Audtions for ALL!, Feel Good Fridays

I am a theater appreciator, possessing no talent to act. I am absolutely on board with this newest community theater venture from Angela Anderson, in cooperation with the Theater Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. You can check out the Facebook events page here.

Don't have a profile on Facebook? Well here is all the info you need.

Auditions for ALL!
When: Monday, August 15, 6:30pm-9pm
Where: Philadelphia Room of William Way Community Center
1315 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA
Websites: Facebook Event, Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia
Contact: anderson.angela.marie@gmail.com


From the event page:
"Join the community theatre movement presenting shows that represent our ENTIRE beautiful society.

We want to bring everyone together, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual preference, or physical ability.
We want to see EVERYONE!

...For the audition, we want to see YOUR best performance. After the auditions, a play will be selected and cast based on the abilities of those who auditioned!

Please bring a prepared monologue. (Cold readings will also be available.)

Also, bring your IDEAS!! This is a community theatre movement for *you* - we want to hear what you have to say!

*******
FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES:
Productions will be accessible, both physically and in attitude, for the full participation of people with physical and emotional challenges and disabilities.

William Way is fully wheelchair accessible.

Those organizing the event have extensive education and experience working with people with disabilities in varied capacities.

We speak poor to moderate American Sign Language. (Because of finances, no interpreter will be provided at this event, but you're welcome to bring someone to interpret or volunteer to interpret.)

Please encourage any friends with disabilities in the Philadelphia who want to participate in theatre to attend the auditions. No experience required!!
*******

We are funding this event through Classic Baked Goods by Angela Anderson. Please visit the Facebook page if you enjoy delicious sweets and would like to contribute!

For more information, or if you would like to help out, please contact anderson.angela.marie@gmai​l.com.

Auditions will be open and first-come-first-serve, so if you have a scheduling conflict and must audition at a certain time please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate you."

Enjoy and may the best cast be selected!

Cure for the Summertime Blahs

It’s bound to happen sooner or later this summer.  Maybe it’ll come when the sun has strayed too long behind a cloud or when the humidity reaches its sticky zenith; eventually some young one will mutter, “I’m bored.” 

We’ve got the perfect antidote: Sheppard Software.  Their website, www.sheppardsoftware.com features hundreds of wonderful educational activities for learners of all levels. There are a slew of colorful activities for the pre-school set and a variety of games and quizzes to help older students tackle things like world geography, the Periodic Table of the Elements and SAT and GRE vocabulary. 

Many of the games offer different levels to accommodate a variety of learners – from the L Level for learning to the Master Level.  Times and scores are available for competitive players. 

Games are free – although you’ll find some advertising on the site. Subscriptions are available and allow ad-free access.  There are rates for schools and families. Don’t miss the section where teachers can download some games free of charge.

Panera Bread doin' Good - Feel Good Friday

I live in a part of the state that doesn't have a lot of big box stores or chain restaurants. Over the last two years we joined the ranks of the rest of the state with new commercial development that led to BJ's, Costco, Olive Garden, IHOP and Target. Before this we had to travel about 30 minutes either north or south to shop at one of these stores or eat at one of these restaurants. This did not bother me, as I hate shopping, and would rather cook 9 times out of 10 than go out.

However, when I read this article, it made me wish I had access to this specific Panera Bread (St. Louis Bread Company).

Basically, this store a community cafe and their business model is designed to help people in need. It works like this. You order your sandwich. You are told what the "suggested funding" is (regular price) and you can pay that price or you can pay whatever you want or can, less or more. All additional proceeds beyond overhead and expenses are donated. They offer vouchers for volunteers to work for an hour and recieve a free meal. It looks to be a vibrant community gathering space.

You can see a video of it below:



I hope they are able to implement this model in their stores around the country; maybe even in my corner of the state.

Enjoy and Happy Friday!

Get Outside and Bike! - Feel Good Fridays

I love to bike ride. I am lucky to live in an area of the state that is bike friendly and also offers a plethora of bike paths as a safe haven from "visiting summer drivers".

I have thought about how difficult it would be for me if I couldn't ride my bike; so when a colleague forwarded me this story, I had to write about it.

Rob Thompson is a young man who experienced a Traumatic Brain Injury as a result of a motor vehicle accident. His father, Dave Thompson, built a tandem bike that could be part of Rob's road to recover (pun completely intended).


Read the full story here.

Maybe not all TV is bad....Feel Good Friday

Many people who know me, know that I am NOT a big fan of TV. However, when Assistive Technology is being discussed on TV I guess I subscribe to that.

