Online learning

Here is the link to my screen cast presentation about online learning. Just copy/paste it into your browser.

http://www.screencast.com/t/ZGEwNTU2Nm

Reflection on Differentiated Instruction and Universal Design for Learning

I have recently taken a class that involved a lot about differentiated instruction (DI) and the universal design for learning (UDL). UDL involves implementing instruction that is appropriate for all and DI involves modifying instruction to adapt to specific learners (or at least that is my interpretation of it). I still have a lot to learn but I feel as though I have a pretty good understanding of it. I think that is due in part to the differentiation station that I participated in as part of this class. On this resource, we were required to post specified pieces of information to share with one another. I found this to not only be helpful, but very interesting as well. It is so great to know that there are others with the same problems as me and that there are some people with solutions or at least helpful advice. I think that in the future I will check it out from time to time to see if anyone is still posting to it and if so, help out if they need some pointers. I will also post to it if I am stumped and need some assistance.

As far as technology goes, I still have a lot to learn. However, this class has given me a lot of ideas on how to use it effectively in my classroom. I think that I basically need to find a way to regularly implement technology into my classroom. I need to figure out a specific part of my day to implement a specific piece of technology. Entering this school year, that is what I am going to try to do. Once I get comfortable with one type of technology, then I will try to add on to that.

Reflection on my game plan

Over the past several weeks, I have been creating a GAME plan for technology usage in my classroom. First, I wanted to create a slide show presentation to show my students how to act appropriately in a restaurant. Since they have significant special needs and difficulties in social situations, I felt like this would be a great way to teach them without taking them to an actual restaurant. However, I have not created this presentation yet. I suppose that since I know that I will not see my students for months, I am in no hurry to complete it. I still plan on working on it and completing it by the start of the year as I know that it will be a good benefit to my students. I guess that is what I have learned over the past several weeks is the importance of technology and the benefits it can have on my students.

I have also had a plan of communicating with parents via my school website. Again, due to my summer break, this has not been started either. I understand the importance of communicating with parents and I feel that using my website is the best way for me to do it. My parents will be able to see any assignments, view presentations, and view special events happening in school. I plan to get it organized this summer and set a certain day and time every two weeks to update it. Hopefully with all of the technology I plan on using, my students and their parents will get the most out of their school experiences.

Students' Game Plans

I think that teaching students to use technology is key. They need to learn these skills in order to survive in today's technology-rich society. Lately I have been creating and following a GAME plan to better my own technology skills. So why not involve my students in a similar process? I think that allowing my students to develop their own plans will help them to initiate their own learning. By doing this, students are able to enhance skills that they need to. If I were to pick a certain skill to work with students in class and a few students already have it mastered, then it is pretty much pointless.

More on the Plan

As of now, I think I am going to keep my game plan the same. I still want to work on my communication with parents via my website. I also still want to produce a power-point presentation to show my students how to act in a restaurant. The thing is, I haven't really gotten started on these things. I just finished with school this week and I just needed to catch my breath before I jumped into another project. I didn't want to do it unless I could do it right. I think that I would really need to get involved with my plan before I could decide if I needed to change it. Hopefully I will have more to evaluate on my plan the next time I post about it.

My GAME Plan, continued

For my game plan, I want to keep better contact with parents via my school website and I want to produce a powerpoint presentation explaining how to act in a restaurant. Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot to report. With it being the end of the year, it just hasn't been a priority at the moment. I would like to do more on this when my schedule is less complex. Over the summer I plan to collect pictures or video for my powerpoint presentation and set a schedule for working on my website (such as 1:30-2:30 on Thursdays). I think that if I do this, I will be more successful at completing my plan.

GAME Plan...part 3

The goals I set for implementing my game plan were to create a slide show presentation to show proper behavior in a restaurant and communicate with parents using my teacher website. I haven't truly started to implement my plan. The intention is there, but it just hasn't happened given the fact that school ends next week and I can't even imagine everything that needs to be done. I have all of the resources and know-how to accomplish these things...I am just lacking in time. I think that in order to accomplish the goal of updating my website, I need to assign myself a time (plan period on Thursday, for example) to sit down and work on my website. Just like I make sure I complete my assignments for class, I need to make sure I complete my assignments for my website. Anyone else having similar issues?

More About My Game Plan

In an earlier post, I mentioned my game plan and what exactly I wanted to accomplish. I want to create a power point presentation to illustrate clearly how to behave properly in a restaurant. To do this I would need to gather information and images or video clips to use in the power point. Then I would need to put it into the power point, add a lot of "bells and whistles" to make it more interesting and show it to my students hoping to get positive results.

The other part of my plan is to communicate more with my students and parents using my teacher website. I already have an account with my school, I just need to customize it and update it frequently. I have also thought about creating a survey to send to my parents asking them what they would want to see on my web page. When I know what they want, I will have a better idea of what to include on it. After it is created, I will send out a paper that includes instructions on how to access the site. I know I am probably forgetting something... please help if any of you can think of it!

Implementing NETS-T Standards: My Game Plan

As a teacher it is important to implement new technologies into teaching. Fortunately, there are standards to follow in order to do this as effectively as possible. Personally, I would like to implement some more technology into my classroom. To do that, I would like to follow a couple of the standards from the International Society for Technology in Education. The two standards I would like follow are: 2A- which involves using digital tools to promote creativity and learning in relevant learning experiences; and 3B- which involves collaborating with students, parents, and community members by using digital tools for student success.

To implement standard 2A, my plan is to create a slide show about proper ways to act in a restaurant. When teaching students with special needs (which is what I do) it is important to incorporate social learning experiences as much as possible. To get their interest, I will incorporate actual photos and/or video clips of myself or of another staff member to actively demonstrate how to act in a restaurant. In order to monitor my progress, I will set a timeline and try to stick to it. To evaluate my progress, I will keep track of what I do and see if I adhere to the timeline. Then I will see how my students respond to it and evaluate my success on that.

To implement standard 3B- I will try to keep up with my teacher website, which I am not very good at. I would like to update or add things to my website at least twice a month and include interesting things that my parents might get involved in. To monitor this, I will simply set two days each month in which I will make changes to my website and I will indicate if I accomplished it or not.

Reflection of New Literacies and the Internet

As I reflect upon the most recent course I took as part of my master's program curriculum, there are several things that come to mind. I learned a lot of things about literacy and its relationship to the internet. I think the most shocking revelation I had was that so much about using the internet is related to new literacies. I never realized that simple tasks such as suing a search engine and evaluating the effectiveness of websites would help students develop their literacy skills, but after taking this class... I am totally convinced.

I think that after this course, I will rely more on using technology to teach some literacy skills rather than attempting to teach them with more "old school methods. I would like to take my students to the computer lab more and try to put these methods to practice.

One thing I would definitely like to do in the near future is try to use at least one part of the unit plan I created for this class. To accomplish this, I will need to look at the pacing guides and the needs of my students to see which section of the plan to use and when to do it. Then I will have to make sure all of the resources are organized and ready. Last I will schedule a few time slots in the computer lab and teach the lesson. My hope is that my students' literacy skills will improve if I can accomplish this.