puzzing intrigue

This kid does impress me at times.

OK, I know i’m somewhat biased and, as his mum, it’s my job to be impressed by him… soooo, at the risk of seeming a little ‘braggy’ i’m going to share a snippet from Mac’s recent school work.

Math(s) is still Mac’s favourite subject, it comes easily to him, he enjoys success with it and it’s easier for output than most literacy/writing based activities… so, what’s not to love?

In class Mac and his and his peers (now in 6th grade) were working on number patterns. Mac was working well and was given the first addition number pattern to complete as a warm up.

8, 16, 32, 64, 128

Mac typed “doubling” as his response to the teacher’s aide, ‘M’, to explain the pattern.

He was then required to provide ‘M’ with a subtracting pattern for her to try and work out, and so he typed:

100, 75, 50, 25

She easily identified it was subtracting by 25 each time.

But it none of this was really challenging Mac so ‘M’ upped the anti and asked him to create a really hard number pattern for her to do.

This is what he typed:

44, 88, 264, 1056, 5280

To quote Ron Burgundy, “well that escalated quickly”.

Seems he followed his brief… it is a tricky pattern.  Mac’s aide, ‘M’, worked on it for quite a while but he had her pretty stumped. None of the other kids in class could get it out – Mac assured them it was a proper pattern, that the numbers were correct.

Mac’s teacher, Mrs M worked it out… eventually… and in the end Mac gave the rest of the class the solution.

But it’s these little snippets and insights that intrigue us about this child.  Mac doesn’t use a calculator, it would be too tedious on this communication device.  When asked about his ‘methods’ for many things he says he “just knows it” and can’t explain his working.  Also, on his device he can only type left to right, unlike many instances in calculations where the rest of use might work right to left. So there’s plenty of times we adults are not quite sure what to do next, while Mac just keeps on doing his things his way, and yes, impressing and intriguing us as he goes.

Oh, and the answer?

Well, really I need to give those who love a good maths puzzle the chance to do it themselves.

But be sure to put your solution in the comments, I’ll pop Mac’s explanation he used for the class in the comments too, but don’t peek. 😉

Oh, and just so we don’t get too carried away as ‘braggy parents’, I do love the comment in his school workbook immediately following this entry which said… “Mac then dozed off in his wheelchair for a brief nap after all his work on number patterns”, seems it’s exhausting this math(s).

Way to go on the snoozing at school Macco!

mad-eye macco

Book Week 2014, a book week purists dream… no specific theme, just books, glorious books.

It’s probably fitting when your name is Macdonald you pick a character with Scottish heritage for book week.  The fact that character also has a disability was really just a happy co-incidence, the reality is… it was “all about the hair”.

Mac’s choice this year was the impressive auror Alastor “Mad Eye” Moody, from Harry Potter.  With perfect hair to pull of the look Mac was pretty impressed with himself.
Time constraints (and… oh, yeah, real life) meant we didn’t quite invent a recumbent wheelchair broomstick.  Fortunately, the freezing wind was of no concern by the appropriate choice of Dad’s Driza-bone oilskin jacket keeping Mac totally snug throughout the book week parade – he certainly fared better than some of the other muggles whose costumes would have been ruined by the addition of a jacket.

SOURCE: Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey – by Bob McCabe – Harper Design – October 2011

Click this link to look back at book week’s past?

when what you ‘don’t say’ means the most…

This week in NSW schools it is SASS (School Administrative and Support Staff) Appreciation Week. 

At the Monday morning assembly I managed to catch the presentation by students to our school’s SAS staff and enjoyed hearing them share their insights – all written by the kids themselves”.  I have to admit though, I was perhaps most moved by what they “didn’t say”.

Our SAS team comprises administrative staff, learning support officers (teachers aides/paraprofessionals), groundsmen, IT support etc).  Each team member was presented with a small certificate of appreciation, a beautiful gerbera flower and a small speech from different students telling them why they were appreciated.  

There were so many reasons given as to why the kids want to thank them… from getting balls of the roof to preparing newsletters, looking after the office, helping them know where to play, applying band-aids or just having a ‘chat’.  

What struck me when the classroom Learning Support Officers (LSOs/teachers’ aides/paras) were being thanked is that there was no suggestion they were there for any ‘specific or special’ student.  They were considered to be in the classroom for ALL students.  There was no singling out of who they helped and why.

This is exactly how learning support should happen in classrooms.  All students, regardless of any diagnosis or funding, should be feeling supported by the presence of an additional adult in the classroom.  They shouldn’t feel, for example that the adult is, say, “Mac’s aide”.  Sure, Mac’s high physical support needs mean he will get more support in some areas… but I love that the students recognise the aide is there for ‘all of them’.  And I love that Mac (or any student in the school who warrants funded support) isn’t identified as being ‘a kid with an adult attached’ to them.



