Transition for your High Schooler

Since 2004 IDEA re-authorization, schools have been charged with creating
transition plans for students with IEP’s to include specific plans on
how the student will be prepared for life after high school, whether it
be work, post secondary education, or both. Let’s look at where you
might begin with your middle or high school students as they being
thinking about careers.

This is where I am going start with my students.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/argonne/4534362371/sizes/z/in/photostream/

First,register at Princeton Review
and then click here to take the career interest 24 question survey. Be sure to save
your registration information so you can save materials and go back and
look at what you have saved. As with most surveys answer the questions fairly quickly.
Once you finish the survey you get a an Interest Color and A Usual Color. Mine happen to be Interest=Green and Usual=Red. Then about 50 careers are generated from my interests with links to each career that give me more information including facts and figures about salary, the options to move up the career ladder, what the present and future may hold, and even what
someone in this profession might read.
 This site is also linked to SAT’s, ACT’s and college information.

The other Career site I found was Office of Science Education  Here I began with 127 careers, I chose 2 categories, narrowed  my choices down to 10 careers. Next,  I selected about 30 skills I felt I had or would like to have, finally I ended up with 5 careers if I had a Master’s degree and 3 if I had a Bachelor’s degree. This only took about 10 minutes to get to the 8 careers I ended up with.

Another great website will send students to look at what their career may eventually pay
them.This website would be a great site to look at with groups of students so they could read, collect data and report out to the group the variety of jobs they might be interested in.

If you are on holiday, share this blog with your students, let them begin the search. One nice result, I still have teaching in my career choices, but also  a few in the science field I did not know about. I wonder what my students’ career options will be?

Resources:
http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/trans.index.htm

Student Pride, Teacher Proud!

Last week,  Bob Sprankle, gave explicit ways that we can use to  promote student’s making comments on blogs, student publishing, student learning and student results. That post offered me a chance to reflect on my first trimester.  I work with challenged learners and provide them with opportunities to share their learning. Here are a few examples from my high school students.These moments do not happen frequently, however,  we have to be in the right place at the right time in order to facilitate them, or not!


For the first trimester in our Skills Cafe at our high school, we have been teaching students how to use various Web 2.0 tools in their own learning and how to add tools in their own specially designed toolkits. Once we teach a student how to use the tool, then they decide if the tool actually works for them, their learning style and produces results.

One student, Mike, had failed his English vocabulary test. I shared how he could use Quizlet and study then take the test again. He created his own word list in Quizlet over the weekend, studied, came in Monday and passed the vocabulary test with 100%. He sought me out between classes and told me how he got 100% by using Quizlet! Student Success.

Last week, I was out at a department meeting. You now how hard it is to schedule a department meeting for special educators, get all the necessary substitutes and then hope for the best. This prompted Scott, to be in touch with me while I was out of the classroom. The previous day, Scott  was studying for his vocabulary test, he had written them on paper, read them over and over, I quizzed him, he knew all but 4 of the words and definitions. Now, here is the part about our Special Education Department meeting, I was out of the building. Scott had my cell phone number, because he likes to receive texts from me as reminders.  He hates email!!! So, frequently I text him reminders, questions, suggestions. Guess what? During my meeting I received a text, and a photo of his success!


This is a story about Morgan. As we introduced the webtools to our students in the first trimester, we gave them tools and a placeholder-a google doc. We showed them how to share google docs and that it could later be published as a website. We shared our links in a google site. Through experience, Morgan made her own google site and published her Animoto’s, strategies, research tools all as her own toolkit. If we model good strategies for publishing, share the tools and monitor our student work , give our students choices, they will make good decisions.

Another student, Kaitlin, had to be out of school for two weeks. She wanted to have school work. I shared an online opportunity for her to complete work and stay in touch. Each week, she completed an online course of study and emailed me the results. Nice job! She was able to keep up with her classwork while she had to be out of school.

