Tim's+UDL+Class+Page

__**Introduction**__ My name is Tim and I have been teaching Social Studies for the past ten years. I have taught both middle and high school and currently teach all levels of US History in the 9th and 10th grades. I just achieved my National Board Certification and am looking forward to completing my Masters Degree with Gratz College in the summer. I live in Bowie with my wife and 3 kids, whose ages range from 17 to 2.

__**Reflection #1**__ I agree with the statement to a certain extent. I feel that materials have improved and given teachers, particularly in the Social Studies areas much more flexibility. Ancillary materials distributed by textbook companies have begun to breakdown certain barriers. For example, most of the textbook publishers that we deal with make available for little or no extra cost to our students an online version of the textbook (or CD-Rom E-book) with active links, an audio book on CD with chapter summaries, and music related to each unit of study. Where I feel that materials fall short is that, in general, these items are not intuitive to the individual learner. For instance, if a student begins working with materials on the American Revolution, but lacks the background knowledge to make learning meaningful, there's no interactive or creative way for the student to access that crucial background material, other than staying after school with the instructor or reading the textbook themselves. One of the ideas that I would like to explore for my project in this course would be to develop a template for an inquiry lesson in Social Studies that equipped students with an interactive tool bar to meet their individual needs. For instance, in a traditional history classroom, we use Document-Based Questions, which are essentially mini-research papers that provide students with a series of primary and secondary sources. To bring this cornerstone of Social Studies into the 21st century, I would construct a tool bar next to each document that would provide the student with a menu of options that could adapt to their individual needs to make them successful on the assignment. Icons would be provided to include links to background information (usually in the form of brief video clips), and audio and video recording of the source whenever possible (i.e. presidential speeches, etc.), and extension activities to allow more advanced learners to get the depth of knowledge that they're looking for. In addition, I would also allow for multiple options in constructing the traditional essay. Provided that the students' final product is driven by a well-developed thesis, they would have the option of writing the traditional paper or an electronic format such as PowerPoint or MovieMaker.

The most valuable piece of information I found from the videos dealt with the topic of customization in terms of the principles of UDL. This seems to coincide nicely with our county’s DI push, put does so in a way that the accommodations that you make for one student benefit everyone. So in short, UDL and DI appear to be synonymous with each other; however, it appears as if you spend the time to design and construct materials with all of the barriers in mind (i.e. UDL), the DI options become embedded in your course or curriculum automatically. So I do like the fact that a comprehensive UDL plan allows one to not have to re-invent the wheel once its implemented. In the future, I feel that we can use UDL to help students master skills such as critical reading and argument-based writing in more creative and meaningful ways.
 * __Appetizer #1: []__**

This site featured a press release from May 2011 that revealed MSDE’s plans to create a Task Force in order to explore ways to embed UDL into educational systems. While I do believe in the statement, “All students can learn,” I feel that UDL might be the first comprehensive set of principles that allows educators to live up to that statement. One of the most interesting points in the press release revealed that UDL principles are being embedded in curriculum and assessment that is related to the Common Core State Standards and Race to the Top. So as we shift to the new system, hopefully the materials are much more UDL-friendly. The Task Force also made the recommendation that institutions of higher learning build UDL into their courses. While I promote such efforts, I have found colleges and universities to be much more rigid and inflexible in terms of modifying curriculum and materials in multiple ways. Matt Bergman’s Blog/Site: Scholastic Computer Lab Favorites This site would serve as an engaging extension option for students once they have completed their research or daily assignment in the computer lab. This site offers a menu of options for students to complete and organizes those options by content area. Some o f more interesting activities specific to Social Studies were “Design a Historic House,” “Tour Ellis Island,” “Mapman Challenge,” and “Be the President.” In fact, the “Be the President” simulation might be the most enjoyable for students as they have to choose a cabinet, balance the budget, and justify their decisions to the press. Students can then print the front page of a mock newspaper that highlights their own presidential administration. The only part that I found disappointing is that most of the activities are geared for 5th graders and might appear too goofy for some of my high school students.
 * __Main Entrée # 1: Maryland and UDL__**
 * __Dessert #1__**