We often reflect on how well the school has embraced and enhanced the idea of natural supports and recognising peers play a vital role in supporting one another.  I love seeing the adults who come into the school as a result of funding for identified students aren’t singled out for that purpose once they get there.

Well done everyone!

todos com todos

everyone with everybody…

A fantastic documentary about the inclusion of children with disability in mainstream schools in São Paulo, Brazil.

While almost the entire doco was “quote worthy” I particularly like the simplicity of this translated statement by Samuel’s father…

 

“I don’t see any other model.

In the segregation model people with disability don’t learn their autonomy and people without don’t learn to deal with the difference”.
Samu’s Dad

 

This movie is part of the Why Heloisa Project www.porqueheloisa.com.br
I think I will be spending some time clicking around in that project/website in the coming days.

For our English language blind viewers I have requested an English translation… will post it here if I can get my hands on it.

todos com todos…

 

 

the powtoon portfolio…

A homework assignment saw the need for Mac to develop an ‘about me’ portfolio.  We talked about what he might want to include, what it is that is important to him about himself.

We nixed the idea of a poster and decided to use PowToon and their built in templates.  We picked the template, decided on an image to use and then put Mac’s words into the online program.  Some of the items Mac just gave me single words and we discussed how we could expand those ideas into sentences. We also talked about how to split that information across different slides for visual effect.

So if you were wondering just who Mac is… here’s what he thinks you need to know (audio description available below video).

)

AUDIO DESCRIPTION:

Coloured slides with image of blond cartoon boy.  Text reads:

Hello, my name is Mac Burns, I am 10 years old.
I am a son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, friend.
I’m a bit of a thinker; I like to listen and learn;
but I don’t say much… yet!
I use switches to speak and wheels to move.
I particularly love playing football and handball with my mates.
My favourite subject is maths
and I like learning about politics (with my Dad).
In my spare time I like to listen to music and books;
watch movies and TV;
learn new things on my computer;
and swim… I love to swim.
I really like funny things, stuff that makes me LAUGH.
I love my life.

Final text is accompanied by an image of a stick drawing of Mac in a wheelchair and a huge vertical ramp… click the following link to the blog post to find out more about this image.

https://inkyed.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/no-limits/

choose your own adventure…

Today we were given a sneak peek of an assessment task Mac undertook.  A photo and comments from his teacher (Mr B) arrived showing his work in the text window of his communication device.

Mr B was really pleased with his work, but perhaps more excited by the fact Mac was clearly proud of his work.  It’s an interesting development.  For quite some time now, Mac has (regularly) been going ‘on strike’ in class by either refusing to use his switches or going to sleep in an attempt to get out of doing work.  It’s certainly not his finest trait … and is certainly more prevalent when it is work he thinks he might not get correct (or literacy).

However, on two occasions this week he’s completed a task and then been obviously proud of himself.

I wonder if it’s a new level of maturity, maybe that somewhat fixed mindset of his might just be opening up to new possibilities.  Oh how I’d love for him to enjoy working on things, particularly literacy, just for his own pleasure.

So what work did he do today?

Here’s the raw text in the Dynavox window.

And here’s the raw text turned into a ‘piece of writing’ (with Mac assisting with the punctuation) to ensure he can see how all his hard work is worth it.

They are delightful words… I can’t wait to find out what happens next.

I love the unusual name he’s chosen for the girl and the “stylin” shoes he’s described.

Perhaps our blog readers can add the next line or paragraph in the comments for me to share with Mac.  He can then decide if he wants to collaborate on a “choose your own adventure” style of writing or perhaps be motivated to ‘go it alone’.

mac = albert

Book Week 2013 and the focus is on space.  I gave Mac a few options for his book week character based on things we already had ‘laying around’ the place.

To his credit he picked the more obscure option – but potentially easiest for me – in Albert Einstein.

He owns a cool Einstein tee-shirt courtesy of a recent trip to the Griffith Observatory, regularly gets around in some star pattern pants when not in his school uniform and he was pretty certain that had red converse hi-tops been around when Einstein was a kid… that’s what he would have worn.

Add some silver and white hair spray, a fake moustache and brows and, there you have it, Mac = Albert (yep, that is all Mac’s own hair).

I particularly loved watching the kids find out who Mac ‘came as’ then, share that with other kids as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, busily telling anyone who would listen “look, Mac came as Albert Einstein” or “did you see Mac? He’s Albert Einstein”.

I did buy Mac this book from the “I Am” series which we will read in the coming days on the Kindle App on the iPad.