I have told these stories over and over again to other adults and students. Why? I am proud, my students are proud.  We have flattened our classrooms. We no longer only teach between 7 AM and 2 PM. We have given our students the tools, they are collaborating, they are problem solving, they are coming up with new ways to use the tools and they are personalizing them. Isn’t this what our instruction for digital literacy is  all about?

Week 16, Trimester 2

Skills Cafe A week at a time - December 2010 Welcome! Afterschool Support Study 2-2:30 daily F. Links BridgeURL.com This link will take you to all the links we have used. http://bridgeurl.com/Skills- Cafe-2010-2011-1 G. Did You Know? It is Trimester 2, you should have 3 of your community service hours completed for this year! H. PBS Contest! http://www.pbs.org/teachers/innovators/ ?contactID=159134581&gwkey=UY2V78JDCI I. WatchME Video Contest Check the bulletin board, the deadline is Jan. 10, 2011 _____________________ TechLearning.com Blog post I wrote http://techlearning.com/blogs/34512 December 13, 2010 A. Week 16- What's Ahead? Transition Plan, fill in this worksheet! Week 16 Activities, http://moodle.wocsd.org C. The Weeks in Review If your name is on the list in support study, then you need to fill out this SURVEY. D. Contest!!! Only 100 Words you could win $100.00 to $500.00 “How does technology make the world a better place?” Entries must be submitted online to TweenTribune and TeenTribune. No entries will be accepted via email or snail mail. To enter, students must log in, click “Create entry” from the “For Student Links” on the right side of the homepage, then submit their entries for their teachers to judge. Join our classroom Learning Cafe by 1/16/11 E. Do you have a learning tip to share? You can share your ideas here with your classmates. One of your Animotos, a poem, a story, ideas, your own photos or movies! Nothing to Do? Here is the $20.00 Challenge You can write an essay for NPR public radio student essay. If your essay is published, I will give you a $20.00 itunes gift certificate. You can have help with your essay. Here are the essay rules. http://thisibelieve.org/ guidelines/ _________________________________________ Ms. Oakes and Ms. Goodwin need student interviews about how to use technology tools in your day to day life for our January workshop at ATIA in Orlando, FL. Contact them!

Skills Cafe Newsletter 11-01-10

      Skills Cafe

     A week at a time - November 2010    TAKE this Survey please.

Welcome! Congratulations to our sports teams! Football! F. Links BridgeURL.com This link will take you to all the links we have used. http://bridgeurl.com/Skills-Cafe-2010-2011-1 G. Did You Know? You need to keep track of your community service. Get a form and get started. We can help! H.  What is in your IEP? What is in your accommodations list? Be an advocate for yourself.  I. WatchME Video Contest check the bulletin board

November 1, 2010                                                                    A. Week 10- What's Ahead?- Your Webpage for your Toolkit! Glogster! do you need to make a poster? See Mrs. Oakes for a username and PW. Try BridgeURL to have one link to go to your favorites! Did you take the survey? GOOGLE CALENDAR- add new deadlines! Are you all caught up? Do you have all your Trimester 2 classes chosen? C.  The Weeks in Review What belongs in your Toolkit? As a student you need to have tools in your toolkit which will make your life easier. The google domain has a calendar, a document , a presentation, a website tool, gmail, Quizlet and a way to record audio! Sciencewriter.cast.org, Literary Companion, Sparknotes, Animoto, what else? Snapgrades? Make your own document of all the links. See directions in Moodle. D. Books on Audio, mp3, itouch, shuffle, CD Have you thought about listening to your books? We have Night, Mango Street and many more. But even more if you have a library card from Wells Public Library, you qualify for a Portland Library Card, and you also can qualify and download your own audio books.  See Ms. Cowan, Ms. Jortberg and Ms. Oakes to get other books on AUDIO. E. Do you have a learning tip to share? You can share your ideas here with your classmates. One of your Animotos, a poem, a story, ideas, your own photos or movies! Nothing to Do? Here is the $20.00 Challenge You can write an essay for NPR public radio student essay. If your essay is published, I will give you a $20.00 itunes gift certificate. You can have help with your essay. Here are the essay rules.  http://thisibelieve.org/guidelines/

I am a reader!