I feel that the greatest barrier to traditional assessments is that they do not allow for students to demonstrate what they have learned or what standards they have met in multiple formats. Assuming that traditional assessments consist of “pen-and-paper” assessments, students who prefer more artistic or technological interpretations of their learning might feel restricted by multiple-choice and essay-based assessments. If we were able to move to a more flexible format in which students could be assessed with multiple options of representation available, I would assume that the greatest challenge to that format would be the design of a rubric that would assess students in a fair and consistent manner. Standards-Based grading might be the best way around that obstacle as students would be assessed strictly on what degree they met the standard, regardless of whether their final product is an essay, PowerPoint, model, or movie. I could also see high schools move to more of an RTC-style project-based assessment in which students at the end of a marking period are provided a menu of options similar to the LEP to demonstrate mastery of one of the core standards of the course. **__WIKI—READING QUESTIONS__** **//Digital Natives//** **//60-second guide to digital classrooms//**
 * __Reflection #4—Barriers to Traditional Assessment__**
 * 1) A digital native refers to the 1st generation to have spent their entire lives surrounding by and using the tools of the digital age.
 * 2) A digital immigrant accent refers to a “foot in the past”—old habits such as turning to a print source 1st instead of an electronic source would be an example of an accent.
 * 3) Students have no patience for lectures because they are used to receiving information very fast and they would prefer to multi-task instead of completing an activity step-by-step.
 * 4) One suggestion that Prensky offers is for Immigrant Teachers to learn to communicate in the language and style of their students.
 * 5) I agree with the entry that students prefer to network simultaneously with many others; this coincides with how they communicate outside of the classroom in terms of texting, wiki-based programs, and social networking. However, I disagree with the notion that teachers prefer to provide text before pictures, sounds, color and video. More often, social studies teachers have been using short video clips to build interest in a topic before introducing a text.
 * 1) The most important take-away from the diagram I found is that in just a short period of time computers have moved from being a luxury in the classroom to a necessity.
 * 2) I was surprised to find out that over 1,000 universities nationwide have already got on board with ITunes-U to distribute content for their courses.
 * 3) Open-source software sounds like the direction our school needs to move towards primarily due to the flexibility of being able to customize a program according to your needs.

**//Cheat Sheet for Social Media//** I felt the organization of this visual aid was very effective in communicating the similarities and differences of the various Social Media that are available today. The most useful feature of the graphic is that it provides information in three basic layers depending upon your needs. The first graphic is simply a broad overview of the pros and cons of the six features social media sites. The second layer provides a more detailed synopsis of each social media site; this second layer provides a glossary of lingo associated with each site—this would be most beneficial for a digital immigrant. And finally, from a business lens, the third layer simply shows the number of users associated with each site; someone looking to advertise or network with a particular audience would find this more useful.

**//Ten Ways Schools are Using Social Media Effectively//** I do feel like our school system would benefit from Gaggle.net. Even though it has similar features to our current Blackboard program (social wall, digital download and submission of assignments), it packages the class in a more social-media friendly style that’s more familiar to our students (like Face book). One of the greatest concerns our district has with social media is security, in terms of filtering inappropriate content; according to the article, it would appear as if Gaggle.net has that function built into the program. In addition, with our district under enormous pressure to make budget cuts during the stagnant economy, the fact that assignments can be posted and submitted electronically allow for both an environmentally-friendly or “green” alternative and in the long-run could help reduce the cost of purchasing paper.

**//Reflection #5: Whether or not to incorporate modern technologies?//** At this point in time, with the trend of globalization and a worldwide job market looming over high school and college graduates, I feel that to a **//certain extent//**, teachers **//must//** incorporate modern technology into their instruction. If teachers still believe in the progressive ideal of school preparing students for real-world experiences then no medium provides students greater preparation than technology. Teachers must be trained in all sorts of technology and be given the freedom and flexibility to choose which technology to implement based on what they teach and the needs of their students, rather than to fall into the trap of a prescriptive list, which at times can be the dreadful norm of educational bureaucracy.