I don't have time, I have Thinglink

     Let me start by saying I am very happy with this fun program!

     Recently I have been on the hunt for the perfect user friendly program (that happens to be free because I teach and we never actually want to spend our own money on programs) to explain emotions to my classroom. As I have explained, the comprehension range is anywhere from 18 months to 3 years. How does one explain emotions or just basic empathy to students with Autism and other intellectual disabilities, yet keep them interactively engaging?

Basic editing screen

     Thinglink was posted on a Google+ forum I follow. Just checking it out, I saw how intricate lessons could become. Most importantly, Thinglink allows the student to interactively learn at their own pace. Here is an example of students exploring the space station 
     I had been struggling with using a leaning map program for a few days, even though the company said I could complete a learning map in 30 minutes. Obviously, I needed to tinker with another program and try again later.

     Thinglink has an educator pricing of $35 for the year if you are interested in rich text, video and image assistance, or just easy tagging to get your videos seen. I plan on using it within the classroom for a couple of weeks first and then I can revisit. For me, the educator pricing for the year is way within budget. However, I want to make sure I do not hit the ceiling quickly and have no new uses for it.
     The image I selected took forever to upload (okay, like 45 seconds, but that is very long in a special education setting), but was very easy thereafter. Using the cursor, I clicked on where I wanted the bullet point to be shown, entered the YouTube link I wanted to use, add a caption if desired for the link, and saved the presentation. This allowed me to talk about intricate basic living skills in a way that is modified for my students. I foresee using this for talking about how to dress for certain seasons, receptively identifying or tacting vocabulary in a certain setting, or to talk about any subject standards.

     I made sure the computers were ready for the students when they arrived to the independent working stations. I pinned the tab to ensure they would not wonder off of the page much. They really enjoyed the clips I used about being aware of our emotions and, most importantly, they stayed engaged in and independent activity for the 20 minute period.