Jennful

Jennifer Fulwiler

I absolutely agree with the UDL premise that the curriculums we are often assigned are disabling. Often these curriculum are designed to address the concepts that the state determines necessary to be taught and they build no time for teachers to accurately teach by addressing the needs of every student. It is a constant race against the clock to remain paced with the curriculum. It is when the teachers formatively assess their students that the true inadequacies can be seen and because the pacing guide is ready to move on students are left with a weak foundation to build on. Another issue faced by teachers when addressing the curriculum is the detailed goals that are presented for mastery. Having such detailed goals is very detrimental and disabling because it forces the teacher to narrow the concentration of how the concept is taught forcing the students to worry more about how they exhibit mastery rather than showing they are able to master the concept in a variety of ways. If students could demonstrate mastery by achieving mastery of smaller more direct goals with fewer directives, the teacher could more accurately assess the area of difficulty for each student to help them master the summative goal. It is the constraints put on the teachers in the area of instruction that cause the disabling effect seen in classrooms every day. If the curriculum addressed the students needs rather than addressed the need to cover so much content at such a vigorous pace reteaching could be addressed to ensure a more concrete foundation for each student. More direct less detailed goals would also allow mastery to be demonstrated by each and every student at a level that addressed their area of comfort. These are two of the greatest challenges I see when analyzing the disabled curriculum. Although there are other areas of concern these two areas if addressed properly would greatly affect the effectiveness of time and instruction in the classroom.


 * Menus**
 * Appetizer:** My understanding of Universal Design is the ability for any individual regardless of limitations they may have to access what they need for daily survival. In regards to education the concept of Universal Design means that as an educator my instruction should be driven on the premise that the assumption should be made that I am addressing the needs of students with many types of disabilities. If this assumption is made then the barriers these students may face will be addressed before instruction begins. This concept is different from Differentiated Instruction which addresses the needs of students when the disability is known previous to instruction. Universal Design allows all students to address and select the modifications the fell they need to attain academic success. If applied successfully mastery should be attained by each student!


 * Entree:** I chose the article Maryland and UDL. I chose this article because I wanted to see the MSDE view on UDL as a concept in our school system. According to the article the state of Maryland seems to embrace this principle not only as an instructional tool but as a means to drive curriculum design. Addressing the area of curriculum design will help teachers implement this concept in the classrooms more easily. As a special educator I am extremely excited to hear MSDE's stance on UDL. I feel that this approach will help maximize my efforts and abilities to engage learners as a special education teacher, also this approach will help students realize that all students are different regardless of whether or not they have a disability. Students often feel that if they need to access material differentlyit means they are special ed when in reality this approach will help to create the understanding that all students regardless of abiltiy learn in different ways!


 * Dessert:** I chose to play with the strip generator located under Principle 1. Although this tool is supposed to be used as a means of Representation I would use it differently. I would use this as a tool to assess daily mastery of smaller concepts. I found this extremely helpful because for a formative assessment I often allow my students to create comic strips but many are self concious about their artistic abilities. Using strip generator would allow my students to demonstrate mastery on a formative level without the stress of feeling inadequate artistically. I think this is a great tool to be used in the classroom!


 * Reflection #4:** There are many barriers associated with traditional assessments. As a parent of a child who was diagnosed with test taking anxiety this is a battle I have fought for years. My son has always been assessed using traditional methods and has struggled to show mastery of items in this manner. One of the biggest barriers I have noticed with traditional assessment is the manner in which the assessment is presented. Students are traditionally assessed using true/false, multiple choice and matching. Also students are often presented with essay portions of assessments as well. Many students when given the opportunity are critical thinkers and being forced to choose one correct answer is difficult because critical thinkers do not often perceive information as a black and white issue. Critical thinkers often see the grey areas and like to express themselves in this manner. For a student that is uncomfortable with writing, the need to express themselves in this manner is extremely stressful. They seem to spend more time struggling with the foremat of writing and the ability to express themselves and are not able to demonstrate their mastery to their fullest potential. Allowing students to choose their own means of demostrating mastery puts the student in control of their own academic success. Doing this causes the student to have ownership in their success. This ownership creates and more condusive learning environment built on success!

