Practical teaching activities
Please choose and complete one or more of the
following activities:
1. Templates and short cuts
Look at
the letters that you have to write to other professionals and parents. For any
that are duplicated from time to time create a template that can be used
whenever required. Spend some time familiarizing yourself with the features of
the word processor which could make your use of it more efficient. Make an
annotated list of the keyboard short cuts, mouse and menu options which you
feel will be most useful to you. If another colleague undertakes the same task,
share your findings and collate the list. Are there any features you discovered
which you think would be useful to some of your pupils?
2. Create a pro forma
Design your
own pro forma for an IEP, pupil record, or any other form you might need. Think
about what you want to include and how you want it presented. Compare and
contrast the different ways you can create boxes in the document — tables,
text boxes, borders — and decide which method works best for you. You
might like to look at the way the IEPs on the DfEE Web site have been created:
please go to
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/sen/viewDocument.cfm?dID=263, and
download section 5. (The web link published in the paper Units is now out of
date.)
3. Which IEP format?
Examine the IEP
format that you use in school. What are its strengths and weaknesses? In what
way, if any, does it need changing? Compare it with a dedicated IEP-writing
package. Which method of writing IEPs would suit your school best? Why?
4. Search for information
Choose a
pupil in your class – perhaps a reluctant learner or someone who is not
interested in the Web. Think about the child’s interests and use the
search facility to find three sites that would motivate the pupil.
5. Search for resources
Think about
a pupil in your class with a physical, sensory or learning disability and the
areas of the curriculum that present potential barriers to progress. Log on to
the DfEE Inclusion site inclusion.ngfl.gov.uk and use its search facility to find
resources that might be appropriate.
6. Search engines
Click on the
Search button of your Web browser and try searching for ‘tornado’ to
find out about the meteorological phenomenon, or ‘Brunel’ for
information on the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. You might need to refine
your search by adding ‘weather’ to tornado or ‘Isambard’ to
Brunel (and probably ‘Kingdom’ too, or you will get his father). Try
the same search with different search engines e.g.
www.altavista.co.uk ,
www.ask.co.uk ,
www.excite.co.uk ,
www.google.co.uk ,
www.infoseek.co.uk or
uk.yahoo.com
7. Mailing lists
Log on to the list
of Inclusion forums supported by Becta
www.becta.org.uk/inclusion/discussion/ Find the hyperlink
to the SLD Forum — a mailing list for teachers working with pupils who
have severe learning difficulties. Click on the link to move to the
forum’s page and read the information. Then click on the hyperlink to the
archives of messages already sent to the forum and read some of them. If you
think the list might be helpful to your professional practice, return to the
SLD Forum page and follow the instructions to join. If not, return to the list
of Becta forums and choose another one to join.
8. Access to the Internet
Think of
the access needs of the pupils in your class. What software and hardware
utilities would help them gain better access to the Internet? Write a profile
of each pupil with the adaptations you propose.
9. Symbols and emails
Think of a
pupil in your class who might need support in reading emails. Choose either a
talking word processor or a symbol processor; whichever is more appropriate to
the pupil. Send a test message to yourself and then copy it into the talking
word processor or symbol processor to see how it would assist your pupils.
10. Text support for emails
Think of
a pupil in your class who might need support in composing emails. Think of the
words and phrases that might help the pupil compose the message and prepare
either an on-screen grid or an overlay for the overlay keyboard with those
words.
   
|
