have multiple videos that go with that skill and they can upload as many as they want for the assignment. I can give direct feedback to each video. 

We have a lot of fun taking the "selfie" for each video. We always end our videos and take pictures with a funny face. It's a fun tradition that we have in our Flipgrid discussions. I love how effective I can be utilizing this tool. There are so many ideas floating around on how general education teachers are using Flipgrid. I check out YouTube and other EdTEch sites to get ideas because I want to align how I use it with general ed. It allows me to teach my students to use Flipgrid like their sighted peers. 

Here's a tutorial on using Flipgrid:

My last idea for using Flipgrid: use it with your parents! As teachers, we have a special responsibility to teach our parents about the Expanded Core. Use Flipgrid to connect to your parents. You can take videos of their children doing lessons with you or to share bits about the ECC. It's vey easy for parents to learn, too! I'd love to hear how you use it for your ECC lessons.  I'll keep posting my ideas, too!

Learn About Community Partners Using the Expanded Core

I just completed my latest ECC kit, Community Partners and I am so excited about it. One of my preschool teachers wanted a kit to help with teaching about community partners. Let me show what I came up with!

First, let me go right to our assessment tools and resources from the Expanded Core Curriculum. This way I can infuse skills in every aspect. I always go to my ECC tools first so I can have a clear picture of what skills, concepts, etc. I need to teach. I hit up the Independent Living Skills Assessment (ILSA) and Elementary Concepts from TSBVI (see earlier posts on using Elementary Concepts). There was a whole unit on community partners in Elementary Concepts so I copied the section for my teachers to use. Lots of good ideas for both core and Expanded Core learning (with art, music, writing, etc ideas). I also found some fun color and cut headbands from Totschooling.net (I signed up for free and they have all kinds of things). 

Next I hit up Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers to find some ideas and resources that general education is using. Remember, we always want to be in alignment with core and general education because it keeps our students included in their classrooms. Plus, TPT has GREAT finds that are pretty cheap. I love TPT!

I found these awesome movement cards for $3.00 on TPT. They are available in large and small sizes (or in large print as I like to think of it...). Look at how great these cards are!! I had my intermediate grade students do all the Braille for me (bonus ECC instruction as we discussed as they brailled...). *You can't see the Braille labels very well but they are on there!*
I also went and found the props that go with each card. For example, a newspaper, wrench, toothbrush and cut up hose. Now we have meaningful tactual items for the movement. 

I happen to have some preschool items that I purchased for my early thoughts with dramatic play with community partners. You can easily hit up a Kid to Kid or other kids consignment shop for some items. I also purchased some from Lakeshore. Kids love to dress up for dramatic play (plus it's another ECC bonus because you can work on dressing skills!)

We added Braille labels to all the print labels on the dramatic play clothes. Add a little super glue (carefully!) so that the Braille labels stick long term. 

We packaged up the costumes into large ziploc bags and logged the contents. I like to do this to keep track of things. We are not done yet! We still have more items in our ECC kit. 

I also found this fun idea from Pinterest to build a photo town. Here's the link: http://www.toddlerapproved.com/2015/03/build-around-town-photo-wall.html.
There's lots of good ideas in this post! There are accessibility settings on phones (iPhones for sure) that allows students with vision impairments to take pics with feedback. Go around your town and take pictures of your town to build your photo town. See the post for more ideas. There are so many good ones that are totally doable for our students! Extend your ECC learning by visiting these places and taking your pictures there OR it can be ECC homework for students to do with their families. 

I decided to have some starter photos for our town so I Googled some free pics of things and made labels (with Braille on it--can't see in picture). It was easy peasy to make the board. Bonus ECC instruction: you can work in spatial skills directions because you can discuss top/botton, left/right and count squares and use systematic search patterns. 

The last part of our kit has to do with signs in the community. We included a number of directional signs and this real working stoplight to talk about navigating around our community. This stoplight totally works! I found it at Hobby Lobby on sale for $40! It's got metal on it so it has an authentic feel. Plus it's great for students who have no vision who always hear people talking about a stop light but have never 'seen' it before. 

There is SO much learning that you can do with this ECC Community Partners kit! Other ideas include: asking members of the community to come to your classroom OR scheduling a visit to their location and build an experience book based on the community partners you learned about. Just make sure you hit up our ECC resources to see all the skills from play to compensatory skills that can be included. ILSA is a great tool for this! 

