Welcome Marg!

I am doing a bit of catching up on the blog. It has been a busy first half of March. We have started some new programmes, and have been working really hard in class. We have also had Marg filling in after Lulu left us. Marg has done a wonderful job, and will be carrying on working in Room 10. She has been working hard to learn about the Proloquo2Go communication app and is now programming news.

We are really getting into our literacy programme this year. Take a look at some of our great work.

Matthew is learning to type his name and some other words as well.

Alex likes to act out emotions when he is talking about things. He is saying "Uh oh!" because he is writing about a naughty dog.

Joshua can type some words independently using the keyboard on his I-Pad. He can read back what he has written.

Rawiri told everyone what he had for lunch. He uses Proloquo2Go on his I-Pad. Rawiri is learning to write sentences.

Alex finished his writing and worked on completing puzzles on one of the class I-Pads. He can easily complete the two piece puzzles, so he had a go at the four piece puzzles.

Kyle and Marg worked on some writing about a picture. I select interesting pictures to inspire everyone to comment and write.

Matthew loves animals, so he had lots to say about this picture.

 
During this session we were focusing on using "want" from the Core Vocabulary on Proloquo2Go. Matthew thought of several things the cat might want.

 All but one of the students in Room 10 use communication devices. Our students don't just pick up how to use them automatically. It takes lots and lots of modelling and practise. It is just like learning a new language from scratch. The more our young people see devices being used by other people, the more they tend to use them. At home the family can use the I-Pad to experiment with language. At school the staff use Proloquo2Go, signing, visuals and spoken language throughout the day. We make it lots of fun! Communication devices are incredibly powerful. We want those students that use them to realize this.