Rewordify.com

Have you ever read a text, even reread the text and you still have no idea what you read. Some of our students experience this everyday.

Rewordify.com can help both you and your students!

To use Rewordify simply enter hard sentences into the yellow box, click 'Rewordify text' and you'll instantly see an easier version.  Rewordify even highlights the words it changed and with a simple click, helps you learn the original word. 

Check out Rewordify.com for yourself.  I know you (and your students) will love it!

Add a Quick Access World Language Keyboard on an iPad

Do you have students in you classroom in which English is not his/her first language?

You can update the settings on an iPad to a variety of world languages, allowing students to type on the keyboard in his/her native language.

Follow this tutorial to Add a Quick Access World Language Keyboard on an iPad.

Add a Quick Access World Language Keyboard on a Chromebook

Do you have students in you classroom in which English is not his/her first language?

You can update the settings on a Chromebook to a variety of world languages, allowing students to type on the keyboard in his/her native language.

Follow this tutorial to Add a Quick Access World Language Keyboard on a Chromebook.

Enabling and Using Dictation

 Take a moment to consider your students. 

Think about the ones who struggle to get their ideas onto paper. How about the students who struggle with spelling or have fine motor control issues.  Do you have students in which English is not their first language?

Speech to Text is a tool that can help these students and many others. It is an Accessibility feature built into most devices today. Speech to Text is a tool that allows a writer to dictate their thoughts and ideas into a document. 

Speech to Text, also known as Dictation, is available on Chromebooks and iPads.  To enable and use dictation on these devices follow the instructions in the tutorials below.

Enabling and Using Dictation on a Chromebook (http://bit.ly/3GobetQ)

Enabling and Using Dictation on an iPad (http://bit.ly/3MntMLC)

Give it a try! Your students will love it (and so will you)!

Enabling and Using Text to Speech

Text to Speech is a tool that has multiple uses. It can be used to help with reading and writing.  It can be a useful tool for struggling readers, English language learners, and readers with dyslexia as well. It can be used by students and teachers. Text to Speech is an available accessibility feature on both iPads and Chromebooks. Attached below are tutorials on how to enable and use them on these devices.

Enabling and Using Select-to-Speak on a Chromebook 

(https://bit.ly/3tkSaEI)

Enable Speak Selection on an iPad   (https://bit.ly/iPadSpeakSelection)

Free Teen Audiobooks

Sora by Overdrive has paired with SYNC to offer 16 weeks of Free Audiobooks aimed at teens 13+!

You can download 2 FREE audiobooks each week, starting April 28th and running through August 17th!
 

Register and sign up for e-mail reminders or text reminders at http://www.audiobooksync.com/.

Check out the SUMMER 2022 SYNC TITLE PAIRINGS (https://bit.ly/3K0cZf1) page for the list of available books this summer.

Free to anyone books in Bookshare

Bookshare.org is a program that makes reading easier. People with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers can customize their experience to suit their learning style and find virtually any book they need for school, work, or the joy of reading.

Although Bookshare is designed for students with reading struggles, it has over 10,000 freely available books published under the public domain or creative commons license. These books can be read by anyone and are useful for conducting demonstrations and trainings. check out the free book at the links below.

Demo Books - https://www.bookshare.org/browse/collection/353677

Ebook Sources - https://www.bookshare.org/cms/help-center/learning-center/learning-at-home/more-ebooks

Text-to-Speech - Chromebook & iPad

Text to Speech is a tool that has multiple uses. It can be used to help with reading and writing. It can be used by students and teachers.

I use text to speech to edit my writing. I listen to what I have written to help with sentence structure or misused words. It helps me improve my writing. I use text to speech to edit many of my blog posts.

Text to Speech can be a useful tool for struggling readers, English language learners, or readers with dyslexia as well. Using Text to Speech as a reading tool can help a variety of students and adults.

Most devices have text-to-speech built into the operating system. On a Chromebook it is called Select-to-Speak (https://bit.ly/38NeLjv). On an iPad it is called Speak Selection (https://bit.ly/2XmxZYD).

To view the tutorials on how to enable and use these features select the apporiate link above.

Try it out for yourself.  I am sure you will love it!

~~~~~~~~~~

To use Text-to-Speech on a MacBook or iMac, follow these directions (https://bit.ly/2YusABr) to enable Text to Speech.

Speech-to-Text, Google Voice Typing

As a district we have moved to 1:1 enviornment.  Every YCS student has access (or can have access) to a district issued device.  Take a moment to consider your students. Think about the ones who struggle to get their ideas onto paper. How about the students who struggle with spelling or have fine motor control issues.

Speech to Text is a tool that can help these students and many others. Speech to Text is an Accessibility feature built into most computers today. It is a tool that allows a writer to dictate their thoughts and ideas into a document. Many Speech to Text options also allow you to speak the punctuation and a multitude of other voice commands for editing purposes.

Google Docs has a built in Speech to Text option called Voice Typing.

Google offers a fairly comprehensive instructional guide for Voice Typing. The guide includes a list of languages supported by Voice Typing as well as a list of punctuation that can be voice enabled. The guide also includes a list of voice commands for formatting or editing your document in the sections under “Voice commands”. There are also some troubleshooting tips located near the end of the guide.

Voice Typing is also available on iPads via the microphone icon that appears next to the keyboard when typing.  

Give it a try! Your students will love it (and so will you)!

