Top (or Bottom) 10 Facts Every Educator & Parent Should Know

 Top (or Bottom) 10 Facts Every Educator & Parent Should Know 

The 2013 budget is en route to Governor McCrory & will be signed

1. Eliminates 9,306.5 education positions -- 5,184.5 teachers, 3,850 teacher assistants, and 272 Support Personnel (guidance counselors, psychologist, etc.).

2. Provides NO pay increases for educators, continuing North Carolina's race to the bottom of national salaries. In 2007-08 North Carolina was ranked 25th in the nation in teacher pay, last year our state was 46th. With no additional pay, next year North Carolina undoubtedly will be at the bottom.

3. While gutting public schools and educators, the legislature adopted a $50 million school voucher program ($10 million 2013-14, $40 million in 2014-15).

4. The North Carolina Budget eliminates career status for all teachers. Senate legislation, that received no public hearings in the House, was placed in the budget to eliminate career status for teachers. The new standard requires each school district to identify the top 25% of effective teachers without providing any criteria on how to accomplish this ranking of professionals. Teachers will be placed on a 1, 2, or 4 year contract. The top 25% will be given the option of receiving $500 to compensate them for the loss of due process rights. NOTE: the new system will be phased in over the course of the next five years.

5. North Carolina no longer values educators who work on their continuing education through Masters or Doctorate level degrees. Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, educators will receive no additional pay for additional degrees unless your job requires (counselors, school psychologists, etc.)

6. Grades Schools (A-F), 80% based on standardized test scores, 20% based on growth. No other variables will be considered in this grading.

7. Eliminates the Teaching Fellows Program, once heralded as a national model for recruiting teachers into the classroom, the program is no longer funded.

8. Reduces targeted education funding:

• Cuts Textbook funding by $77.4 million dollars;

• Cuts Classroom supply funding by $45.7 million dollars;

• Cuts Limited English Proficiency funding by $6 million dollars.

9. Retired educators will receive NO Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA).

10. The General Assembly will be back next year.

A Call for Action!

Tenure Stripped from All Teachers, Vouchers Enacted, & No Raise Under Budget Deal

So the following is from the NCAE Website. It can be found here. Please, advocate for our teachers, ours schools, and ultimately, our children.

 

 Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg) put the final touches on a General Assembly budget this past weekend, including the trading of of vouchers (Tillis' demand) for stripping teacher tenure (Berger's demand).  The bill will be voted on Tuesday and Wednesday by both chambers and it cannot be amended once it is on the chamber floors.  NCAE is calling for a NO vote on the budget by legislators.  More news to come from NCAE President Rodney Ellis with full analysis later in the day.  

NCAE needs you to call the NC House all day Monday at

919-733-4111

and ask both your Senator and House member to vote NO on the budget.   Start the calls at 9 am and call multiple times and spread the word to your colleagues to do the same.  

NCAE reminds you to be respectful and professional.  Also remember that this was a back room deal between the General Assembly leaders and many Republican legislators are dismayed by this turn of events, especially in the NC House where a bipartisan tenure reform bill passed with only one dissenting vote. 

Talking Points:

Remind your legislators that the Senate tenure plan has never gotten a floor debate in either chamber.  The Senate tenure plan has never been vetted in a House committee.  

Vouchers have never been vetted by a Senate committee.  This is not only bad policy, it's bad process. 

 Here are the budget documents if you care to review. NCAE is working on an analysis and will have another DPB in the afternoon. 

• New - Bill Text - Proposed Conference Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 402, Appropriations Act of 2013
• New - Committee Report - The Joint Conference Committee Report on the Continuation, Expansion and Capital Budgets, for Senate Bill 402, 7/21/2013.
  
  

Storysmart: A Very Interesting Story!

What happens when a veteran Speech Language Pathologist marries a Designer, and they have a child with High Functioning Autism?  

Well... if the moons align correctly, you get some really fabulous apps!

