Today I wanted to talk about accessibility and inclusion for your students. Inclusion is very important when you want your students to succeed along with administering accessibility products that further elevate their success. Hehir and Pascucci state that, “students with disabilities thrive when they are, to the greatest extent possible, provided the same educational and social opportunities as non- disabled students” (2016). Therefore, it is our job to make sure we have the best possible tools to educate all students in the classroom. So, today I am introducing a device that will help visually impaired students in the library.
The PenFriend Audio Labeler Version 3 is a device that allows you to record a summary of a book, the name of a CD, Movie, or Video game and even directions to getting resources you may need. On the website, MaxiAid, they state, “This best-selling, low-cost, audio labeler for blind and visually impaired users lets you label anything and everything with discrete audio labels all in your own voice. Easily record and re-record information using this versatile, pocket-sized, easy-to-use labeling system. You can instantly play back the recordings anywhere simply using the PenFriend 3” (Maxiaid, 2023). This is a great tool for visually impaired students to come into a school library and find anything they need. All they have to do is check out the device at the counter and check it back in when they are done.
This is also perfect for:
Recording certain resources in different languages.
Recording audio versions of book trailers for reluctant readers.
Recording a podcast for book club, so everyone can interact.
Here are some other resources and links of other librarians or teachers using different labeling systems. You can use the PenFriend Audio Labeler Version 3 to help with these idea, as well:
Today I wanted to talk about a software that is easy to use!
Presenting Flipgrid or Flip (They changed the name recently)!!!
This software is website based and it is easy to use on tablets, smart phones, chromebooks, Macs, etc. This resource makes it easy for teachers to get face to face feedback from their students, students can ask teacher questions, submit video projects, and so much more!! The possibilities are endless.
Some steps to follow:
To get started, go to to this website: info.flip.com
Once you are there click on sign up or log in if you already have an account.
You can make an account using these email platforms:
You will then be asked to put in your birthday, then what country you live in.
Next, this will pop up for you to choose:
There are several options to choose from. I am going to pick “Classroom” for this demo.
Once you click on “Classroom”, this will show up for you to pick the age range that is appropriate for your school.
Next is the fun part! You start creating your groups! I make one for each class so I am able to go through and grade projects. When you make one, go back to the “Group” tab with the + sign to add more groups.
It should look something like this:
Click on any of your classes because it is time to make a project or topic tab:
Here you can type a question you want them to answer or what they are going to do:
(Your students can choose from any source they need to to answer the topic. They can also create their own video and you can set the time limit up to 10 minutes).
Once your topic is created, you can share the link to multiple platforms:
(You will have to send one to each class period because their codes will all be different)
Then, they go to the link and the page will send them straight to the topic you assigned.
I highly recommend that you give your students about a day to play around with it because it is easy, but if it is new to them then they need time to figure out the buttons and features.
Example:
This is a video from one of my science classes. I tried to mark out my student’s face to the best of my ability for privacy purposes. In this video, students were asked to make a Bill Nye video talking about the Electromagnetic Spectrum. They were paired up into groups of 4 and their roles were either: Videographer, Props/Background Coordinator, Bill Nye, and Script writer. This allowed everyone to work together and make sure everything was ready for them to teach the content. You can see how much fun they had!!
If you want other ideas on how to use Flipgrid, then jump to these websites for some amazing ideas:
As you may know I am working on my Master's to become a Media Specialist, who is still working in the science classroom, I wanted to introduce to you, if you haven’t heard of it before, the PHET Simulation Website created by the University of Colorado Boulder! As we all know, technology is constantly advancing which means, “school librarians are entering another period of Radical Change as they combine their information specialist roles with technology integration” (Wine, 2016, p. 207). Therefore, this resource will take you into fun and collaborative materials that help your students apply what they have learned in your classroom.
After reading this BlogShare and you want a little more detail, then hop over to this website:
PHET is an online simulation website that is available to all. You can sign up with your school email to allocate the resources other teachers make that go along with the simulation. Most of these simulations apply to Science and Math teachers; however, there seems to be more options for science teachers.
(Phet Screenshot, 2023)
Above shows what categories they have as options to choose from.
Today, I wanted to show you an example of what they have in the Earth Science tab.
(IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You must have an updated version of JAVA on your computer because it will not run the simulation.)
Recently, my students have been studying Plate Tectonics Theory and Plate Boundaries in reference to Alfred Wegner and Harry Hess. They have learned the evidence behind the theory and are now looking into the functions of plate boundaries and what landforms they create. The best thing about this website is that you do not need to make any materials that go with the simulation. Check out the pictures below:
(Phet Screenshot, 2023)
To get to this website, you can go to: https://phet.colorado.edu/ or you can type in the topic and put “phet simulation” after the topic in a Google search to make it easy. As you can see, PHET gives you Learning Goals, Teaching Resources, Activities, and Translations (which is perfect for your ESOL students).
(Phet Screenshot, 2023)
Here I clicked on the Teacher Resources tab. On this tab, it will not only give you teacher tips, but also alignment documents that particularly align with middle and high school. When you click on each document it will pop up with a certain standard along with the topic and PHET Simulation that will aid in further mastery of the content. It helps tremendously with writing your lesson plans.
(Phet Screenshot, 2023)
The biggest help from this website is the Activities tab. Here you can see that these are all teacher submitted activities. There is the level to pick from, the type of lesson it can be, and the subject that it can be used for in your units. I love that they have updated it to where you can search by language. Also with these activities, you can download them and edit them to better help your students that are at various levels, as well. Perfect for differentiation!!!
Watch this Video or share it with your students before you get started with your activity. It is a great run through of how everything works in this simulation!!!
This is just a fraction of how this website can be used. Teachers, administration, and students can all use this to not only have a fun and engaging time working with each other, but it can also be a great review of the content that was already taught. As Johnston states, “effective integration of technology is achieved when students are able to select technology tools to help them obtain information in a timely manner, analyze and synthesize the information and present it professionally” (Johnston, 2012, p. 2).
Please let me know if you want one on one help with this resource or if you need me to come into your classroom and run a workshop for your students! I am here to help!
References
Johnston, M. P. (2012). School librarians as technology integration leaders: Enablers and barriers to leadership enactment. School Library Research, 15.
Wine, L. (2016). School librarians as technology leaders: An evolution in practice. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science. 57(2), 207-220.
