Fight My Cause

Okay, it is crunch time. There are tools that I need in order to provide my students with the proper education. Now I am going to start fighting for these tools.

Step 1: An interactive whiteboard

Clearly, I realize my school is not going to buy me a Smartboard. My alternative? I will wait 3 weeks to see if I can get them to commit to buying a Mimio unit. Either way, I am getting it, even if I have to break out my credit card. Below is one of the articles that I will use to defend my need for this device.

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/bjet/2008/00000039/00000001/art00007

Step 2: A touch screen monitor for my visually impaired child.

I'll have more to report after Tuesday when I meet with administration.

Journal of Special Education Technology

Just yesterday, I met with my county's adaptive technology specialist. We were going rounds about getting the tools that my kids need. The specialist wasn't fighting me because she did not feel that the devices I was asking for were unneeded, but more so because her hands were tied and she knew that I would have a hard time getting the county to provide my class with these tools.

 

I have two children in particular that have been completely non-responsive to all other methods of learning. Recently, the light went on and both of these children are trying to learn. What do I have to contribute to their sudden awakening? Computers! Both of these students have suddenly gained a love of learning because I found a niche that makes it fun for them.

 

I am currently in the process of designing a distance education program that stops student regression by presenting an online learning. At present, I am trying to get a touch screen for my one child so he won't have to strain to look back and forth between the monitor, the keyboard and the mouse.

 

I stumbled upon a great journal that is specific to using technology in the education of students with exceptional needs. In the particular excerpt that I reviewed, the title says it all… The future is now. This article is one of a series that addresses adaptive needs and learning needs of students and how technology plays an integral part in their education.

 

"Understanding how children are using and learning from consumer learning technologies is critical to maximizing their potential for students with disabilities." This article is one of many that I will use to support getting the technology I need for my kids.

 

Gray, T, & Silver-Pacuilla, H (2007). The Future is Now: Application and Innovation of Technology. Journal of Special Education Technology, 22:3, Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results/external_link_maincontentframe.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.16.

Preparing Future Teachers

Over the past week, I have been extremely busy preparing for and working with future teachers. I taught two classes at the local college, teaching first semester, college of education students. I hope I was able to teach them some things. They certainly taught me a lot! We are preparing these future educators to teach students to read and how to be successful learners. They receive training on how to identify the special needs of the students and what to do to accommodate special needs. With everything they are taught (and believe me I know what a great education they are receiving, I learned from some of these same professors. Two of the professors who are teaching them are my mentors. They are both very well respected and extremely knowledgeable especially in the field of education.)

 

Still, I realized something. They need an additional class. Not necessarily a semester long course, I think it would be better to offer a series of 2-3 meetings per semester. These future teachers need to be taught the tools that they can access to make them better prepared. They need someone who has been through the program that can talk more candidly, answer their questions and demonstrate teaching techniques. Most of all they need to be shown what they have for technology.

 

In setting up for my class, I put my Livetext (electronic portfolio) up on the screen. One student greeted me with "I hope you're not going to be teaching us Livetext." She went on to tell me how they had a couple of professors who were "always Livetext this and Livetext that" and that she was "Livetexted out." By the way this same girl ended up taking notes on what I had to offer about Livetext. I am certain that they have had many opportunities to see how to upload files into their Livetext. I am sure they have been shown how to set up their FEAPS and ESOL folders and how to submit items for review within these folders. What they haven't been shown is how to create their lesson plans in templates that use the schools preferred style of lesson plan (Charlotte Danielson's Lesson Plan). They needed someone to show them how to create documents in new files, incorporate links, files, videos, websites, research articles, worksheets, etc. They needed someone to demonstrate how to create rubrics and tests directly in their lesson plan. They needed to be shown how to print, copy, save and share their work.

 

Among these things, I also taught them about resources they needed to utilize. I taught them about the Discovery Education Network (DEN) including United Streaming. I showed them the Webinars that are offered in the DEN, telling them to take advantage of them. I showed them how to embed links from this resource directly into their lesson plan. I shared my social bookmarking account and told them how to set up their own. I shared this blog site and encouraged them to check it out. Then I challenged them to set up their own. I told them about some free resources that they could use either as a teacher or for their students. I taught them money saving lessons on how to get things they need without paying for them and without waiting for the school or county to be able to get it for them.

