Blue Ribbon Reviews October 2005
By Linda Lindroth

Now that those first few weeks of the new school year have passed, you'll have more time to work with these new management tools.

PEGS
PEGS for Elementary – Practice in Effective Guidance Strategies, from LetterPress Software, teaches 12 different strategies for managing difficult and disruptive behavior in the elementary school.

The menu screen puts students in a school hallway right outside the office and counselor's door. Click on the mailboxes in the office window to get Instructions, use the Staff Workroom door to learn about the interventions and strategies in the program and visit the Counseling Office to access file folders for student records of the fictional students used in the tutorial program.

Simulations. Once in the 101 classroom, you can choose from Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced levels. Activities consist of Practice, Physical Activity, Group Project, Individual Work and Group Discussion. The goal of each activity is to select from the strategies to maintain appropriate participation from all students.

Within each of the five activity types, the screen shows different student behaviors. There are strategies to anticipate and avoid problem behaviors (positive encouragement, management of materials), strategies to create positive results at the onset of disruptive behaviors (redirect, physical proximity) and strategies to help stop disruptive behaviors so you can then work to achieve appropriate participation (time out, remove from classroom). A timer keeps track of time and pop-up windows warn when you are ignoring a behavior, which then escalates the behavior. A progress bar lets you know how far a classroom is moving toward disruptive or participatory behavior. Each time you finish an activity, an analysis window appears with a printable assessment of your use of strategies and determines your management style. The assessment report gives the number of times a strategy is used, the percentage of time you used each strategy and the resulting behaviors. This is an excellent simulation tool for beginning teachers!

Physical Activity features a playground where you select strategies to maintain appropriate participation from all students. Clicking on a student and selecting a strategy brings up a screen that reports how that strategy worked with the students. Action is rapid and often a student feels ignored because it's taken too long to decide on a strategy for a classmate. The same process is repeated in the Group Activity to work on an art project and in Individual Work where students are completing seat work.

Visit www.lpsoftware.com for more information or call 435-755-5996. $59.95 cd/guide.

HealthSmart
Just in time for World Food Day on October 16 and School Lunch Week, October 10-14, Horizon Software is offering a comprehensive nutrition program to help students attain the nutrition skills they need to fight obesity. The interactive cds provide a three-week curriculum with lesson plans, student activities and worksheets with separate programs for each grade level. "Good Food and Play Make a Balanced Day" is for ages 7-12 and "Good Food and Play, Junior" is for ages 4-7; both titles include a Spanish version. Incorporating standards from all 50 states, HealthSmart uses games, video and quizzes to learn about healthy eating choices.

Visit www.horizon-boss.com or call 800-741-7100. Teacher cd, $49/class; Student cd, $2/child; Student workbooks, $4.95.

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Linda K. Lindroth is Technology Editor and Web Coordinator for Teaching K-8. She is also a Technology Resource Teacher in a K-5 computer lab in Lexington, KY.