update on the update

1.  first graders love recording what they read.  now i'll have to see if they can do it independently (during the literacy center time) without breaking anything.  2.  The computer dictionary definitions were too numerous and thus too hard for my fifth grader.  I got him a simple thesaurus where he has a lot of words to choose from to help him with meaning.  Also, he says knowing antonyms helps him understand the meaning.  Then he has to learn the skill of choosing among  multiple meanings and being careful of words that sound the same.  Today he confused 'distant' with 'distance' and 'participant' with 'participate'.  So now i want to see if the computer dictionary might be good as a thesaurus instead of him using the book one.  The book has a small number of vocab. words.  So that's what i'll do tomorrow morning.  3.  I'm still trying to get stupid Narrator to work.  It's supposed to be sooo eaaasssyy.  Can i shoot myself now?  Tomorrow someone said they'd help me at 3:00, so we'll see what happens.  My daughter is using the Mac's crappy text-to-speech to help her with proofreading.  I think it helps her because i heard her using it when i wasn't around.  microsoft word is supposed to have free speech to text, which i will investigate if i haven't gone awol over narrator.  i don't know if mac has something similar.  4.  as for my dyslexic student- no one in the building has specialized training in the orton-gillingham method/spin-offs. and her teacher isn't 100% sure she would benefit from it.  so she and the principal agreed i could ask for a teacher i know from the middle school who is knowledgeable and experienced teaching dyslexics to informally evaluate her.  but i have to follow the "chain of command" and speak with her caseworker to get permission first.  so that's what i have to do tomorrow.  have you noticed everything is still anonymous?? have you noticed i'm not speaking in my official capacity as a teacher? i'm protected by the first amendment.  now why would i be worrying about such things? this is where you need experience in the public school system to answer that question.  i am enjoying teaching more this year.  i'm learning a lot and i have great students.  i think i am helping most of them.