 

I stressed to them to make their selves more marketable. I said to get at least dual certifications, one general education and one exceptional education and to do it to cover the grade levels they believe they preferred to teach. I told them to join the Council for Exceptional Children (at the national level if they could afford to do so, but at least at the local level). I urged them to make honors society and to join Kappa Delta Pi as soon as they are invited. All these things not only look good on a resume, but they are excellent resources that help the teacher continue to be the learner.

 

I pointed out how they were about to become teachers in a global society, filled with 21^st century learners and how their students could very well be smarter than them when it came to using technology. I demonstrated what the 21^st century learner looked like and gave personal examples of how they multi-task everything.

 

I closed by offering to be there for them. I know especially as a first year student, I would have appreciated having someone who had been there before me, to answer my questions and put my mind at ease. I encouraged them to email me, if they needed to and to periodically check my sites that I had shared with them. Then I invited them to come be part of my classroom. I suggested that they fulfill some of their hours in my classroom. I warned them that it would not be easy and that I would put them to work immediately, but that my class could be that deciding factor that they need.

I hope to continue to teach classes like this one to the next generations of future teachers.

 

 

 

Best Practices in Virtual Learning: Teacher View

One of my professors recently co-wrote an article about virtual school in the K-12 setting. Dr. Ferdig's article is a great help toward my goal of designing an online education program designed for students of exceptional education. It was nice to hear testimonials from the Michigan Virtual School (MVS). As reported in this article, it is difficult to find research that reports on the teachers' accounts of the research and results. I like how Dr. Ferdig and his associates focused on the importance of interaction between the educator, the designer and the students. This article quoted "The selection and coordination of pedagogy, technology, and content is a primary task for teachers in order to provide students with quality online learning opportunities" (Kurtz, Beaudoin, & Sagee, 2004a; Olson & Wisher, 2002). I appreciated the easy to read chart, identifying behavior management needs in virtual school. Behavior/classroom management when it is a virtual class? Is that really necessary? I knew it would be with my kids (special needs) but I now realize it would be needed regardless of students' ages or ability levels. At the end of the article, a term was penned that I think better describes the program that I am trying to establish… hybrid. I would like to design a program that starts as face to face, using technology and the computer based learning within the classroom but moves toward a virtual classroom and distance education program that would allow me to work with my students throughout the summer, keeping them up to date with their studies, thus eliminating or drastically reducing the regression rate among exceptional education students. Thank you, Dr. Ferdig and thanks to your colleagues for making this article available to all of us.

DiPietro, M., Ferdig, R. E., Black, E.W. & Preston, M. (2008). Best practices in teaching K-12 online: Lessons learned from Michigan Virtual School teachers. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 7(1), 10-35.

Welcome to the KDP

Tonight, I had the honor of being the guest speaker at the induction ceremony, welcoming new members to the National Honors Society of the College of Education, Kappa Delta Pi. I have decided to attach my speech as tonight's blog because I feel that it does an excellent job of explaining why I am here and what my intentions are toward my students.

Future Teachers, Professors and Colleagues,

I stand before you today, reminiscent of the day that I was seated in a similar audience. Just two short years ago, I sat where you are, waiting to become a member of Kappa Delta Pi. I have to admit, I was surprised when I got the call asking me to speak at your induction ceremony. After all, we met before, and the impression I left at our last meeting was hopefully not a good one.

I stood before many of you on a different stage for your orientation. The KDP did a presentation on the expectations of a College of Education Student and I am ashamed to admit, in the skit I played the bad example. I was scantily dressed, rude toward my classmates and disrespectful to my professor. Basically, I was everything you clearly are not. You have been invited to join this crowd today because you are the best of the best. You have proven yourself to be virtuous of the values our organization represents: service, toil, and fidelity to humanity.

