Happy Monday!
I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. I know for myself, I used those two days to enjoy the quiet and refocus my attention to our second grade classroom. I currently have twenty-one students in our second grade class and with the amount of attention and support that each individual student needs, it feels like we have fifty students in there (please know that I am not complain, I am just trying to have everyone understand the dynamic of the classroom we have this year).
Our second grade class is the inclusion classroom, we officially have three students with IEPs and it looks like we will have two other students that will be going through the testing process, during our school year.
The use of technology for these students is extremely important, in the next several blog posts, I would like to provide my feedback and review about several websites based around technology.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Hello friends,
Education is an extremely self-reflective profession and in order to become the best possible teacher, we must be able to look at ourselves and be critical about our teaching strategies, delivery of lesson plans, and professionalism. We must be responsible for our own learning and our own teaching. We must be able to admit when we make mistakes. We must be comfortable enough to say that lesson plans failed. We must understand why other lesson plans succeeded and how we can ensure students' success in the future.
In terms of Universal Design for Learning, I have my strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, I believe that with constant contact with UDL and its principles it will prepare me for future students and future years. I would like to believe that with a combination of my own excitement for learning and education, as well as, providing multiple means of engagement, that would be my strongest area of UDL.
In contrast, I believe my least strongest area of UDL is action & expression. I know that as we move through our school year, we are required to cover specific curriculum in a certain period of time and I am guilty of not varying the methods of responses. It is something that I try to change on a week to week and even day to day basis.
Education is an extremely self-reflective profession and in order to become the best possible teacher, we must be able to look at ourselves and be critical about our teaching strategies, delivery of lesson plans, and professionalism. We must be responsible for our own learning and our own teaching. We must be able to admit when we make mistakes. We must be comfortable enough to say that lesson plans failed. We must understand why other lesson plans succeeded and how we can ensure students' success in the future.
In terms of Universal Design for Learning, I have my strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, I believe that with constant contact with UDL and its principles it will prepare me for future students and future years. I would like to believe that with a combination of my own excitement for learning and education, as well as, providing multiple means of engagement, that would be my strongest area of UDL.
In contrast, I believe my least strongest area of UDL is action & expression. I know that as we move through our school year, we are required to cover specific curriculum in a certain period of time and I am guilty of not varying the methods of responses. It is something that I try to change on a week to week and even day to day basis.
Monday, September 12, 2016
Good Evening,
The three strategic networks and connections to instruction that I reviewed on http://www.cast.org/udl/index.html were engagement, representation, and action & expression. The engagement part of universal design for learning is considered the why of learning. Next, is representation, which is the what of learning. Finally, is action & expression, which is the how of learning. The engagement piece of UDL, I believe to be the most important component, since students must be motivated and interested in what they are learning about to focus. Educators must understand what may motivate one student may not motivate the next. Furthermore, what motivates students from one year to the next may differ as well. Secondly, the representation aspect of UDL focuses on the different ways in which teachers are presenting the material. Finally, is the idea of action & expression of UDL. While students are in your classroom, students must be given opportunities to express their learning in a variety of different ways.
As a teacher in the inclusion classroom, I am constantly making sure to provide skills and strategies that engage all of the different learners in our classroom. Furthermore, I try to think about the student who is not identified with a learning disability or gifted, and think about the students that fall in between and how we can motivate, excite, and engage those students about learning. We also need to realize that by incorporating the different ideas of UDL, this will also help to minimize undesirable classroom behaviors and increase academic time.
The three strategic networks and connections to instruction that I reviewed on http://www.cast.org/udl/index.html were engagement, representation, and action & expression. The engagement part of universal design for learning is considered the why of learning. Next, is representation, which is the what of learning. Finally, is action & expression, which is the how of learning. The engagement piece of UDL, I believe to be the most important component, since students must be motivated and interested in what they are learning about to focus. Educators must understand what may motivate one student may not motivate the next. Furthermore, what motivates students from one year to the next may differ as well. Secondly, the representation aspect of UDL focuses on the different ways in which teachers are presenting the material. Finally, is the idea of action & expression of UDL. While students are in your classroom, students must be given opportunities to express their learning in a variety of different ways.
As a teacher in the inclusion classroom, I am constantly making sure to provide skills and strategies that engage all of the different learners in our classroom. Furthermore, I try to think about the student who is not identified with a learning disability or gifted, and think about the students that fall in between and how we can motivate, excite, and engage those students about learning. We also need to realize that by incorporating the different ideas of UDL, this will also help to minimize undesirable classroom behaviors and increase academic time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)