Jennifer Minnelli is the SLP, and her husband Pete Minnelli is the Designer.  Integrating their unique skill sets they founded a company called Rubycube which creates mobile apps for children with high functioning autism, ADHD, and other social challenges. Currently they are producing a series of apps called Storysmart.

Their website describes Storysmart as a "suite of apps that provide both a recreational and therapeutic activity for elementary-school aged children and are designed to help them develop social communication, social cognition, critical thinking and narrative skills."  That is a tall order, but I'd have to say the apps definitely have that ability.  

Ultimately, the Minnelli's plan is to create six stories in the suite. Currently there are two ready from iTunes.  The stories are very reasonably priced at $3.99 a piece.  In addition, the Minnellis intend to make the apps for the Android platform soon.

Passage Choices

Each story presents a page at a time. The artwork is very sweet and endearing, some of it animated, some of it static.  Each page is clean and uncluttered.  The story can read itself, or just each word you touch, providing scaffolded reading support. On each page there are generally two passages that allow the user to choose what the most socially appropriate passage for the situation would be.  Prior to using the app, the user is able to record their own responses for correct and incorrect answers, and when they choose the passage, one of the recorded messages is played, thereby reinforcing the correct answer.

Therapeutically speaking, this app packs a whole-lot-of-punch for SLPs, OTs, or educators who bring their clinical reasoning tools with them.

Tool Bar

There is some nice functionality built into the programming such as the ability to turn the music on or off, change the font, return to the beginning, email Rubycube.  In addition, there is a brief educational section called "Parents" but useful for therapists or educators as well.  All of these features are easily accessed through the tool bar at the bottom of the page.

One feature I'd like to see added would be the ability to either significantly enlarge the font, or change the contrast. The inherent difficulty would likley be that this might change the layout of the pages, but it could make the app more accessible for those with visual impairments.

As noted above, Rubycube has two stories ready to be purchased:

1. Trudy Goes to the Beach: focuses on what is expected on a family vacation.
2. Casey's Big Day: focuses on what is expected from a student on his first day of 5th grade, including modulation and transitions.  

They are working on the following:

1. Ruby Gets in the Game: focusing on playing a team sport, and the nuances of following directions, paying attention, and getting along with others. 
2. Mario's Big Reactions: focuses on modulation and appropriate problem solving. 
3. Pia Stands up for Herself: focuses on navigating friendships and self advocating.
4. Aaron Plays it Safe: focuses on personal space.

If you work or live with a youngster struggling with social skills for any reason, Rubycube's Storysmart suite is  a "must-have" set of apps. 

Happy Therapy!

A Call To Arms!

Today I received the following email from the good folks at Bookshare, which I wrote about in September of 2012.  

I feel so strongly about what they are writing about that I feel compelled to share their email with all the Tek-Ninjas out there. 

Please take a moment to read this, and if you feel compelled as well, sign the treaty!

Thanks, Jim

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Dear Jim,

It’s not typical for us to send you an email like this, but we felt this situation was so important it was necessary.

You may already be aware, but for years negotiations have been moving forward on what many have come to call the "Treaty for the Blind." The goal of the international treaty is to make it possible for people who are blind, or have other print disabilities such as dyslexia, to get access to the books they need for education, employment and inclusion in society—no matter where they live. It's something we already do, with great success, in the United States through Bookshare.

However, private interests are trying to alter the treaty in such a way that it would become useless—even harmful. For example, they’re trying to get language adopted that basically says: “if you can buy it, you can’t borrow it.” This is not only an attack on people around the world with print disabilities—it’s also an attack on libraries, like Bookshare, and could have a drastic effect on the number of books you have access to.
 
Our biggest worry is this becoming a treaty that could stop Bookshare from serving our users in the United States the way we do today.  We need our government negotiating for a treaty that supports a library like Bookshare.
 