Introduction:
Melanie Holtsman posted this challenge at her blog as a way to find/have purpose for blogging. I liked her idea. I blog for TechLearning.com  two times a month, I blog for TeachHub one time a month, I blog for myself, hm, well, uh.... when the spirit moves me. So, thanks to Melanie, I will blog for myself, using her topic prompts for the next 11 weeks. If you are reading this and have been waiting for the right moment to begin blogging, I mean posting to your blog, not just reading blogs, this may be the moment you have been waiting for. Try it. Be sure to email Melanie and she will link back to your blog. You will see the power of your new personal learning network! Here goes!
 The Topic for this week's challenge:
 What is your life as a reader like? Do you read for work, pleasure, instructions or emails? What is your favorite author and/or genre? What is your favorite reading spot? What did you like to read when you were the age of your students?
As a high school student,  in Suffield, CT, I read just about every young adult book I could find in my public library, and when our new high school was built with a beautiful library I read poetry and fiction/fantasy. My favorite poet was Rod McKuen, author was Tolkien, The Hobbit, and newspapers, magazines for current events.
My favorite reading spot had to be my bedroom. My favorite author wrote stories about Maine and I devoured them all. I may actually remember her name, sometime.
Currently, I read hundreds of emails a day, at least a dozen blogs, pages of Facebook and Twitter. You will notice I do not read books for pleasure. However, I listen to hours of books! My most recent is the Girl with the  Dragon Tatoo series. I loved listening to that series so much that I finally bought a book to read during winter. My question to you readers, is listening to audio books reading? I say a huge yes! What do you say?

Skills Cafe 2010-10-4

      Skills Cafe

     A week at a time - OCTOBER 2010 

Welcome! NO SCHOOL FRIDAY FOR STUDENTS! 10/8/10 F. Links moodle.wocsd.org k12wocsd.net www.animoto.com http://www.snapgrades.com udltoolkit.wikispaces.com http://nlvm.usu.edu/ Sciencewriter.cast.org www.quizlet.com learningcafe-doortothefuture.blogspot.com G. Did You Know? You need to keep track of your community service. Get a form and get started. We can help! H.  Fire Drill PSAT next 10/13 for Sophomores and Juniors. Seniors work on College Stuff. Freshman a regular day.  I. Practice your Reading Get signed up for Literary Companion see your case manager. Use your k12wocsd.net user name, you will be given a password.

October 4, 2010                                                                    A. Week 6- What's Ahead?-Support for Reading This week if you have support for reading and English you will be registered for Literary Companion and work on some of your reading. You will also go to SparkNotes and bookmark the site. B. Go from Zero to Hero on your Quizzes A new tool  introduced 2 weeks ago was Quizlet!  This week take charge of new vocabulary with online FLASHCARDS! Please share your Quizlet with me and I will link it on Facebook. http://www.quizlet.com C.  The Weeks in Review What belongs in your Toolkit? As a student you need to have tools in your toolkit which will make your life easier. The google domain has a calendar, a document , a presentation, a website tool, gmail, Quizlet and a way to record audio! Sciencewriter.cast.org, Literary Companion, Sparknotes, Animoto, what else?  Congratulations you have been busy! D. Books on Audio, mp3, itouch, shuffle, CD Have you thought about listening to your books? We have Catcher in the Rye, Farewell to Manazar and many more. But even more if you have a library card from Wells Public Library, you qualify for a Portland Library Card, and you also can qualify and download your own audio books.  See Ms. Cowan, Ms. Jortberg and Ms. Oakes to get other books on AUDIO. E. Do you have a learning tip to share? You can share your ideas here with your classmates. One of your Animotos, a poem, a story, ideas, your own photos or movies! Nothing to Do? Here is the $20.00 Challenge You can write an essay for NPR public radio student essay. If your essay is published, I will give you a $20.00 itunes gift certificate. You can have help with your essay. Here are the essay rules.  http://thisibelieve.org/guidelines/

I did it!

cross-posted from Cheryl Oakes

I made a challenge for myself when I changed positions and moved to the Wells High School Resource Room, that I would hit the google search within the year. I was going to check each month to see when it happened. Today, October 1, 2010, when I googled wells high school resource room this is what came up in .38 seconds! I made it in one month.
Also, in one month, we have 183 visits from all over the world. Thanks to all the readers!

