Just the wrapping to go...

Late Christmas eve has always been the time when presents come out from their hiding places and everyone in the family retires to a different room with sellotape and scissors and plenty of wrapping paper. I've never been a good Christmas presents wrapper but I am always determined to wrap every single item including the smallest stocking present. If only wrapping were as easy as this offering from Annie's Resource Attic! Happy Christmas.

Gay and Lesbian students with a learning disability

I was reading an item from Community newswire on the same-sex hand-holding day on Boxing Day from A day in hand . It reminded me of the difficulties faced by young Gay and Lesbian students with a learning disability.
From time to time as a teacher I have to try to deal with issues such as same sex holding hands or saying you fancy another bloke out loud.What is the right way to deal with this?
Another issue I've experienced and is reported in the Partners in Advocacy report Out and About is the attitude of other people: 'Some people including other people with learning disabilities say bad things about people who have same sex relationships People can say and do hurtful things.'
The same report ask advocates : What about your own attitude? and recommends further training. I know I would welcome it . Here are some other links:
Hidden love forum from the Foundation for People with Learning disabilities

Picture bank (to buy £1.50)_to support gay / lesbian / bisexual / trans from CHANGE -( People with learning disabilities working for equal rights)

General Resources on Sexuality and Learning Disability

FPA resources in the publications section including All about Us a resource designed for people with a learning disability to assist personal development and knowledge around sex, sexuality and relationships. Life Support Productions : You, Your Body & Sex - the DVD

Learning with Common Knowledge - an online guide for people with a learning disability to learn about sex and relationships.(16+)

Batteries not includes (£10) from Common Knowledge

From the Northern Ireland Curriculum for Severe Learning Difficulties: Knowing and Growing
aimed at young people at school.

A Gem of a Service - An article on sexual health services in London from Learning Disability Today

Links suggested here and here from SLD forum

Special Schools : Sex and Relationships from Teachers TV

Also check out the MENCAP site and search for resources using the key word Sexuality

Christmas Greetings

A geoGreeting from around the World.

Money Resource

The Plasma Screen & Whiteboard Room is a free website for teachers in special schools. Its a place for teachers to share resources .There are a good range of resources some in Smart board format but many in PowerPoint.



My pick for today is an excellent PowerPoint from Nick Wonham,Bridge School Islington.

Money

It has 4 activities
Match the Coin
Coin recognition
Coin sums
Virtual cafe (amounts up to £1.00)

It also has sound,objectives, teacher notes and worksheets.

Write to your MP to sign Early Day Motion 383

Image: Inspired Services

Early Day Motion 383 is part of a Mencap campaign Get My Vote
Mencap is calling on the political parties to produce election materials in easy read and accessible formats. To show your support you can use the form on the Mencap website:contact your MP.
You also read more about the Mencap campaign Get My Vote



Sense, the charity for DeafBlind people has also begun their campaign to ensure that more
of the UK disabled population get to vote in the general election next year. They are starting with training for Parliamentary Candidates on

• How to ensure disabled people can vote
• How to make their campaign accessible
• How to use appropriate language

Hazards in the home

Learn Anytime has a list of links to some interactive hazard identification activities including

Dangers in the bedroom
Disaster Kitchen
Dangers in the lounge
Hazards in the room
Home Hazard Hunt

Asperger's Syndrome on Teachers TV

Now available on Schools world
The Troubled Mind series on Teachers TV features a three minute cartoon film narrated by a young person with Asperger's Syndrome. He describes the emotional distress he felt as his Asperger's syndrome caused him to struggle socially at school.Watch on line. The film is now on on Schools world

Politics Bingo

Clip Art: Inspired Services

We played Politics Bingo today and I found that I had forgotten to put the local councillor on the Bingo caller's card- Now updated !

Politics Bingo

From my recent blog entries you may have noticed that I am teaching about Voting and Politics.
To help us become familiar with key words I have made a bingo game (6 cards in the set) using
the free Clip art set from Inspired Services.


Politics Bingo PDF

Calling Card PDF


Politics Bingo Word

Calling Card (Word)

Managing Money Resource

Making Money Easier offers a set of guides designed to help adults with a learning disability think about money, banking and planning their life.
The Easy Guide to Banking would make an excellent resource for teaching Managing Money at Entry 2.
I found out about this from the Learning Disability Bulletin

Stir fry

There is Stir fry recipe (PowerPoint) available on the TES website contributed by Ibuzzybea. Register with the TES website to access this resource and others for free.Including Chocolate crispy cakes (PowerPoint) .

Health and Safety bingo now on Box net

My health and safety bingo(view the whole folder from this link) is now available to download from Box net
The complete set of cards as one document is called health and safety bingo

The calling card is here

Recycling

Here are some links for recycling. I have created a picture link at SQWORL

More Politics

There is an excellent resource for the interactive whiteboard from
Parliament UK education service.
I recommend Level 1 . With a little background information this resource would be accessible to Entry level students with a learning disability .
There is an accompanying PDF which gives an outline of the scope of resource.

