Amy Ambelang's List: EDMT 380

This website sells special needs equipment. The descriptions are really detailed and provide insight as to why this equipment would be helpful and needed in a classroom and person's life.

This website is a really detailed explanation of how Google Calendar can be used in the classroom. In addition to using the calendar as an organizational aide for personal use, the calendar can be used as a way of letting students what is next in the daily schedule, or helping students plan out large projects for example. This site also goes into some accessibility issues that students of varying abilities face.

This is a website created by a teacher that displays the Google resources she uses in her classroom that would be most helpful to use in the classroom for a person just starting out, or unfamiliar with all of the possible resources available. Organized in categories such as "Applications" and "Collaboration" the resources are also described briefly and clearly.

Kinesis, a technology company, annonced its newest product, a fully adaptable ergonmic keyboard. The user of the keyboard can decide how they want to arrange the keys on the keyboard, which is portable and lightweight. It is however, set up similar to the traditional QWERTY with 12 keys on the top, 11 in the middle and 10 on the bottom rows. the only fully adjustable keys are the letter keys, the number keys remain stationary on the top row of the keyboard.

This is a website that features information about virtually every type of keyboard ever created and the type of person that may use it. Well over forty types are featured, with pictures and information about how they work, look, and the way the keys are arranged. Some even feature typing practice sheet links. The website is very straight forward and concise. In addition to featuring physical keyboards, the site also features keyboards that are only available as software programs.

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) is dedicated to improving results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities ages birth through 21 by providing leadership and financial support to assist states and local districts. This OSEP is government operated. The website provides excellent resources for parents in particular, especially related to informing them of their child's rights related to public education. Topics covered include IEPs, life after school, after school programs (while still enrolled in school, and who to contact if you feel the IEP is not being met. Teachers may also find these resources beneficial because they are so plentiful.

This is the link for TuxTyping, a free typing program similar to many typing programs. Typing lessons, games, and demonstrations are free. The program is easily downloaded to both Windows and Macs.

Regular updates about FreeTranslation.com technology, products and services. This is an excellant service for even casual users of FreeTranslation.com to get updates about changes that have taken place within the website. Also helpful on this website is an in depth help section.

This blog, written by a special education professional, lists very clearly the benefits that special education students get from having a Wii system in their classroom. Many of the benefits listed, such as color and shape recognition, are not mentioned in other resources but are valid points and are easily able to be proven.

This article includes many of the popular uses for the Wii in the classroom. It also provides many other links, including to the official Wii website and to teacher education websites.

This is a blog entry that really hit home for me while I was doing research for an adaptability paper. It goes into detail about how everyone is born with a "tool belt" and that our life experiences, knowledge, classroom experiences, and technological tools are the "tools" that we fill it with. If certain students have very few of the other categories, we need to provide huge support with technological tools that they can use to remain on track with their peers. This article also provides examples of how we as educators can do that.

School Library Journal is the one of the biggest review sources for library materials. Additionally, it is an excellent place for school media specialists to obtain information about new products, procedures, and general library news relevant to school librarians.

This is a list of websites, created by a retired school librarian, intended to give a good start for a beginning school librarian who is maybe taking over for someone who did not have a clear set of policies in place. Available on these websites is policies covering everything from collection development policies to volunteer guidelines. All of the information is available for no cost, however, the website is not update regularly so not all of the links work.

The purpose of this website is "to unify independent organizations that advocate, use, and develop open resources for primary and secondary education." The people that operate it advocate the use of open source and free software, open texts and lessons, and open curricula. A very useful feature is the "help" button, which connects to a live chat, staffed during "normal" hours.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home & Musem, located in Mansfield Missouri. Here you can learn more about where the Little House books were written and information about the life of Laura and her family.

This website was created for teachers teaching from any of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. Included on the website are lesson plans, maps of the homes she lived in, and fun facts about the 1800s in America.

This is the homepage of the museum of the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, one of the childhood homes of Laura Ingalls Wilder. One of the best know features about Walnut Grove is that it is the home of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, and Wilder Pageant outdoor drama. On the website, you can find out pretty much everything that Laura did while she lived there. There are lots of pictures and links to other sites.