Day 3 - July 7th

So before class even started this morning, Tracy and I had a conversation about the inconsistency of AT and IT between boards. I talked about that on my day 2 post, so when Tracy expressed frustration, I knew exactly what she meant. We are jealous of all the great AT things happening in other places since we sometimes can’t even get funding for a wheel chair table or a special stand or grip for an IPad.

I appreciated going over the myths for AAC this morning especially the part that it doesn’t impede the development of speech/language. I was thinking of those read-along or aloud books where the kids click on the word and the “book” reads it out. My little nephew actually learned how to say some words that way.

After rewatching the videos of Enrique, Nick and Ruby reminded me of a grade 8 boy I taught 4 years ago that entered my classroom only being able to say the word “No”. He carried his IPad around and on the first day he walked into my room (I was brand new to the school) and he came and stood beside me and repeatedly clicked on “Mr. Ford”’s button. Mr. Ford had retired, and I was there to replace him. No one had thought to take my picture beforehand or introduce this little fellow to me before class. It was quite sad to hear “Mr.Ford” over and over again during class. My favourite story about this boy though is from when we went on our end-of-year trip to Upper Clements Park. He sat at the top of the slide and someone asked him if he is ready to go. Clear as can be he answered with a very loud “YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!” J

When working on our assignment 1 today, I was surprised how many words and folders that we needed were already in the Crescendo Vocab. list. It’s great not having to start from scratch. It does take quite a while to set up a new activity. I don’t think this is something I could do for every single activity for every single class. But if I think about my Math class, there may be a general Math folder with folders inside of it for Manipulative, Mental Math, Measurements etc = routine items. One of the people from class mentioned the importance of routine, so the student would be using the activity folders maybe weekly or daily even.

Some quotes that stood out today:

*”More than one type of speech or language” (JD)

*”200 opportunities to communicate a day” (BW)

*”You job is to work your way out of a job!” (BW)