I have also added more resource links to my blog entry Politics and voting

Us 5 from BBC Ouch

BBC Ouch! presents NO LONGER AVAILABLE 15.9.17

Us 5, an accessible interactive video; five contemporary dramas, workshopped by people with learning disabilities.

The films aim to aid discussion around making important life choices.The issues of relationships,pregnancy,money,work and living independently are all covered.

Promote the Vote

Promote the vote is a website aimed at adults with a learning disability. It has sections on
why you should vote, how to register to vote,how to vote and issues to consider when voting.


It would be a good resource to use with Count Me from Mencap.
See my blog entry Politics and voting

Social Enterprise

Perfect Pots is a social enterprise project.They have been shortlisted for the 'Social Enterprise in Schools Award' and are now down to the final three. The winner will be chosen by an online vote. Working in a social enterprise has already made a huge difference to young people with autism and learning disabilities who attend the

Holbrook Centre for Autism.

view this image at www.helphope.org.uk

It has helped them to believe in themselves and to better understand their abilities, as well as to cope with the challenges they face.
'Perfect Pots' has proved to people in the local area that young people with autism can make a positive contribution to their community. Voting closes on 30th November. You will have to vote for social enterprise in all four award categories for your vote to count; there are short video clips to help you choose but others to consider are:

The Breadmaker

Pack It-Group

Online games to improve numeracy and literacy skills

Academic Skills Builder has free multi-player and single-player games to improve addition,multiplication,fractions and integers. There are also language games.

Source: Thanks to Teaching All Students

Politics and Voting

Count Me is a Resource from Mencap designed for adults with a learning disability. It can be used to teach how the political and voting system work and are a good resource for teaching adults with a learning disability. The first 5 weeks are about politics and voting . The final weeks (6-8) are dedicated to training the course participants to be trainers . The resource consists of

• A manual to support trainers Includes the resources needed for the course

• session plans and handouts for weeks 1 to 4

• session plans and handouts for weeks 5 to 8

• posters for the Count me in! course

Other useful resources include
From The Electoral Commission website :

Eye Spy Poster :(used in week 2) Your Town Your Street Your Say


An interactive version of the Eye spy poster from Promote the Vote







Back grounds notes for using with eye spy poster

An set of picture prompts taken from the eye spy poster
(to help when differentiation is required)
and a picture prompt when talking about laws around cars
(to help when differentiation is required)

Democracy Cookbook - A higher level resource - I used page 5 Politics What's it all about as good background information for week 2
For week 3
United Kingdom Parliament

has Images of Parliament at work






Links to its Flickr Photostream




Find Your MP

For Week 4 Download The Easy Read Guide to Voting from Do Politics (Electorial Commission)

Inspired services government clip art (to purchase)

• E democracy icon set- A set of free clip art related to government and e-democracy (register to access the resource)

Image Inspired Services

My blog entry e-democracy-and-citizenship-symbols


and Citizenship blog entry

Winter e-Quality bulletin out now

The latest edition of the JISC RSC Scotland e-quality bulletin is now available to download. The newsletter features a wide variety of articles on subjects from communicating with symbols to creating accessible PowerPoint slides.

Clothes

This unit on Clothes (PDF) is a resource
from Northern Ireland Curriculum (Severe learning difficulties)

and includes : A clothes bingo

• Clothes from around the world

• Laundry symbols

• Weather symbols

• Packing for a holiday

• Appropriate clothing

There are also Powerpoints to supplement the materials and Online activities
Which clothes would you wear in the winter?





A clothing wordsearch


The Clothes unit is part of the Thematic unit Lets Celebrate

Workbased learners

The NIACE website has 'free resources to help work-based learning providers and practitioners in supporting learners with a range of learning difficulties and disabilities,

The resources consist of:

• a series of case studies - highlighting practical examples of providers with a wealth of experience in supporting learners with learning difficulties and disabilities in work-based learning
• seven briefing sheets - each highlighting a particular learning difficulty or disability, explaining how it may affect learners in work-based learning and signposting to more sources of information and support.' These include the briefing sheet:

Working with learners who have learning difficulties

Also on the NIACE website are

Moving into Work:
'There are six information sheets in this set which are aimed at a number of different key
players who need to be involved in the process of supporting people in their transition to
work': Copies of the information sheets can be downloaded from NIACE


These include a guide for Employers






and a An information sheet for people with learning difficulties
with simple text and pictures


Source : NIACE

Film making

As reported in a previous blog we are making films. My Monday group have just finished a stop motion movie using plasticine. Here is a good guide to making a stop motion movie.





The Oska Bright site

has some guidelines on making films suitable for sharing with adults with a learning disability



And an example of a film made using plasticine models here


The only thing I need to know now is how to add music to a stop motion film. When I drag it to the storyboard it plays at extra fast speed!