Calm

Do you have a favourite calming video which you use in the classroom /sensory room?


The 2nd largest aquarium on You Tube is my favourite




I also like


Earth one video you need to see on You Tube

Music Top Ten !

Ten tunes from the blog!

Not all are my personal taste- I do like the first four!


Dave Brubeck Take 5
Used with my Leonard Cheshire group for our Plasticine animation

REM The Lifting
Made when learning about Wordle and around the time I was going to an REM concert

Praetorius Dances from Terpsichore Philip Pickett
A calming Christmas tune appreciated by one of my rap loving students


Kate Nash You say the nicest things
Discovered through Niks Daily English activity while learning about stop motion animation

Lady Smith Black Mambazo
As loved by another student an used for a literacy lesson -View on You Tube

Katy Perry Hot N Cold
Also used in literacy. We watched the video, 'read' the lyrics and joined in the chorus which is repeated lots of times ! We also talked about the story.

Susan Boyle A work sheet from Skills workshop watch on You Tube


The biggest aquarium on You Tube
Something calming for the whiteboard

I'm Every Woman (cover of Chaka Khan classic) Too late now to download for free but visit Action Aid anyway

Soundbeam

‘Soundbeam is an award-winning device which uses sensor technology to translate body movement into digitally generated sound and image.'
We have a Soundbeam 5 on order and today we have been looking at ideas for using the Soundbeam with adults with learning disabilities

This video from Capability Scotland shows how the Soundbeam can be used successfully with adults with a learning disability and or physical disabilities.

Nordoff-Robbins music therapy are experienced users of the Soundbeam and this video is an inspiring example:

Two others to watch:

Soundbeam in action from You Tube

Soundbeam’s use in Secondary education

Teachers TV Secondary ICT kit (6 minutes in)

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Music from South Africa

One of my students introduced me to his most favourite musician in the world:
Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Listen on You Tube


We were using music as a theme for our literacy lessons
(milestone 8 Entry 1).
I made the group a worksheet and he bought the music.

The worksheet are available to download from my Box net.

Entry 1 worksheet to download Word version PDF version Milestone 8 worksheet to download Word version PDF version

A fun computer activity

Make your own beat box tunes and improve your mouse skills at Incredibox

A free song to download from Action Aid

I'm Every Woman (cover of Chaka Khan classic) is a free music track to download at Action Aid website.
Action Aid is a UK charity that fights the causes of poverty and this song is part of a 6 degree campaign connecting women in the UK with women living in poverty around the world.

Woman symbol from Axelia pictograms

Music on the whiteboard

I thought these instruments were great and I will be trying them out with my students tomorrow in our last half hour of the day . There are a series of instruments to play. They can be downloaded here and saved on to a memory stick.They can be played directly from the site although the layout is not designed for this.

Sensory World Music Room is another good site to make music and experience the sounds of instruments .

Music Music Music

Here is a list of music I have used with my milestone 4-8 and Entry 1 students with learning difficulties.
Bohemian Rhapsody by Dandy Warhols
Used with a powerpoint of class photos as a lesson start .See my blog entry Alternatives to Hello Songs

Bill Withers Lovely Day is a great track to accompany a powerpoint or Animoto video see my blog Using Photos

Hanging on the telephone by Blondie see my blog entry Speaking and Listening

And for exercise to music
Orinoco Flow -Enya
Only If Enya
I don't feel like dancin' by Scissor Sisters
White Flag - Dido

Also take a look at Music videos of the day from Teaching Learners with Multiple Needs blog

View my blog at http://studentswithlearningdifficulties.blogspot.com/

On the TV and in the Papers

I was glad to see two good examples of how we have raised our expectations of learning disabled people . The Saturday Guardian had a feature on Heavy Load a punk/rock band from the Brighton area which has members with a learning disability. They have made a film Heavy load and they have their own website. The Trailer features Michael,drummer and vocalist with Downs Syndrome. He says:

" I just hate the band I want to be famous on my own. "

They also have a Face Book page where you can catch up with them.

Strangerous Pursuits was shown on The Community Channel on Sunday morning. A 26 minute film showing "the transformation of Ged Watts from a mild mannered man with Down's Syndrome into the world's first learning disabled 'action hero' via training in martial arts and film techniques."

You may need to sign up to view the film and if you can't find it look under the disablility tag.

Hello songs

The Becta SLD forum recently had a useful thread about suggestions for Hello Songs.

To the tune of 'nice one Cyril'?

Hello Debbie,

Hello Debbie,Hello Debbie,

How are you today?

"Happy Birthday to you"
The "Happy Birthday to you" song is possibly the most popularly sung song in the whole world, and was adapted from a song originally entitled (and worded) "Good morning to all", which was written in 1893 by two kindergarten school teachers in America for precisely the purpose of greeting children in the morning.

From the movie I'm singing in the rain- Good morning!

Good morning

Good morning

It's nice to see you here

Good morning,

good morning to you.