Recently, I read an article in the St. Petersburg Times. I would like to take a minute to touch on two things I took away from this article. First, the title… staff writer Jeffrey Solocheck wrote "A tough title to carry: teacher". How true. People say teachers are overworked, underpaid, underappreciated and in my opinion we are often overlooked. Overlooked? Think about it. At how many awards ceremonies do you see the best lead actor thank his first grade teacher for teaching him how to read so he could go on to read and memorize his scripts? So why do we do it? Let me give you an example.

Allow me to tell you about one of my students. For the sake of her privacy, I am going to call her Abby. Abby is labeled what they call Trainable Mentally Handicapped; she also suffers a severe language impairment. Abby could barely talk. She had a voice but was incapable of enunciating, she tried to sign she knew a few letters to fingerspell, but she couldn't spell. When Abby came to me, she was in the third grade, a non reader, who did not know her alphabet without singing it. She could not even identify her numbers 1-10 if they were presented out of sequence. Abby's needs were more profound than what I could do for her in my class, but let me tell you why she made my job worthwhile…

It was the day before Thanksgiving break and we had been working together diligently since the first day of school. On this day, Abby sat down to do some practice drills with one of my assistants, like she had done every day before. This day was different.

Today, Abby got it right! She was so excited that she grabbed the paper, ripping it out of the assistants hand, ran over and stood between me and the group with whom I was working. "I did it!" she screamed. For the first time, probably ever, the child understood.

In this moment and in many moments besides this one, I did not just feel satisfied because my students were learning. I wanted to cry from excitement because I felt the joy that my student was feeling because she had learned! That is why we do it; we do it for the Abby's of this world; We do it for our kids!

The second thing I want to share with you from that article was a quote that resonates in my head. A representative of the teacher's union was critical of the quality of teachers being hired today. Without going into the specifics of what was said or why, I would like respond to the opinion stated. If that PCTA rep was here today, I would tell him "You're wrong!" I would tell him to look around him.

I would say "let me tell you what you see… You are looking at hard working, conscientious, caring teachers. We represent the level of quality by which the standards should be set. We work strenuously (hm hm toil), we provide a great service, educating the future doctors, leaders and teachers of a global society. We are steadfast to the promises we make and to our duties as educators.

As you leave here today, I want to take with you a few words to live by…First when the title teacher becomes a little tough to carry, drag it behind you in your little book cart. Next, always continue to learn.

I've heard many motivational speakers say that "When you're green you're growing and when you're ripe you're rotten." So stay green. Be a leader and set the example. And finally I want to close with a very short poem, written by the wisest man I know…my dad.

Life

by Tom Walden

Life is what you make of it,

So make of it the best.

God helped you through the worst of it.

He'll help you through the rest.

And if you're feeling down a bit

And everyone's being a pest,

Just thank the Lord you're part of it

And Laugh at them in jest.

Thank you and may you have good luck in this adventure on which you have embarked.

Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0: How it Pertains to Me

Brian Benzinger's 3 part article Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0
is broken down into three very helpful parts. Section 1 gives great insight into the tools needed to become a teacher of 21^st century learners. Section 2 provides details into Office style applications and a glimpse at how students can work collaboratively. Part 3 provides testimonials and real world accounts of social networking and teaching or learning in a Web 2.0 world.

My next step in designing a technology based program for the students of exceptional education will be to compile a list similar to Mr. Benzinger's but providing information on how these applications will be helpful to my students. To do this, I will need to try out each program, compile a list of good sites and not so good sites. Next, I will look at how these sites can be utilized for accommodation, ability to assist, remediation, or enrichment. I will be designing lessons in which students will use these tools to express what they have learned, using their own technique and in a way that lets me know they are using problem solving or higher order thinking skills. I am really anxious to get the program off the ground. I have a vision for what I want, but still lack the experience to put it all together. I see this project taking a while, I just hope I can stay current with it and with the Web 2.0.

Pending Presentations

I will be teaching two classes at the St. Petersburg College, in the College of Education. The sessions are both evening classes on April 15th & 16th. As a Star Educator, it is my duty to educate teachers and future educators on the Discovery Education Network and all that it has to offer. We will be taking an in depth look at the resources offered by Discovery. Other discussion topics will include certifications and real world testimonials. If you would like more information, please email me.