I realised I had some of my own space/time continuum  failings as I tried to remember what Mac had done for book week each year since Kindergarten.  Thanks to some past blog posts & a Facebook post I was able to look back and see just what we actually did in those prior years.

CLICK THE ICONS TO CHECK OUT THE GHOSTS OF BOOK WEEKS PAST…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

liver la vida

It’s hard to know how much involvement to have in assignments when your child has no chance of doing it on their own.

A lot of the assignments to date have been more about me teaching Mac the concept of choosing topics, researching and then deciding what to include – I guess this is probably much the same for everyone.

That being said… I wasn’t overly thrilled when he brought home the requirements for his assignment on “organs”.  He had been assigned “the liver” and was to present to the class as if he was ‘the teacher’.

Ugh, the liver, I thought.  How are we going to find age appropriate stuff and avoid the obvious drug, sexually transmitted disease and alcohol damage issues that seem to feature ‘way more prominently’ on the internet than any other.

With some focussed searching we did OK.   We watched some cool videos, found some good websites.  Mac had to decide what he wanted to include in his assignment.  I showed him how to change up the information so it sounded like something he might say.

We decided to go with a Powerpoint presentation so he could progress it with his switches while ‘taking the class’.

We created his own avatar using the WeeMee Avatar Creator app (we like it because it has a wheelchair accessory).

We popped his Avatar into his CrazyTalk 2D animation software so it could speak with his dialogue.

We decided to use the Acapela-Box to download the voice.  We had to pay for some credits to use this despite having his Dynavox.  Thing is the Dynavox doesn’t really ‘hold its own’ for long tracts of speech.  It gets crackly and breaks up a bit too much for our liking.  With Acapela Box we can use the same voice he uses on his Dynavox but with greater clarity and no chance of it failing mid-sentence.

I poked around on the internet and found some pictures, bought some stock images to include and created some of my own elements.  I discussed with Mac what his images might look like, what we could include and importantly made him choose the ‘liver’ image he liked the best.  From memory… I think he over-ruled my first choice for making “liver dude”

Here’s the video version of his Powerpoint presentation
(you’ll need your sound turned on & be sure to read on after you’ve watched it).

THE LIVER by Mac Burns

Did you learn anything new?

Oh, and for those super-observant folk…
Disclaimer: no M&Ms were harmed in the making of this assignment… but, that’s not to say a few weren’t hacked 😉  

rampage

There was an in-class assessment task recently.  Mac & his classmates have been learning about shelters and investigating the many different shelters, buildings and constructions.   The assessment involved building a shelter during class time from materials they collected at home.  There was no limit on where or what the shelter had to be – intergalactic, subterranean, subaquatic, floating were all viable options.  I wasn’t really sure what Mac would be doing instead of building and, other than collecting scrap materials/cardboard cut offs for him, hadn’t done a lot of other preparation.

I chatted to him over breakfast about the in-class task that day.  I asked him if he wanted to take in his cardboard etc and offer it to the other kids for making wheelchair ramps for their buildings – he liked that idea.  He said “yes” he wanted to do the ‘ramp thing’ more than someone building him a building.

So apparently that is exactly what he and the itinerant vision support teacher did for the assessment.  They went and offered ‘wheelchair ramping materials’ to all the other students.  Mac was assigned the role of ‘building inspector’ checking they were meeting access regulations.  I am not sure if they used any of his communication devices during this time – it would have been a good opportunity for Mac to actually be asking the questions… nothing like being ‘under the pump’ from a local government official.

From all accounts there was a wheelchair accessible cave, space station, cottage, farmhouse and skyscraper… just to name a few.

Just some more incidental learning for his classmates… can’t wait for them to be architects, builders, building inspectors, lift manufacturers and stair demolishers when they grow up.

fridge magnet friday

A big quote that sums it all up…

WATCH SIR KEN ROBINSON IN ACTION ON TED TALKS

kenken: no-brainer for differentiated instruction?

You’ve probably seen these puzzles appearing in your newspapers over the last few years.  Looking a bit like a weird Sudoku puzzle they are worth a second glance.

click the image to learn about the inventor

KenKen puzzles have built in differentiation, potential for collaborative learning and are readily available as free resource.   Is that not the ultimate in universal design in learning?

For an auditory or visual scanner they are great because you have a small number of answer options compared to other puzzles.  For a 4×4 puzzle you only have to enter 1, 2, 3 or 4 in each square – much less tedious for a scanner.

Kenken puzzles can contain all maths operations but, just as easily, can be simplified to only include ‘addition’ operations for someone not yet able to cope with division or multiplication (and don’t look any different – which can be important to some learners).