See you in the community!!

Ambutech Cane Giveaway!

I was excited to receive an email from Amber Bonbar over at Wonderbaby.org about the Ambutech colored canes. She read about the canes here on The Bee and was able to put together a cane giveaway. FUN!! 

Here's the link:

http://www.wonderbaby.org/articles/ambutech-cane-giveaway.

Enter soon! Drawings are all in July!

GOOD LUCK :)

Pitch Perfect 2 is looking for people with a vision impairment

Holy Hannah, did you see the movie Pitch Perfect?! It's a bit older right now but it is seriously cute and AWESOME movie. In fact, I have downloaded most of the movie soundtrack to sing along to. It was great news to hear that they are making a sequel to the movie. Yesterday I saw this post about casting for Pitch Perfect 2:

'Pitch Perfect 2' announces casting call for people visually impaired and over 50

Posted: May 29, 2014 12:06 PM EDT Updated: May 29, 2014 12:07 PM EDT

Posted by WAFB Staff - email

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -            

If you know someone who is visually impaired and over the age of 50, they could end up appearing in an upcoming movie.
The movie Pitch Perfect 2 is looking for five or six people who meet the criteria.
Officials said they would like to cast a family member, friend or caregiver to work with them on set and portray a caregiver in the movie.
They said the visually impaired person and caregiver will both be paid for their work and time. They added it should be a fun scene.
also like some photos of both.


Read the full story here: http://www.wafb.com/story/25642018/pitch-perfect-2-announces-casting-call-for-people-visually-impaired-and-over-50

White Cane + Flash Mob = A super awesome idea!!

I don't know about you, but I am still excited over flash mobs (and still secretly wish I could be part of one...). I was perusing youtube looking for some fun videos on disability awareness when I was lucky to find a suggestion for a White Cane Day flash mob. White canes and a flash mob? YES!! So I decided to keep watching. I thought they were so fun that I had to share them!! Here are two of my favorites: 

Has anyone else seen or done a flash mob with our kids? If so, please share! It's totally something that is on my bucket list for teaching so keep an eye out for me and my students. 

I have done a few fun adventures involving music and dancing with students. Here's a link to a talent show performance I did with one of my deaf blind students, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1571614289221&l=3895627073786509208.

Let's Get This Girl a White Cane!!

Hello friends, I hope everyone had a good holiday season so far. My family has. We took our kids to the American Girl store in NYC this past week. My two girls were, of course, amazed with all the AG accessories, clothes and dolls. The store was alive with lots of little girls (and maybe a few big girls) lovingly carrying their dolls around. It is rather exciting to be there. There's the salon, the big display cases with these beautiful dolls of all ethnicities and ALL the accessories that can go with them.  We passed by the display of the AG dolls with disabilities and much to the credit of AG, they were just as beautiful as their "non-disabled" counterparts. They have lovely dolls with no hair, dolls that use a wheelchair, girls with hearing aids (one ear or bilateral--the owner's choice) and lastly the doll with the service dog. I smiled at the lovely dolls and at the environment they were in. There are big girl empowering quotes on the walls---encouraging girls to be their best selves, be true to who they are, be kind. I loved it. Except for one thing---where's the doll for the blind girl? 

Like I mentioned, they have a doll with a service dog. I am making sure that I am calling it a service dog because it can't be a guide dog for the blind. I am sure someone, who is well-meaning, thinks this is for a blind girl. But it is not. Guide dogs are not given to eight year old girls. White canes are. 

Side note story: I was commenting on this to my husband (okay, I was a little loud as I voiced my opinion of the missing white cane doll…) when the well-meaning manager came up to me, as helpful as ever, and indicated to me that they had AG dolls with hearing aids. Hearing aids. Now to any vision professional that comment is no surprise. It's the first question we are asked when we say we teach kids who are BLIND ("Oh, you must know sign language!" followed by the next comment, "That must be VERY rewarding."). Telling me that they had an AG doll with hearing aids is like me asking for chocolate chip ice cream and getting a duck. It is not the same thing. 

