Monday, July 12th

After today's class, and activity, I don't think that I'm able to walk into a Dollar Store and look at the items in the same way. I enjoyed this activity for the fact that it recognizes the need to be creative as educators, especially given the lack of resources and funding that many of us face within our schools. The reality is that we cannot always afford the high tech device that could do wonders for some of our students. However, today's "shopping" activity inspires one to think outside of the box in finding ways to support the diverse needs of our students. The next time I'm feeling frustrated by not having all of the high tech gadgets that could support learning, I'm going to head to the closet Dollar Store for inspiration...and I'm being serious! It was so easy to devise a list of 10 "off the shelf" items that could support student learning, and I'm honestly beginning to wonder if the list itself is endless. I'm excited to read about other "off the shelf" suggestions from classmates, and am especially keen to learn about their invented forms of AT as well. A wonderfully eye-opening experience.