Five Fantastic Sites for Using Assistive Technology in Education

Today I reviewed five sites that I wanted to share with my readers that will help all students succeed in the classroom.



1) Starfall- Starfall is an energetic website to help students become motivated learners. Although you need to register and purchase the full version, there are plenty of free resources available on the website. I have used this in a kindergarten classroom and the students were fully engaged in the learning. Some of the free resources include the everyday calendar which highlights and says the days of the week. It allows students to click the correct day and repeats the day. This website says and shows the upper and lower case letters and allows the students to click the button on the screen to hear the sound of the letter. Starfall allows free access to some of the multiplication facts and plays songs to help with memorization. At the end of the song it quizzes the students and allows them to place a flash card on the correct fact. 

2) GoNoodle- GoNoodle is an entertaining website to use in the classroom for brain breaks or to enhance your daily lesson plans. This website it useful for all students to take a break when feeling tired in class, but it is a great strategy to use with students with emotional and behavioral problems that sometimes need time to “cool down”. The website offers deep breathing exercises, videos to complement learning, and activity videos that get the students up and moving. 

 

3) Classroom Timers- This website offers free classroom timers teachers can display on their smartboards as a visual for students. This will help students stay on task and begin time management. The website offers different timer displays depending on age groups. There is a sand timer, clock countdown, racers, dynamite, and many more!

4) PBS Kids Talking Calculator- The PBS Kids website offers a free online talking calculator on their website. This is beneficial in the classroom for students with learning disabilities that may need to see the calculator larger and hear what they are entering into the calculator. It clearly states, "8 multiplied by 6 equals 48." This repeats to the student what operation they were completing.

5) Into the Book-This is a free reading resource that will help all students with the different reading strategies like questioning, summarizing, evaluating, and making connections. The students do not have to sign in to use the website, but if they do it will save their work. Another great aspect of this website is it allows the student to choose English or Spanish so it will be a great tool for our English Language learners too. Once the students choose a reading strategy to practice it shows a video to explain how to use the strategy while reading. The students will have guided practice with the strategy once they choose a story to read. The website voice directs the students when they should be completing the reading strategy tasks.  

I hope you enjoyed reading about these 5 useful UDL resources. Enjoy using them in your classrooms with your students. Please share your experiences if you implement these great resources!