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MTT Presents Ohio VizZle Educator Awards at OCALI Convention Keynote Address

MTT has always had and will always have a special relationship with educators in Ohio. The Monarch Center for Autism-the incubator for VizZle-and the nearly 4 years of research and development involved in making VizZle available to educators across the country all started in Ohio.

Because of that relationship, MTT used the VizZle-sponsored keynote address introduction at the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI) Conference in Columbus, Ohio yesterday to honor two Ohio educators who are using VizZle to make a difference in the lives of kids with special needs.

Ohio VizZle Creator of the Year Award

The first award acknowledged an Ohio educator who not only goes the extra mile for the kids directly in her own classroom and creates custom curriculum to suit their needs. This educator then shares those creations, making the effort to submit and meet the VizZle moderators’ exacting standards for inclusion in the shared library (persevering despite the moderators’ persnickitude).

Our winner felt that her students were so motivated by and learned so well from VizZle’s interactive lessons that she wanted to create lessons to access the entire year’s curriculum for English Language Arts for her students. She spent much of her summer creating those lessons, and she shared them so that the other school staff in her district could use them too.

Her voluntary efforts have saved countless hours of educator time in her school, her district and across the country—sharing her work with other educators to save them time, and sharing her great interactive lessons that benefit not just her kids, but kids everywhere.

The Ohio VizZle Creator of the Year Award went to Michelle May, of Canton, Ohio. Also receiving honorable mentions for their outstanding creations and generous sharing were Linda LaKamp from Cleves, Ohio and Jennifer Pearson from Hudson, Ohio.

Ohio VizZle Educator of the Year Award

The second award was presented to one of the four Ohio educators who had made the ranks of our VizZle K Club (VizZlers with 1,000 or more log ins).

This award was given to a woman who considers her classroom a VizZle classroom. She told us the story of a boy new to both their school and to her classroom who had serious difficulties with transitioning, and adjusting to things like the many field trips she makes with her class.

After seeing his struggles, she found a VizZle story she could edit for their next field trip—that time to a bowling alley—as well as a schedule he could carry with him. She said “He watched this several times before the trip and he took his visual schedule with him on the trip. He had the most successful trip ever and I feel the instructional aide of VizZle allowed him to do that so well. It also did not take a huge amount of time on my part to prepare all that –which I love—that’s huge when you look at all the paperwork I have to do in this job!”

The Ohio VizZle Educator of the Year Award went to Carrie LeBeau, Intervention Specialist, Alliance Middle School, Alliance, Ohio. Honorable Mentions went to the three other K Club members from Ohio, Courtney Monastra from Highland Ohio, Cathy Rodeheffer from Dublin, Ohio and Kristal Austin from Avon Ohio.

Our congratulations and thanks go to all the award and honorable mention winners for all their efforts on behalf of kids with special learning needs.

VizZle has been named a 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award Finalist for Special Education and Intervention (Intellectual Disabilities). To see all the finalists (awards to be announced in June) or to learn more about the AEP DAA awards, click here.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has named VizZle a CODiE finalist in two categories: Best Instructional Solution for Special Needs Student and Best Educational Use of a Device-Specific Application (for whiteboards). Click here for more info!

Tech and Learning Magazine honored VizZle with a 2010 Award of Excellence for Best Product Upgrade. Scroll down to read more!

Tech & Learning magazine named VizZle as a winner in its prestigious 28-year-old recognition program. Honored software, hardware, network and Web products include innovative applications that break new ground as well as those that added significant enhancements to proven education tools. A panel of more than 30 educators, who tested more than 140 entries, chose the winners.

Entries were divided into two categories: New Products and Best Upgraded Products. Winning selections include software and Web-based products, as well as hardware and AV tools. Among the high-quality offerings being honored are resources addressing management, safety, communication, differentiated learning, assessment, and other key areas in education.

For more information or to view the other winners, click here.

The Awards target innovative and content-rich programs and websites that augment the classroom curriculum and improve teacher productivity, providing parents and teachers with the technology to foster educational excellence. Some selection criteria are academic content, potential for broad classroom use, technical merit, subject approach and management system. Winners are selected from titles submitted by publishers around the world.

For more information or to view the other winners, click here.

“Vizzle should be a part of every special needs teacher’s toolkit.”

Judges for the ComputEd Gazette Best Educational Software (BESSIE) Awards honored

VizZle as the best Teacher Tool/Special Education Website for 2010. They further honored VizZle with a standout review in the Awards Showcase, which closed with, “VizZle should be part of every special needs teacher’s toolkit.” We agree

ComputEd states that the Awards target innovative and content-rich programs and websites that provide parents and teachers with the technology to foster educational excellence. Winners are selected from titles submitted by publishers around the world. To learn more about the program and see the full list of winners and reviews, visit ComputEd Gazette’s website.