The only problem I see with alternate means of assessing mastery is the time it takes to develop a grading scale for so many different assessments. In the past when I have allowed alternate means of assessment I limited the choices of assessmetns they could chose from. I love allowing students the ability to offer alternate suggestions for their own expression of mastery. I have not found too many barriers with this choice for assessment. I actually find it more enjoyable and interesting!


 * Reflection #5** I think it is moderately acceptable to allow teachers to chose to use technology in the classroom, however the problem is not that some teachers moderately incorporate technology. It seems as though some teachers refuse to use technology in the classroom at all! I was in a classroom with a teacher last year who did not even know how to use word processing programs. This to me is unacceptable. I was saddled with the task of generating all documents required for this class because of her inability to use technology. Certain technologies are necessary to ensure proper instruction in todays classroom. I think educators should have to incorporate technolgy in their classrooms on a regular basis to show they are capable. I am one of those teachers that approaches the concepts being taught and uses the best means available to deliver instruction. Sometimes my approach does not require the use of technology but I am also capable of using it when needed.

1. A digital native is someone who has been born in an era where technology has always been present. These individuals were born are raised in the digital era and speak the digital language.
 * Reading Questions**

2. A digital immigrant accent is some type of indicator that an individual is not a digital native. This indicator could be spoken language that is an incorrect digital term or preferences in learning and marterial presentation such as researching through conventional means rather than the internet for example.

3. Digital Natives do not like traditional methods of instruction for many reasons. For example, digital natives would rather learn while multi tasking and listening to music rather than receiveing material and information through traditional methods.

4. One way the Digital Immigrant can instruct digital natives more effectively is to deliver information quickly and have less step by step instruction.

5. I agree that Digital Natives like to receive information quickly from multiple sources. Although I am not a digital native I am very much like this! I feel each person knows how information is best presented to them and should be able to learn in that manner. I allow my students to choose this option for independent work! (having multiple resources at one time to complete tasks)

6. I disagree with the premise that digital immigrants should teach memorization in preparation for standardized tests. Students of today are critical thinkers and due to gaming enjoy processing and questioning. Because of this I teach my students test taking skills and answer elimination etc.....as a means to selelct the correct answer choice. My test scores prove this is a more effective method!

7. Three interesting points from the 60 Second Article
 * 1) text books from ebooks only cost $14.99
 * 2) 1.5 million IPADS are used in education today
 * 1,000 universities are using itunes to distribute content to students.

8. I found the illustration from this article confusing. The overall presentation of the material was extremely difficult to process. I found the text too small. The information was condensed and extremely cluttered and not sectioned properly. The use of light colors rather than vivid colors caused the text to run together and the reader has to really concentrate to read and process the information. This layout and presentation of the material as well as the topic which I am not completely comfortable with to begin with made it difficult to process.

9. I do not feel Gaggle.net would be beneficial for my school district. One of the biggest reasons I feel this is not a good choice for my district is that a good portion of my students do not have access to the technology needed for this to be successful. Another reason I think this would not be a good choice is that a large population of teachers within the county will be resistant to using technology to deliver material. The adverse effect is that some teachers may over use it and students who struggle with the technology may suffer if they have a teacher who over uses the technology and the student may not be able to access material or keep pace. I feel as though teachers and students need to become a little more technologiaclly savy before the county goes that route. One final thought is the extra time outside of school that teachers would need to devote to montioring this system!

1. Students ask a question once every ten hours.
 * Video Questions**

One thing teachers can use cell phones for in the classroom is to poll students and conduct experiments.

Enrage.

2. Students say technology is conveinient, a necessity, and an extension of who they are!

Skills they practice due to technology are coordination, cooperation and communication. They also stressed that technology allows them to perfect their skills because they are able to redo things over and over.

One of the most impactful comments I heard in thsi video was the student who said technology and access to technology is an extension of who they are.

3. Today we are bombarded with information.

13 stacks from the Earth to Pluto

Information fluency is the ability to access information, process fact from fiction and apply this information to everyday life.

4.The author is pondering the change needed in pedagogy for the 21st century. He sees that for the past century a teacher was presented with information form one source and taught to deconstruct this information and present it to students where now students have multiple sources of information and the approach is more about teaching them to assess fact from fiction.

5. One surprise about the video was that what students are learnign now will be obsolete by the time they graduate. That makes what they are learning virtually irrelivant.

I would like to have more information on video conferencing! Seems extremely interesting.

Education is about adapting and changing! Educators need to realize that!