Carly Fleischmann, a young woman who has been diagnosed with Autism, was featured on CBS's The Talk day time show. She was brought on the show to discuss how she uses Word Q, a word prediction program that has auditory feedback, to communicate. I have spoken with people who watch this show and said not only were they inspired by Carly, but wanted to find out more about Word Q. I thought that was pretty cool.

I am glad that Carly found a tool that is working for her and is allowing her to communicate and participate in the world around her.

If you want to watch the video on Youtube you can check it out below.





Enjoy and Happy Friday!

And We're Back with a Success Story...Feel Good Friday

After a brief hiatus, this weekly blog post is back.

I had the pleasure this week of working with a 4th grade student who has mild CP in a school district in southern New Jersey. The primary goal for my consultation was to explore writing supports with this student since writing is such a laborious process. Yesterday we began a trial of Write Online. I have written about my experience with another student previously. This student was very excited that she could input words into her document with a single click rather than several key strokes. Throughout the session she pumped her hand in the air and said, “I got it”. Her 1:1 aide said that she had never seen this student excited about writing and/or working on the computer. At the end of the session she asked me, “Are you coming back tomorrow?” It was a good day. Remember and enjoy your successes from this week.

James Durbin still going strong - Feel Good Fridays

Let's check back in with the topic of an older post that you can read here. James Durbin, a contestant on American Idol has Tourette and Asperger Syndromes. He has made it to the top 9. He has been the topic of many blog posts and other articles in regard to how inspirational he is to people of all abilities.

Here he is singing one of my favorite songs of all time. No matter what happens on American Idol, James Durbin has been and will continue be an idol to many.




Enjoy and Happy Friday.

April is Autism Awareness Month - Feel Good Fridays

Meet Tracy Thresher and Larry Bissonnette, the focal points of the documentary Wretches and Jabberers. These two men have Autism and communicate with Augmentative Communication Devices.

Their film is about spreading the message that people of all abilities have ideas to share, thoughts to discuss and the desire to participate fully in life. Tracy and Larry are on a mission to change people's attitudes about disability, intelligence and communication.

Check out the trailer to the film below.

You can visit the website for the film here and you can read an article about the film here.

Enjoy and Happy Friday.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention - Feel Good Fridays

In keeping with the gaming theme from last week, take a look at this video. David Kotkin is an Art Teacher in Miami. A student in his class was born with Epidermolysis Bullosa Dystrophica, causing his hands to be very small. So small that he could not reach all of the controls on an Xbox hand piece. Therefore, he couldn't play the games he wanted to do because they required pressing a trigger to shoot or blow things up. David, being a gamer himself, decided to do something about this. The Avenger was born after many trials with superglue, rubber bands, duct tape and who knows what else. Read the whole article here.

The Avenger is currently retailing for $39.99. You can check it out here.




Enjoy and Happy Friday!

Gamers, Meet SpecialEffect - Feel Good Fridays

I am not a gamer. Never have been. I do remember my brother playing Super Mario Brothers a gazillion times a day on Nintendo circa 1986.

I digress. For people who are into video games and might need assistance with physical access, meet SpecialEffect; a charity located in the UK.

From their website - "SpecialEffect is a charity dedicated to helping ALL young people with disabilities to enjoy computer games. For these children, the majority of computer games are simply too quick or too difficult to play, and we can help them and their parents to find out which games they CAN play, and how to adapt those games that they can't."

SpecialEffect just launched UK’s first fully accessible Video Games Visitor Centre. The center would allows individuals the opportunity to try out a range of cutting edge games and leisure software and hardware, with the advice and support of specialist professionals.

They also have host a website called Gamebase. The purpose of this site is to provide information on games, have a forum for questions and a place to share ideas.


Below is a video of some of the things SpecialEffect is doing.

Are you a gamer? Work with someone who is? What gaming resources are out there that you can share? Let us know.

Enjoy, and Game On!

SpecialEffect from William Donegan on Vimeo.

GENIUS (Girls Exploring New Ideas Using Science) - Feel Good Fridays

The GENIUS (Girls Exploring New Ideas Using Science) robotics team from
the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta has successfully installed a backup
camera on the wheelchair of their 10 year old friend, Quinn, with the
help of engineers from Georgia Tech's Center for Assistive Technology
and Environmental Access (CATEA). The camera system is designed to solve
the problem of limited visibility behind wheelchairs.

The team came up with this idea as part of their research project for this year's FIRST LEGO League Body Forward challenge.

Check out this video showing the installation process and the backup camera being used on Quinn's wheelchair. One of things I liked most about this video was that all of the girls there did some part of the assembly and installation. Also, Quinn is an excellent driver and the camera will promote greater independence for her. Finally, I really like their shirts :)

Tell us what you think about this! Feel free to leave a comment below.





