Special Education and Assistive Technology are important components of any school's overall education program. I am always in awe of the great work Special Ed teachers do. As the Internet continues to evolve, we are beginning to see high quality support resources for the wonderful people who work in these domains. What struck me in doing the ground work for this issue was how many quality sites have disappeared over the last two years. The WWW is a work in progress! Here's a sampling of the best that's out there. Special thanks to Sue Shaw and Jerry Blumengarten for their recommendations! Dive right in!

• Autism-PDD Resources Network - http://www.autism-pdd.net/
  This up-to-date and informative site on the diagnosis and treatment of the range of autistic disorders; covers testing, treatment, the law, IEPs, related services, respite care and a parent guide. Check out their special education and autism state by state database.
• Disability Accommodations - http://www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/combine2.html
  Here's a site that offers specific teaching strategies for varied disabilities, including speech, hearing, behavior, ADD and learning disabilities. Each section offers tips and tricks on general courtesy, teaching strategies, group interaction and discussion ideas, and more. Great for a teacher accommodating a child with a disability for the first time.
• Equity and Diversity - http://www.enc.org/topics/equity/
  The Eisenhower National Clearinghouse's page promoting a climate where every child can succeed in school; math and science materials designed to promote strengths and single out inequities in our current approaches to education. Reads like an online text book.
• Hoagies Gifted Education Page - http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/
  This searchable site is devoted strictly to gifted education and is divided up for parents, teachers and kids. Topics covered include Internet investigations, counseling the gifted, curriculum, grouping and gifted children in the middle school setting.
• Jillene's Disabilities Resource Page - http://members.aol.com/jylbear/
  Jillene Hass is a Severe and profound teacher in Wisconsin who offers this hotlist to other teachers looking for support in working with children with disabilities. The page has a nice clean format that is easy to reference. It's a great starting point for finding sites on a specific topic.
• KidSource: Disabilities - http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/pages/dis.physical.html
  Here's a site that note only lists and annotates disabilities-related online resources, it rates them and ranks them accordingly. There's A Guide to Children's Literature and Disability and NICHCY: Assessing Children For The Presence Of A Disability, to name a couple. All links are KidSource titles but are of high quality.
• LD Online - http://www.ldonline.org/
  This is a definitive LD site, with offerings for kids parents and teachers on an array of LD topics, updated weekly! Includes an online newsletter, bulletin boards, an Ask an Expert service and support on where to find help for your specific needs - priceless.
• Marc Sheehan's Special Education/Exceptionality Page - http://www.halcyon.com/marcs/sped.html
  Marc has spruced up his site so that it now offers an alphabetical hotlist of some of the best websites on special education. This site is a testament to what teachers are doing for each other online through their own experiences! Be sure to see his lesson plans page and educational resources page while you're there.
• NCIP - http://www2.edc.org/NCIP/
  The National Center to Improve Practice in Special Education through Technology, Media and Materials site consisting of discussions, guided online tours, the art and writing connection, an online library, video profiles, links and a mailing list.
• Resources for Early Childhood Special Education - http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/pep/pz.html
  There's lots of lesson ideas, well-developed activity suggestions, and even Boardmaker files and Intellipic games brought to you by the preschool Zone, with links to the companies authoring these technologies as well. The site hasn't been updated in a while but the materials here are worthwhile enough to recommend.
• SERI - http://seriweb.com/
  Special Education Resources on the Internet is an intensive collection of hotlists on all kinds of special education topics, including Inclusion Resources, Disability Products and Commercial Sites and Transition Resources. Each list is annotated to help you save time and effort.
  
• Special Education Website - http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/curry/dept/cise/ose/
  University of Virginia's hotlist to Special Education Information, Resources on the Internet, Categorical Information, Links, Special Education Professionals and Parent Links. What sets this apart is the professional format and the usefulness of the resources for educators.
• Special Needs Opportunity Windows - http://snow.utoronto.ca/
  This University of Toronto page offers online professional development, curriculum resources, educator support, technical assistance, web resources, teacher discussion and a kids' section. The Best Practices section offers ideas by disability.
  

Click here for the Innovative Teaching Archive!

Next Week's Topic: Problem Solving

Please send in URL's of high quality sites which may be of interest to our readers to walter@surfaquarium.com! Also, I'm always looking for new topic ideas and input!

Find More Great Resources at the Innovative Teaching Website: http://surfaquarium.com/it.htm.

Archive	http://groups.yahoo.com/group/innovative-teaching
Subscribe	innovative-teaching-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe	innovative-teaching-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List Owner	walter@surfaquarium.com

This newsletter may be forwarded or copied provided the header and signature information remain intact. Show a colleague what you have found in Innovative Teaching! =D ©2002 Walter McKenzie