Post #9

There are many research sites that I could use in my classroom, especially when working in a classroom with the autistic. The one I chose for today deals with how to set up a productive classroom so that the students do not get distracted and can focus. The article was written by a principle and discusses many helpful techniques in not only the physical set up of the classroom but also a few tips as to how the teacher so instruct and teach the students.
For example, one of the tips that was given on setting up a classroom was keeping the classroom structured and how to set up a visual schedule with pictures so it was easier for them to ready and understand with out an overwhelming amount of words. Another tip dealt with how to teach the children, in the sense that it demonstrated how to reiterate questions so that the students to reciprocate the answers and better remember them.
http://kendrik2.wordpress.com/2007/10/10/12-tips-to-setting-up-an-autism-classroom/
I am not sure if i will use excel or not, I really will not know until I get into the classroom and settle in with the needs of my students. At the elementary level, the only uses of excel that I would use would be behind the scenes, I would not have them using this program yet. I might use it for tasks such as creating tables and chart on the progress of each child and the class as a whole, or I might use it for keeping track of grades. Overall the uses of excel would be for my purposes only to show parents the progress or even just monitoring for my own sake.