That’s why we’re working with a coalition of disability and library groups, including the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind, to fight back against the proposed changes by these private interests. We’ll do everything we can to secure a treaty that both protects the access we have now and that will benefit people with print disabilities around the world—but we need your help.
 
We’re asking you to take a moment to sign a petition on the White House’s website that urges the President to step up his support: http://ow.ly/lkJVs. If we can get to 100,000 signatures, the White House is required to respond to the petition and will, hopefully, take positive action. With your help we know we can reach that number.  We also recommend the petition at the National Federation of the Blind’s site, which is particularly accessible.
 
Thank you for your time and support. Together, we believe that our collective voice can make a real impact.

Student Made iPad Cover!

Well, here is something I had not seen before. One of my students decided that she wanted a personalized iPad cover. 

Evidently she has experience in creating Duct-tape crafts, and so she applied this skill to making a one-of-a-kind iPad cover. She went so far as to make all the necessary cutout slots for the charger, the camera, sleep button, and headphone jack. Pretty nice work!

The back flap folds to make a stand, or to cover the glass for transportation.  

I wonder if others have made their own covers?

Touchfire: Typing on your iPad!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I essentially don't "type" with my iPad, but rather I "text". The keyboard looks like a keyboard, but it doesn't feel like a keyboard. I hold the iPad like a giant iPhone and type with my thumbs.  This is because there is no tactile information, and so typing by touch feels impossible.  I don't necessarily want a big keyboard to bring with my iPad, as that defeats the whole point of the elegant tablet. So ultimately, if I have a significant amount of writing to do, I wait until I'm at my desktop.

Approximately a year ago a colleague brought to my attention an interesting Kickstarter site for an unusual keyboard. The  product was called the Touchfire, and it was to be a silicon overlay for your iPad keyboard, essentially providing you with tactile feedback as you type.  We bandied the idea back and forth, thinking it interesting, but then moved on to problems that were facing us.

Almost a year later, reading a tech blog, I ran into the Touchfire again. Only now, it's a product that is available for consumers. When I realized it was available, I was intrigued again, and went to their website to learn what I could about it.  The Touchfire retails for $49.95, and ships within 24 hours. You can purchase the keypad straight from the website.  What you receive is the silicon keypad, a carry-case, and magnets to attach to your smart-cover if your using one. The keypad is as thin as two credit cards and weighs just 3/8 of an ounce.

The Touchfire seems simple, and on one hand it is... after all, it's just a clear piece of silicon right? Well, yes and no. The high-grade silcon is very durable. It wipes clean easily. The keypad is compatible with all four generations of iPad. In addition it is compatible with Canadian French, Catalan, Cherokee, Chinese Simple, and Traditional Pinyin, Chinese Traditional Cangie, Croation, Czech, Dutch, English, Estonian, German (QWERTY), Hawaiian, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Romaji, Korean, Latvain, Lithuanian, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Swiss French, Serbian Latin, Tibetan, Turkish, and Vietnamese keyboards.


So, what is it like?

The Touchfire keypad is like typing on my computer, but a little gentler. 

Turns out the silicon is nicer to strike (I am a rather aggressive typist) than my normal keyboard.  The keypad is a tad more sensitive then my typical one, and there was a small learning curve to ease up a bit, but after just a few minutes I was typing at my normal ferocious rate! Folding the keypad out of the way is easy to navigate the full iPad screen, but I found it even easier just to take the keypad off and put it back on when I needed it. I also use a Smart-Cover and found the keypad rolled up nicely in it.

I think the Touchfire is a great add-on that will make the iPad a viable writing tool. It's light portability will appeal to folks who really want to keep the iPad lean and streamlined.

I've written this blog using the Touchfire and have been pleased with it's performance. My intention is to keep using the Touchfire for awhile and I hope to report back in several months regarding it's resilience under heavy usage.

Assuming that it is as durable as I hope, the Touchfire can definitely contribute to our students with special needs utilizing an iPad to access their curriculum. 

Happy Keyboarding!