~~~~~~~~~~

Voice Typing is also available as a built-in features on the staff MacBooks.  Please reach out to me if you would like a tutorial on how to set it up for your use.

Mathshare

In last weeks post I provided a link to the Bookshare YouTube channel. This week I want to discuss Mathshare.

Mathshare is new product from Benetech, the developers of Bookshare. Mathshare is similar to Bookshare, but for Math. 

According to Benetech, as many as 40 percent of students grapple with math. It can be particularly difficult for students with special needs, who can struggle with organization or accessing information. Whatever the learning challenge, Mathshare’s unique step-by-step problem solving approach and built-in accessibility make learning math easier and inclusive for all students.

I do want to point out there is one HUGE difference between Bookshare and Mathshare.  Bookshare has specific qualification requirements.  Mathshare on the other hand is free for any school or student to use!

Check out Mathshare at https://mathshare.benetech.org/

They also have a YouTube channel with some helpful videos.  You can find it at https://www.youtube.com/c/Mathshare

Free Audio Books

Overdrive has paired with SYNC to offer 13 weeks of Free Audiobooks aimed at teens 13+!

You can download 2 FREE audiobooks each week, starting April 30th and running through July 29th!
 

Register and sign up for e-mail reminders or text reminders at http://www.audiobooksync.com/.

Listen to the books by downloading the Overdrive app (https://rebrand.ly/overdrive).  The app is available for iPhone®, iPad®, Android, Chromebook, Windows 8 & 10 and Kindle Fire HD.

Check out the SUMMER 2020 SYNC TITLE PAIRINGS (https://www.audiobooksync.com/2020-sync-titles/) page for the list of available books this summer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For younger students, check out the audio book options I discussed in a previous blog post,
Audio books (https://at-udl.blogspot.com/2016/12/audio-books.html)

As an update to this list, NighlightStories.net has begun adding new stories that you need to check out.

Google Sheets as a Translator

Did you know that you can use the cells in Google Sheets to create a translation dictionary?  Google currently has over 50 languages available and you can translate from one language to another, not just English to the others.
This would be a great tool to use for those learning English as a second language as well as for those trying to learn any foreign language.  You could expand your sheet to include images or even brief descriptions, whatever would be helpful for you or your students. 

For more information please see the YouTube, How to Automatically Translate Google Sheets Cells (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEibCyjPMh4).

I am also including a link to the Languages Codes (https://developers.google.com/admin-sdk/directory/v1/languages) currently available in Google.

I have started a Google Sheet with translation from English to Spanish that you can take a look at as well, click the link below to make your own copy.
Translation Dictionary  (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JvbtxT1tXM7s-lvb0_ZjNjUw7nvGlh3jmCBVFfdHY-g/copy)

Google Sheets are versatile.  You could make a new tab for each language or, like in the video, make each column a different language as well.

IRIS Center: Teaching English Language Learners

Teaching English Language Learners: Effective Instructional Practices  (https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/ell/

This module helps teachers understand second language acquisition, the importance of academic English, and instructional practices that will enhance learning for English Learners.

(est. completion time: 2 hours)

IRIS Center: Cultural and Linguistic Differences

Cultural and Linguistic Differences: What Teachers Should Know  (https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/clde/)

This module examines the ways in which culture influences the daily interactions that occur across all classrooms and provides practice for enhancing culturally responsive teaching.

(est. completion time: 1 hour)

IRIS Center: Classroom Diversity

Classroom Diversity: An Introduction to Student Differences (https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/div/)

This module offers a broad overview of how diversity (i.e., culture, language, exceptionality, and socioeconomic status) affects learning and how teachers can better meet the needs of all of the students in his/her classes.

(est. completion time: 1 hour)

Seeing AI

Seeing AI is a talking camera app for the blind, built by Microsoft.

According to the app description:
Seeing AI is a free app that narrates the world around you. Designed for the blind and low vision community, this ongoing research project harnesses the power of AI to open up the visual world and describe nearby people, text and objects.

Among some of the options offered through the app:
• Speak short text as soon as it appears in front of the camera
• Capture a printed page while recognizing the text and original formatting
• Scan barcodes to provide product information
• Read people’s faces, providing an estimate of their age, gender, and emotions. Also allows you to save faces for easier recognition in the future.
• Hear an overall description of a room
• Recognize currency
• Identify colors
• Read handwritten text

Check out tutorials with this YouTube playlist: http://aka.ms/SeeingAIPlaylist

Visit http://SeeingAI.com for more details

Get the app in the Apple App Store for your iPhone iPad or iPod Touch running iOS 10.0 or later.

TeachingChannel.org

TeachingChannel.org is a website that highlights inspiring and effective teaching practices in America's schools.  According to the website, "Teaching Channel is a thriving online community where teachers can watch, share, and learn diverse techniques to help every student grow."

They have over 1,200 short videos containing tips and information about classroom teaching strategies and classroom management.  You can watch a 1 minute 35 second video on "Writing in Math" or a 1 minutes 44 second video titled "Say It with Your Hands".  They also have an approximately 1 hour  "New Teacher Survival Guide" video (https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/tch-presents-new-teacher-survival-guide) that contains some great information, even for veteran teachers.  

You can sort through the videos by Subject, Grade or Topic.

   
   

Check out TeachingChannel.org today.