Listen to the message!

SKills Cafe 2010-09-27

      Skills Cafe

     A week at a time - SEPTEMBER 2010 

Welcome!  "Thanks!" to all who have joined in and worked with the changes in Skills Cafe, Support Study, Room 215. F. Links moodle.wocsd.org k12wocsd.net www.animoto.com http://www.snapgrades.com udltoolkit.wikispaces.com http://nlvm.usu.edu/ Sciencewriter.cast.org www.quizlet.com learningcafe-doortothefuture.blogspot.com G. Did You Know?=0 H.  Fire Drill Where do we meet? At the field house Ticket Booth! Go out the building Stairwell #3, around the back of the school past the cafeteria. All meet quietly at the ticket booth.  I. Practice your Reading Get signed up for Literary Companion see your case manager.

September 27, 2010                                                                    A. Week 5- What's Ahead?-Graphic Organizers Graphic Organizers aren't just for writing anymore! I am sure all of you would admit to using graphic organizers when you write. This week will review Graphic Organizers as a way to visually organize your reading.  1. Graphic Organizer 2. Write the main idea from each block in the newsletter 3. Share the main idea with a peer B. Go from Zero to Hero on your Quizzes A new tool  introduced last week was Quizlet! As I looked at Snapgrades many of you did not do well in your Vocabulary Quizzes. This week we will take charge of new vocabulary with online FLASHCARDS! Please share your Quizlet with me and I will link it on Facebook. http://www.quizlet.com C.  The Weeks in Review What belongs in your Toolkit? As a student you need to have tools in your toolkit which will make your life easier. The google domain has a calendar, a document , a presentation, a website tool, gmail, Quizlet and a way to record audio! Sciencewriter.cast.org, this week helped many of you write up your science labs.You created an Animoto at animoto.com, where else can you use that tool? Congratulations you have been busy! D. Books on Audio, mp3, itouch, shuffle, CD Have you thought about listening to your books? We have Catcher in the Rye, Farewell to Manazar and many more. But even more if you have a library card from Wells Public Library, you qualify for a Portland Library Card, and you also can qualify and download your own audio books. See Mrs. Oakes about how you can do this. See Ms. Cowan and Ms. Jortberg to get other books on AUDIO. E. Do you have a learning tip to share? You can share your ideas here with your classmates. One of your Animotos, a poem, a story, ideas, your own photos or movies! Nothing to Do? Here is the $20.00 Challenge You can write an essay for NPR public radio student essay. If your essay is published, I will give you a $20.00 itunes gift certificate. You can have help with your essay. Here are the essay rules.  http://thisibelieve.org/guidelines/ Use the graphic organizer below and find one fact in each section! A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I

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You can run, but you can’t hide!

You can run, but you can’t hide!

 Permanent link

  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/burwash_calligrapher/4245260593/

Back to school this fall season meant back in the classroom for me. Ever since I went to the MLTI Student Conference last May2010, I was yearning for life as a classroom teacher again. Be careful what you wish for, my wish came true. There was an opening at our local high school and here I am. High school resource room teacher/facilitator!

You will be hearing lots of stories this year about high school, special education, universal design for learning, assistive technology and our google domain.

We decided to begin with making some changes in our support study. We now have a Skills Cafe. This is organic, flexible and as one of my peers says  crunchy. Ask the students what they think, they have a few more descriptors like this is not what I want to do, why do I have to do this, this is dumb, and many  more. Anything to get out of being organized and collaborative. However, we have a plan and we are sticking to it. I should mention that some students thought it was cool, especially since they can add things to the calendar like football games, field hockey, drama, and marching band. I will be busy trying to attend something for each student!