Back to my post---why the fuss over the white cane? Why can't we just give our girls a service dog? Is this even a big deal? Well, it is not a big deal but it can be significant. How many of us know the AG age group girls who have significant vision impairments and struggle with feeling "apart of the mainstream crowd"? The girls who are not fans of the mobility lessons or sticking out from their friends? The white cane means something. It is not just a white cane. It is a tool of independence. Many of our kids struggle with accepting it. BUT how great would it be if there was more positive love to the white cane? ….say maybe an extremely popular line of dolls like the American Girl line? AG's site and store is filled with tackling issues of self-discovery, acceptance, empowerment, etc. They need to know that having a white cane doll would help a lot of girls be part of something that is "cool". That the white cane doll could help with acceptance and removing the stigma that the white cane is to be dreaded. Besides, they make snow shoes, braces, earrings, and every other imaginable accessory for the AG dolls, how hard would it be to make a white cane? Wouldn't it be cool if there was a story? Maybe one of the other girls (like Saige--I know them by name now) had a friend who read Braille? 

Here's what I did today: I called AG and gave them my feedback for the white cane accessory. I also emailed them. It took 5 minutes. I don't know how many AG developers are going to read (or care) about my feedback but it's worth a shot. I made sure that I explained the fact that the AG demographic age receives white canes not service dogs. Most of our girls will never get a guide dog. I further stated that the white cane has significance to a girl with a significant vision impairment especially when paired with the AG line. It would mean something to them. I don't exactly know if I am changing the world by suggesting the white cane accessory or if any of you agree with me. But if you do, would you please email and call American Girl? Let's see if we can help change the perception of blind people and make it so that the white cane is the accessory that most blind girls can't live without? Wink, wink!

White Cane Day is Coming!

Hey friends, have you heard of White Cane Day? It's a national holiday celebrated on October 15th every year! It's a day that celebrates the achievements of people with vision impairments and promotes safety and independence. President Obama made a declaration about it last year. Why am I telling you about it? Because I challenge you to celebrate it this year!! White Cane Day is a great day to rock some blind pride out in the community. You are pretty psyched right now, aren't you? I am blogging now because you still have time to organize a sweet little soiree for your community or school. Are you stumped on how to get started? Have no fear! First, save the date--October 15th! Second, check out if there's already a White Cane Day bash going on your city. Third, hit the internet and check out some resources. Here's a good one: http://www.whitecaneday.org/. Last, get organizing! 

Here's some fun ideas: plan a community party! It can be as easy as having a table in front of grocery store and handing out flyers. We are throwing a fun community event at Old Navy in West Hartford here in Connecticut. We are even having a fashion show starring our students! Talk to your local Lions Clubs as they are usually big supporter of White Cane Day. In addition, think about coloring sheets (Google images: guide dog has some good ones!), food!! (candy canes as "rigid canes") or just hit up high school driver's ed classes and have your student/child talk about white cane safety. 

Lots of businesses have a community day where you can also share information. Eastern Mountain Sports has a day in October (well they do in Connecticut...) where I will be at my own little booth handing out flyers about white cane safety. Call your local businesses and see what you can do. It's amazing how just asking businesses to support  you can turn into something amazing! A big thank you to Old Navy in West Hartford for stepping up to let us have our White Cane Day bash there. 

It truly doesn't matter if your White Cane Day is a big or small. It could just be free treats during lunch periods at your school. The point is to just get out there! Let's show the community how awesome the blind community is!

Here's the word art I made for our t-shirt and posters for 2013 White Cane Day. Our theme is I Heart White Cane. You can make one too! I went to taxgedo.com and created this in 5 minutes. You can save it as a jpeg. Happy White Cane Day 2013!!

Community Workshop

Last year I started a student group called the Student Advisory Council (SAC). I facilitate this group with a TVI & mobility instructor. The purpose of SAC is to have a student-run organization that provides peer support, leadership and education opportunities for children with vision impairments in middle & high school.

This past SAC meeting, we met with a town police department to give a workshop on how to work with people with vision impairments. Holy cow, did the students ROCK the workshop!! They educated the officers on technology, sighted guide and vision impairment simulation. It was a great opportunity for the students to shine and share with community partners.

Try it in the community: Empower your child to host a mini workshop of their own! They can do this for a variety of community partners such as churches, youth groups, scouts and protective services such as the police department. Some workshop ideas: assistive technology, sighted/human guide or vision simulation. Be "Vanna White" and stand in the background, help show off assistive tech or be a sighted guide.