Childcare Land - Free Resources and Videos

Hi Everyone,
Childcare Land is a terrific site for Early Years teachers in mainstream and special education settings. The site contains an enormous range of free and cheap to purchase activities for early learners . Shelly has prepared a range of free teaching videos, demonstrating how to use the resources on her site and provided the opportunity to download beautifully prepared masters for the activities.
New activites are added to the site every month and you can sign up for the newsletter which will alert you to new resources.
If you want to protect your download limit you can also purchase all of her activities and templates in collections on CD for around USD $16.00 each.
I have been downloading resources from the site for my school for hours this morning. Take look for yourself by clicking on the picture.

Aimee Mullins - Redefining Disability

Hi Everyone,
I have returned from visiting Tahirih Bushey at Autism Games. Tahirih is a speech and language pathologist who specialises in working with children with autism spectrum disorders. I visit her blog every time she posts because she is so inspiring. Tahirih's post for today was not about ASD. It included a link to a 22 minute video featuring Aimee Mullins, Olympic athlete and double amputee, speaking about re-defining the word 'disabled'. I will be showing the clip to everyone I know. I wonder if you will feel the same way once you have seen it. Be sure to drop in to visit Tahirih at Autism Games, to let her know what you thought of the video.

Sheppard Software

Hi Everyone,
My thanks go out to to Jill from Wodonga West Primary School, for introducing me to the Sheppard Software website.

Sheppard Software is another one of those fantastic mixed theme and ability sites that will appeal to early years and primary teachers because it offers a range of activities covering all of the key learning domains.

I love it because it will provide me with loads of activities for my students on the autism spectrum with special interests in environmental and health topics.
Children in Jill's classroom were having a marvelous time completing learning activities based on food chains when I dropped into their classroom for a visit on Friday. Click on the picture to check out the site for yourself.

Bullying - No Way !

Hi Everyone,

Sadly the theme for the day is bullying.

My Saturday paper was full of horror stories about school and workplace bullying this morning. I have just finished reading an extract about bullying and the impact on students with Asperger's Syndrome, from Tony Attwoods 'The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome' as part of some preparation for a Positive Partnerships Program workshop I will be involved in next week.

The Bullying - No Way ! website contains a range of resources to address bullying issues. Created as a collaborative project between Victorian government, Catholic and independent school authorites ; it is packed with information and resources to support schools and communities in developing best practice policies and procedures to prevent and deal with the impact of bullying in schools. it also contains links to disability specific information which is terrific.

Click on the picture to take a look.

Autism Every Day

Bar None - Community Awareness Kit for Schools

Hi Everyone,

I have three great novels sitting next to my bed, waiting to be read but they didn't get a look in because I spent my weekend reading time, glued to the pages of the Bar None Community Awareness Kit for Schools'

The kit was developed in collaboration between the Victorian Government, the Catholic Education Office and the Association of Independent Schools of Victoria, to support teachers to create welcoming and inclusive school communities for all.

The five part kit contains:

• A teacher information book which provides general information, key statistics and some very practical suggestions to create welcoming classrooms.
• A series of 15 curriculum Units providing practical and engaging classroom activities from Prep to Year 8.
• A CD -ROM containing all of the documents in the folder as PDF files.
• A DVD which showcases the perspectives and lived experiences of a school principal, a parent and students across a range of age groups.
• A train the trainer module, that provides teachers and schools with support regarding the practical application of the kit in their teaching and learning programs.
  

To download the full kit and preview the DVD, visit The office for Disability website. If you are a Victorian school teacher, ask where your kit has been stored and take the time to review it or better still, complete the training modules, which are fully PD accredited.