  Our first step was to get all students into the google domain, with a shared calendar, shared folder for their assignments and a place to check their email. We accomplished this in a two week span.  At the end of the second week, I left messages in all their email accounts with a good job email and if necessary a reminder to complete missing assignments. I can peek at their grades and see what is missing, send them an email reminder, talk with their teachers and all this from one stop at my computer.

This is going to be a year long journey. We will have some challenges, some celebrations and some student success stories. If you have something to share along these lines leave a comment, let’s build this together and share with others.

Resources:
My new blog Learning Cafe a door to the future http://learningcafe-doortothefuture.blogspot.com/

Our twitter:  Door2Future

Our moodle page:   http://moodle.wocsd.org/course/view.php?id=199

Our Twitter Feed goes right to the blog and to our Facebook page.

iPad in Skills Cafe!

Morning duty cheryloakes image creative commons

The past two weeks in Skills Cafe have been an adventure, a challenge, a place where good learning is happening, a place where students and teachers are struggling to find balance in our work as collaborative workers and a place where all of us are looking at how best to get to our next steps.

We have worked on getting our students to use the Moodle as an online workspace. This will help them prepare for the next part of any education. There are so many online courses I am sure all of them will participate in one within the next 12 months.

We have worked with our students to enroll them into our google domain with the hope that we will be able to be in touch with them more than one block a day. This is a place where we can share calendars, share essays, have conversations in email and a place to stay connected.

We have worked with them on how to organize and plan their week so that they can manage all the fun stuff about high school, sports and after school activities. On occasions we have run out of computers in the room and a student has been looking for definition and the ipad has been a quick resource, then we downloaded a few Algebra app, more about which ones after we rate them.

The Skills Cafe has been open for business and we are busy.

Our Clustrmap grows

Thanks to all the folks who checked out our virtual classroom here. The Clustrmap grows! 43 different locations in 24 hours. Waiting for the Europe friends to wake up today and checkin!

Ecology Field Trip Sept. 2, 2010

Come along as we go behind our Wells High School and rope out a square, circle or spot and collect data. http://animoto.com/play/CGBhheH5j5s1e3mo42yF1g

Skills Cafe is open for learning

We opened the Skills Cafe at Wells High School. I heard everything from, "um, I did not sign up for this", "finally, now I can do my work online", " no one told me I could do this". Their job today was to take a couple of learning inventories to confirm what kind of learner they were. That was interesting! Now we will get the teachers to take the same inventories.

Most teachers teach the way that they learn best!

How can we ensure that all of our students are learning? Universal Design for Learning is one way. Letting your students advocate for their preferences is another.

This is a journey, hope you stop back and check our progress.

Finally, teacher workshop day!

You will find your teachers at their first workshop day. For all of you involved in sports good luck getting ready on the field.

What type of learner are you?

How do you learn best? Are you a visual learner- do you make pictures or images in your brain when you learn something new, or are you an auditory learner-do you think in words and vocabulary, or are you a kinesthetic learner -do you need hands on to get the new learning in your brain?

How about your skills to organize your assignments and calendars? Do you need help with reading strategies, test taking and quiz strategies, filling in the important things in a graphic organizer?

These are the things we will talk about and learn about in the Learning Cafe. See you next week.

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/themastershakesignal/173060038/

I have this site ready to upload video, send text messages , twitter messages and all streams to Facebook.

Powerfull organizational skills

There are many ways to prove you are good at organizing! Here is one way. Could you make your own video?

Welcome to the Learning Cafe-door to the future!

This post serves to announce a blog for my resource room students and families at Wells High School, Maine. I will post articles and references that I am using as I set up a resource room for our digital students. I will pose questions and ask for the wisdom of the crowd. I hope my students, parents, educators and friends will help build this site as a resource to all. Thanks to Istvan for this unique photo. http://www.flickr.com/photos/i_csuhai/2984029909/