There are two suggestions for products to buy:

Connections by Jessica Curry( £41.00 a copy ) has been suggested as having age appropriate songs

Respect
"In October Alison Burns will be publishing "Respect", a songbook (with CD) of new songs for secondary age students with special needs. It's been tried out with great success at a school in Scotland and includes "Hi 5, I'm OK" which is a singaround hello song. The songbook contains Signalong signs for the songs and will be launched at the Signalong stand at Special Needs London on 17th October. Mike Kennard Signalong."

Wordle and REM

The holidays are truly over . I've had 4 weeks off this summer . In my college we have to book our holiday and spread the 37 days wisely through the year...So now its back to work on Tuesday and time to get on with some serious preparation for the start of the new academic year. I'll start with a resolution that I will have a life outside college and to show I mean business the whole family are off to see REM on Wednesday. I have the possible set list with orders from the children to have a good listen first! In preparation for this I've created a Wordle video using Movie maker. Have a watch !

I shall be using Wordle as one of my induction activities - everyone will add their name and we will display it on the whiteboard see an example below:

Have a good year, pace yourself, enjoy the company of your colleagues and most of all have fun with the students.

Using your photos.

In my work with students with learning difficulties I take a lot of photos. Students have enjoyed seeing themselves on the interactive whiteboard . Its been good for developing language and talking about activities and skills learnt.
At the beginning of the year I used PowerPoint .
I then used Windows Movie maker to make videos. I taught myself quite quickly by watching a tutorial on You Tube .
I have recently finished my first full length video using Animoto . I recommend this as you can produce a different, high quality video in a relatively short time. Animoto are offering free full access passes if you work in education. Just email them. They are very quick to respond.The blog Free resources from the net gives you a good summary . My experience is

Work on it at home .Most college networks can't cope with the uploading.When its finished dowload it and use it at college (it uses Quick time)
You will need 40/50 photos to make a 3 minute video.
The photos have to be at the image size 1024 x 768 pixels (it takes a while to change the image size of each photo) You have to choose a piece of appropriate music .

I chose Bill Withers Lovely Day . You'll need the music in MP3 form .
You can use Zamzar ,an online file converter (for free) to convert a format if you need to.

Speaking and Listening

Improving the language skills of adults with learning difficulties is at the heart of my embedded basic skills work .The following activity works well for students with speaking and listening skills at Milestone 6 right up to those at Entry 3.

I got this idea from the TES. A modern language teacher had found it was a great way to develop language skills.

I play a CD track : Debbie Harry Hanging on the Telephone . When the music starts pass a chunky mobile phone around the group and just like pass the parcel when the music stops the person holding the phone has to answer it. I play a sound clip of a phone ringing (not essential but really adds effect) and when the phone stops ringing the conversation between you on one phone and the student on another begins. After a short conversation start the music again. Keep playing until everyone has had a go.

Resources:

A chunky old mobile to pass around the group.
An old phone for you.

Deborah Harry: Hanging on the telephone

available from the CD Best of Blondie or for other CD sources Click here

or

download from ITunes or via Windows Media Player.

Remember to choose the format that will play on your college network.

Sound clip of the phone ringing available

free to download click here

Computer to play CD and sound clip

or CD player

How can it be used?

Its a fun way to improve telephone skills -listening and giving key information, appropriate greetings,use of names.

Reinforce information given out in the lesson "hello I'm just phoning to see if you have remembered what you have to bring to college tomorrow?

A fun and different way to hear every one's news "Hello I'm just phoning to see what you did at the weekend?"

How to include a deaf student in an IT music session.

I like to show my students with learning difficulties (Milestone 8 - Entry 1) how to access music on the computer . They can take these skills and use them at home .This year I had to think about how I could do this as I had a deaf student in the group.

The class started by listening to a CD using the Windows Media Player.

They loaded the CD

Identified the Windows Media icon

Learnt how to plug in the headphones

Used the volume control

My deaf student joined in (the communicator had the headphones!) and used an enhanced audio CD.I chose

Nizlopi : The JCB Song Video animation.

While the others continued to listen to their CD she then viewed

Torn by Natalie Imbruglio

which I had saved on my memory stick.This is a signed performance by David Armand at an Amnesty International event. Its good fun and includes BSL and a few made up signs, not suitable for all students as some of them are a little crude. Judge for yourself by viewing it on You Tube or through handlinger.blogspot.com

If you like it you can buy the Amnesty International DVD - Secret Policeman's Ball Amnesty 2006 .I've seen it for sale new and used on on Amazon .

My students then went on to explore music on the Internet and we looked at You Tube but you might have your own favourites.My deaf student watched videos performed by Bengee143:

I will survive

NightFever

My heart will go on

Viewing music on the Internet has many pitfalls, so make sure you try out all your ideas in the classroom first and have some standby music from another source. Two problems to look out for are:

1.Buffering - the video freezes and will only play intermittently.

2. You Tube can appear in skeleton form only,the second time you use it. Apparently it does this to encourage you to sign up.

Good luck and don't forget to check if your computers have sound cards!