I used the tutorial with a student who was not a chess player. They had no trouble following it. The tutorial does an excellent job of explaining the rules of basic chess. It doesn’t go into chess strategy, but it gives you enough knowledge to play the game. If you are new to the game, spend some time going slowly through the tutorial, until you understand how all the pieces move. Also, when you teach your student, I strongly encourage them to use point and click to move their pieces. They need to have their hands on the display, constantly examining the game board, to follow the game play.
This has been a busy but exciting time introducing and using the Monarch. My glow is being able to introduce the device to a high school student. I also had the opportunity to introduce the device to TVI students at Salus University as well as a principal at a school for the blind. My grow is being able to successfully create and display a graphic (Orion TI-84 Plus Talking Graphing Calculator) on the Monarch.
Hi Jill!
There was certainly a Glow when introducing a braille student with a Monarch to most of her high school teachers last spring. The Math and Spanish teachers were thrilled with the capabilities for instruction in their classrooms. We anticipate a big Grow this fall in using calendars and planners and giving presentations at the high school level! You were trained earlier than I, so you have a headstart for the new school year. Enjoy your Glow and Grow this fall!
My glow was having a meeting with a member of my senator’s team to talk about the benefit of the monarch. It is awesome that it seems like APH has been able to get their request into the bill. It is not complete yet, but a step closer. I have also. Been enjoying the Chess game, and the tutorial was great to help learn the basics
grow is to make the coordinates on the graph smaller. Right now they seem very large. It would be nice if we could have braille numbers on the graph so that we wouldn’t have to have the speech on to find a coordinate.
Is there a way to connect the Orion to the Monarch or did you just enter the information to graph in both places?
Hello!
I have had numerous Glow moments over the last year.
My most recent Glow was observing my student download her Biology textbook from Bookshare after receiving a notification that her brailled textbook would be arriving a few days late. She was able to keep pace with her peers responding to questions and completing assignments in a timely manner.
Grow-She continually received error messages when attempting to read the table of contents.
I am able to place the Monarch in my rolling backpack, but would like to find a case that is accessible for my student, otherwise she will need a peer or a teacher to help transport from one class to another.
Our GLOW is that for the first time my totally blind student actually “saw” a zoom in of a graphic. This was an ah-ha moment for her. I told her to zoom in and she was amazed that the image actually got bigger.
Our GROW is in the math equations in key word. We are so excited that we are able to do more lines of math in one document, however it is still hard on multistep equations. We wish that we could see the equations already written as we are typing and doing the calculations for the next step.
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Glow: My students motivation to improve his tactile skills is increasing since using the Monarch!
Grow: My student and I are learning to play chess together! It is a fun learning activity that improves his tactile skills and challenges us both! It would be helpful to have print version of the directions or have the directions appear in print on the an attached screen.
Glow Moment: I have been testing the Monarch with a student on my caseload and his reaction has been good but I also took the Monarch to another town to visit a 6th grade student one of my colleagues works with. He is used to using a Braille Note or a PC with a braille display. When he touched the larger display of the Monarch and I showed him a few graphics he literally got up and jumped around he was so excited. We ended up sitting together and exploring the Monarch for about 90 minutes before he had to go to lunch. He was overjoyed and kept asking when I’d be coming back.
Grow Moment: I have been able to demonstrate the device with the other 3 TSVI’s on my team, I have shared it with a group of TSVI’s and administrators during our statewide working group meetings, and I have been asked to share it an upcoming conference in our state (Oregon) as kind of a show-and-tell demonstration for TSVI’s from around the state.
The Monarch has so much potential to change the lives of both students and professionals. I am excited to see the ways that my students find to use it.
Glow: My glow moment occurred when I was using the Monarch with one of my students in his braille class. He loves technology but often has difficulty remembering basic commands. My student was trying to edit a paragraph that he had typed in Key Word app. He had incorrectly typed a word and knew what he needed to edit. In the past, he has had difficulty using the cursor routing buttons of traditional braille displays. He usually does not get the cursor where he needs it to efficiently edit a document. He was, however, able to use the point and click function to quickly move the cursor to the necessary position to quickly edit the errors in his document. After his success with point and click for editing, he loves using it. He is excited about how quickly he can move the cursor now.
Grow: It would be great if the case for the Monarch also included a strap that could make it easier for students to carry this valuable piece of equipment. What I have done with the one that I received during the training in Texas is to put the Monarch (with its case) in a 17-inch laptop case. This has given me a way to carry the monarch and has provided an extra layer of protection for the device.