Math games on the web for free

I found this cool math games site that might be useful. Best of all it's free!

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/math.html#operationsgames

Gabcast - Audio Blogging for Free!

How cool is this. I just set up a free account at Gabcast.com. Now I can update my blog over the phone with a 1-800 number. Yes, It's free up to 200MB of space. Pretty slick!

www.gapcast.com

Closing the Gap - Blog Training

Practice blog used in training session located at www.ctgblog.blogspot.com

Complete Step-by-Step guide (pdf) can be downloaded here.

Happy Blogging!

Clicker 5 Training

I just completed a full day training with John and Ann Crick, developers of Clicker. I've been struggling with Clicker 4 for about a year now and got my hands on Clicker 5 late last spring. My learning curve has been slow on this particular software, but now I feel much better. The training was GREAT! I highly recommend both the software and attending any training you can get on how to use it. I also got to preview their training guides. They offer a beginning, advanced and access guide. You better plan on purchasing at least the beginning guide and working through it before using Clicker 5 for the first time. The guide is very well written with step by step directions on how to use this powerful software.

I left the training feeling confident that Clicker 5 is perhaps the single most powerful and affordable solution that could be made to work with just about any student need. It replaces the need for many more expensive and limited programs. Let's see if you can guess which ones....Clicker 5 allows you to write with symbols (yes, the Mayer Johnson symbols are supported) and pictures. You can also read with picture support. The voices for screen reading are the best I've heard. If your student can use a mouse, the possibilities are endless. You can also scan with all the clicker grids via a very useful and fully customizable interface.

Again, don't expect to simply install it and begin working. You really need to allow yourself the time to learn this program and how grids are organized. Creating grids from templates is necessary, as is the manual and/or training. The good news is that your time spent learning this program is worth it, because in the end you will realize that you won't need much anything else.

Check it out here: Clicker 5

I also got to see a demo on the new Clicker Paint. It's fully integrated into Clicker 5 or available as a stand alone program. The program is fantastic as well!

Read and Write Gold - Mac

Our district has been able to gain access to Read and Write Gold for Mac recently as part of a UDL grant/study. I've been playing around with it and particularly find the PDF Aloud extremely useful and promising. I've trained others on how to make accessible books using powerpoint and such. It's fun and rewarding (useful!), but this PDF reader may make this process even easier. Now you can simply scan pages of a book and turn it into a talking book with little effort at all. The PDF reader will highlight and read a word, sentence or paragraph all in one click. You also get to keep all your book's original look including text layout and images, unlike basic OCR scanning to convert handouts to plain text. I look forward to using this tool more and discovering what it can offer to our very diverse student populations at District 287!

You can try out PDF Aloud for free here: http://www.texthelp.com/page.asp?pg_id=10087