Here’s two examples of different puzzles, one simple – the other more complex.  Using colour is another way you could differentiate for learners – for example someone still learning their colours and number identification may work alongside others to complete all the “purple squares”, or groups can work together each on their own colour based on individual competencies.

The basic instructions are:

The numbers in each heavily outlined set of squares, called cages, must combine (in any order) to produce the target number in the top corner of the cage using the mathematical operation indicated.

Cages with just one box should be filled in with the target number in the top corner.

A number can be repeated within a cage as long as it is not in the same row or column.

A solved 3 x 3 (addition only) puzzle looks like this:

The KenKen website is a great resource.  Educators can sign up for the KenKen® Classroom program, where they will supply KenKen puzzles to you every week.   Parents are most likely able to apply too – they gave me a subscription and my next step is to start setting the puzzles up on Mac’s computer for him.

interested educators simply click the image

timing is everything…

Are we there yet?  How much longer?
When can we go?  How much more?  

Sound familiar…  ?

Time Timer (visual timer for visual people!) from Time Timer on Vimeo.

Another parent shared the Time Timer® with me the other day.  Her daughter is using them at home and school to help her with time management, understanding time concepts and planning.

They are fantastic items and thankfully, just as good ‘in the flesh’ as they appear on the site.

There are watches, 3x timers with prices starting from about $35, software for $24 and  via iTunes you can buy iPhone and iPad apps (AUD$1.99 and AUD$7.49).

CLICK IMAGES FOR LINKS

For Australian families the best deal you can get is from Bilby Publishing and Consulting.  A business I have just found out about even though it’s ‘just down the road’ (hmm, well four hours drive) – they have some other interesting items so will probably be ‘poking around on their site a bit more’.  Bilby are the official Australian distributors for Time Timer® (which is why they can offer such low prices) and schools can order on account.

I will be using the Time Timer® to see if we can help Mac with motivation to get work done in a set time.  I think the visual for him will be really useful and perhaps, at other times help him feel like there is an ‘end point’ to an exercise and that he won’t be working on something for the ‘rest of his life’.

It may even help him understand that “our” 10 minutes isn’t actually the equivalent of “everyone else’s”one hour.  Unfortunately I have to take full responsibility for that one.  I hate to think how many times I have told him we would do something in 10 mins and actually get to it so much later (even hours later) – poor kid never stood a chance in understanding time management.

And, yes, I have already downloaded the iPhone app and plan to use it ‘keep me honest’ at home.

fridge magnet friday…

Thanks to Marlena Katene for reminding me of this quote. CLICK THE IMAGE to go to her recent article on RampUp: Facilitated Communication; from the inside

“Disabled pupils” unable to get to school…

In the news…

CLICK IMAGE

The fact this occurred is a disgrace… but I can’t help wondering if the real problem truly is the ‘bungling by the Govt’ or our society’s insistence on bussing kids with disabilities en masse out of their “natural habitat” in a segregated fashion and in most instances to a segregated setting.

Imagine if kids just went to school with their siblings, with their neighbours… if they caught the same (accessible) bus as all the other kids without disabilities. This has affected those kids with disabilities because they have been allowed to be separated away from the rest of us. *sigh*

Oh… for the record… I have yet to read or see a news broadcast item on this topic where ‘people first’ language has been used *blech*.   I wonder if they want me to send them Shawn’s 65,000 words on how they could represent people with disabilities better?

more MyReader…

The myReader2 is getting a decent workout by Mac’s aide Ms M.

She has declared her “love” for it after just two days…

Things she likes doing:

• scanning a few pages of the reader for Mac and his reading group so he can read along or everyone can see it on the screen;
• set the text from the book onto a suitably timed scrolling speed;
• putting Mac’s spelling words on the screen and having him copy them down using morse code NOT telling him what the word is (I think he only typed 4 words less than his peers wrote);
• scanning the ‘editing’ paragraph and have Mac tell her what letters/items need to be changed;
• using it in ‘live view’ and putting real items (counters/toys/dice) on the base and using them to ask questions on arrays etc;
• scanning the maths worksheets and seeing just what he can answer with very limited, or at times, no instruction.

Sample of Mac’s work using the myREADER 

Of course I am always going to have reservations about an expensive bit of equipment that is big, bulky and only available to use during school hours.

I would hate for it to just sit there not being used effectively.  So… if it is decided the benefits outweigh the few reservations I might have then I might try and ‘cut a deal’ for a brainstorming session on how many ideas we can come up with to use it as an inclusive tool for the entire class.  That way we could make up a cheat sheet with ideas on it that could be attached to it and I would feel so much better… it really is the little things.

Have you got any ideas for activities or how it should be positioned/located in the classroom?