Enjoy and Happy Friday!

"As Hot As A Pistol" - J Mac - Feel Good Friday

I know this is an old video but actually, it never gets old.

With March Madness upon us, I thought this was fitting.

Enjoy, and Happy Friday.

I am NOT a fan of American Idol - Welcome to "Feel Good Friday"

I will be starting a new regular post on Fridays called "Feel Good Friday". The sole purpose of these posts will be to share a fun or inspiring story about people with disabilities.
This week's post is about the American Idol contestant, James Durbin.

I am NOT a fan of American Idol. In fact, I am anti-TV in general. Regardless, someone brought to my attention the contestant James Durbin. James is diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome and Tourette Syndrome.

Here is his American Idol audition video. It is clear that he is letting his abilities overshadow his disabilities. He has a lot of courage and a lot of strenghth to get in front of three judges (not to mention the country/world). I wish him well and I will be rooting for him from afar, because I still won't watch the show.



Enjoy and Happy Friday!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Today I was listening to NPR and the topic was Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Giesel. The host was having people call in with their favorite Dr. Seuss book. A parent called in and said that she had two sons, both on the Autism Spectrum. She said that they are typically not interested in reading, but that they loved listening to her read, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. She said that she knew they understood the message of the story because of one of her son's actions. He did something nice for another child in his class. She said the teacher gave her son positive feedback for this action. He replied, "My heart grew three sizes."

It made me think about how it is our job as educators to keep exposing our students to literacy and literacy activities. Even if they appear disinterested, you never know when something touches them and they internalize it.

I thought that story was very sweet, so I wanted to share it.

An Amazing and Free Resource

WatchKnow has indexed over 20,000 educational videos, placing them into a directory of over 3,000 categories. The videos are available without any registration or fees to teachers in the classroom and to students at home whenever they want.

From Schoolhouse Rock classics, like How a Bill Becomes a Law and Conjunction Junction to videos culled from YouTube to clips from the History Channel... It's a treasure trove for certain.

Users can dive into the  innovative directory or search for videos by subject and age level. Video titles, descriptions, age level information, and ratings are all edited for usefulness. Our Web site invites broad participation in a new kind of wiki system, guided by teachers.

The site has plans to index over 50,000 more educational videos in the upcoming year. WatchKnow is a program of the non-profit 501(c)(3) Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, and is directed by Dr. Joe Thomas.

It is the hope of the site's creators that students, parents, teachers, librarians, and everyone interested in the education of children will use and help further build this system.

Check it out.

Voki in the Classroom

Get a Voki now!

Digital Comics Just in Time for Summer Reading!

Advertising for the new iPad boasts it gives access to more books than you can read in a lifetime. That’s great…but what about folks who prefer chilling with a comic or graphic novel instead of curling up with a book? Now, there’s an app for that.

Enter PanelFly, which bills itself as “Your local comic book store in your back pocket.” Nifty. This app lets you access your favorite superheros and villains digitally. Affiliated publishers include Marvel, Brain Scan Studios, Antarctic Press and many more.

You’ll need an iTunes account. With PanelFly you can search, preview and download comics to your iPhone or iPad. Happy reading!

One more use for duct tape......Modified X box controller

For people with disabilities, video game consoles (and more specifically the game controllers) sometimes create a barrier that is hard to overcome. Have you ever tried to figure out how to hit all those buttons simultaneously!

The team at Evil Controllers created this modification for a young man with Muscular Dystrophy to enable him to play his X Box 360. The modification is made of X Box controller parts, a bag of rice and of course.....duct tape.

Check out the article at PC World here.

The video clip below shows the modification in action. Check it out on You Tube

Have you met TED?

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. The website, www.ted.com, features video clips of “riveting talks by remarkable people.” It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then, the focus has broadened.
The TEDTalks video site is packed with amazing things. None of the videos is more than about 20 minutes long; speakers are from all over the globe and the topics cover design, creativity, technology, art, inspiration…
Today, I was fascinated by a video featuring David Merrill, a grad student at MIT, who spends about eight minutes demonstrating Siftables -- cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These smart blocks can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. The educational applications are limitless.
I quickly moved to a clip featuring Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian, who makes leaders from our nation’s past seem human and real.
Be warned, the danger of TED is that one could easily end up spending way too much time getting to know this wonderful new friend.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

I saw this quote and I thought I would share on what would have been Theodor Geisel's 106th birthday!

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

And...while we're at it....I might as well share my favorite story. Take a minute and enjoy!