The Universal Design for Learning has become a focus for all educators in the past several years. Teachers are asked to consider their learners’ needs beyond differentiating assignments. The UDL principles are to help educators ensure their students’ diverse needs are being factored into their entire school experience. Technology plays a vital role in helping meet this difficult challenge. View the presentation to learn exactly how.
SWAY- A Presentation Web 2.0 Tool
I am always looking for a new way to create presentations for both myself and my students. Microsoft’s SWAY is an easy tool for creating and sharing presentations. This tool can be used to create interactive presentations whether it is for an educational or personal purpose. The presentations are easy to share on social media, email, or on a learning platform. Since it is a web based tool, the presentations save automatically which is terrific for students, but also is accessible from all types of devices.
Here is a sample of a presentation created for my 5th grade students. This is used as a flipped lesson. Students will interact with SWAY on Volume to learn how to calculate the volume of rectangular prisms. In this presentation, students will use a video to guide them, practice and check their answers, and then complete a check up, Microsoft Forms. The results of this assessment will help me group students and design learning activities. Volume SWAY
Classroom Blogs
As I prepped to write this blog, my plan was to find three different ways teachers used blogs. I was able to find blogs that teachers used as a form of communication to students and parents, as a learning platform, and as a reflection of the teaching profession.
Elementary School Blog
This blog, Grade 3 , Once Upon a Teaching Blog, by Katie, is a reflection of her teaching experience. While it is an older blog, I wanted to include it in my blog because this type of reflection blog is brave for a teacher in the early part of her career. Brave because she takes a look at both the positive and negatives of being a teacher. One posts, Drawing Conclusions , Katie reflects on a reading lesson that went particularly well. On another post, Discouragement and Hope, the reader can see her struggles and frustration. She is feeling overwhelmed with a change in grade levels and the implementation of Common Core. I loved how she used the blog to give herself a pep talk and to not let all of it bring her down. Katie demonstrated not losing focus on her students. This type of blog is very appealing to me. Being reflective is helpful and the manner Katie used her blog showed how it could be cathartic. It could also show other teachers that they are not alone, but to not lose focus on why we teach, the students.
Middle School Blog
The middle school blog, Middle School Math , titled Fast Times of Middle School Math by Liz communicates activities used within her classroom. She included steps taken, photos, and student work. This type of blog is an effective way to memorialize lessons so students can use them as a reference as well as share with parents their student’s classroom experience. The Probability Carnival details a very clever assessment Liz used within her classroom. Students created their own probability game and the students played them during their carnival day. Liz captured this unique experience for herself, students, and parents through her narration and photos. Another post Liz included to demonstrate student learning was Octahedron Summaries. This post shows how her students demonstrated their understanding of the entire unit from vocabulary to the application of formulas. She included her set of directions and steps provided to students. Again, this could be a tool for students, parents, and other teachers. This type of blog is also appealing. The focus was mostly to display student work on particular assignments. This has to make students feel a sense of pride in what they have accomplished as well as parents feeling connected to their child’s learning experiences.
High School
This blog, High School English , by Susan Griffin is used as a learning platform for her students. Mrs. Griffin uses the blog format to provide resources, assign work, and assess students. For example, she has assessment regarding the novel Night. Her blog gives students resources related to the Holocaust survivors as well as models for the literary analysis assignment. If a school system does not have a learning platform, a blog like Mrs. Griffin’s can be very effective. If the students have access to the technology, a blog set up such as this one would be an asset to help students meet with success. For students with executive functioning issues, this type of blog would great. To have all their materials in one place will serve them well. I am sure the high school student being as tech savvy as most are would appreciate Mrs. Griffin’s blog.
It wasn’t easy to find up to date teacher blogs. I am not sure if it is due to the advancements of social media and or system-wide learning management systems that blogs may not be as popular as they once were. Since I have a learning management system, I would not use a blog as the high school one. While I like the idea behind the a reflection blog like the elementary one, I do not think I would take the time to do so. I do not feel I would get the payoff for the effort. I do want to use the blog option on my parent website to mimic the middle school blog. I want to involve my students in writing the reflections of the activities in our classroom. I take photos already and post them to the site. Having a combination of my students and myself commenting would be very powerful.
Sources:
Fast Times of Middle School Math, fasttimesofamiddleschoolmathteacher.blogspot.com/.
Griffin, Susan. Weblog post. Mrs. Griffin’s Blog, mrsgriffinsrandomthoughts.blogspot.com/.
Once Upon A Blog, onceuponateachingblog.blogspot.com/.
Technology Blogs
Blogs are often an easy way for me to get fresh ideas as to how I may integrate technology within my classroom. Reading a blog fits perfectly with my busy lifestyle. Blogs are brief and to the point. I can learn about different tech tools to try, read about points to consider, and or learn about other classroom experiences. I follow many blogs to strengthen my ability to integrate technology to meet my students’ diverse needs. In addition, I seem to be the technology go to person within my school. I try to share what I learn and use within my classroom with other teachers interested within my building. Blogs help me, help others. Three such blogs are The Innovative Educator by Lisa Nelson, Flipped Learning Simplified with Jon Berman, and Blogging About the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom.
The Innovative Educator Blog is a blog written by Lisa Nielson, a former librarian of Harlem schools. Ms. Nielson now writes the blog to share what she views as future trends in education much of which includes technology integration. Ms.Nielsen combines resources to share within her blog. What I like most about her blogs is she includes research. Music In the Classroom examines the use of music within the classroom. She asks if it is a Tool of Engagement or a Weapon of Mass Destruction? In this blog, Ms. Nielsen combines what she learned from other resources to allow the reader to decide. Once you decide if it is for you, she walks you through the most effective way to use music. I was very interested in this blog since I not only love music, but I love to use it in my classroom. This blog helped me think about my decision and how best to use music to help not hinder my students. In another post, Augmented Reality , Nielsen peaked my interest. I have had limited experience with this tech tool and was very curious to know what she compiled about its use and effectiveness within the classroom. Again, she found the use of Augmented Reality to depend on the learning purpose. She found it to be more effective over the use of a standard textbook, but may not necessarily better than other venues. I would like to explore this further, but at this point, I am not sure it will be worth the expense. Finally, Social Media Use is a blog that addresses how schools should use social media to tell their story before someone else tells it for them. This is definitely a blog I would share with my principal and team members as it details how to use the different social media sources as your own PR department.
Flipped Learning Simplified is a site created by Jon Berman, one of the flipped learning Guru. This site is one of my go-tos. About a year ago, I completed Bergman’s training to become a certified flipped educator. His blog and podcast help me continue to grow as a develop my flip lessons for my students. In addition to helping me grow, I would share appropriate posts from his blog with my colleagues and administration. I would even share some with parents to help them understand Flipped Learning. Bergman’s blog, Teachers Matter More , is one I recommend any teacher, administrator, and parent read. In this blog, Bergman clears up the misunderstandings some have about using flipped lesson. According to Bergman, some administrators feel that since a video is disseminating the information sthat larger class sizes and less teacher are needed. He details how using flipped lessons, the teacher’s role becomes the facilitator creating a dynamic classroom. Another entry I would recommend reading is Bergman details his thoughts regarding a student centered classroom, Student Centered is only Half Right. He is a proponent of a blend between traditional and student centered classrooms. I am happy to agree. A third post I have shared with my parents as well as his video is The Flipped Class Primer for Parents. This is a terrific post to allow parents gain some insights of flipped learning and it actually allows their children’s learning needs to be met in a much more effective manner over the tradition lecture. As a teacher that uses flipped lessons, it was important for me to help parents understand what this means. Who better to help them than the GURU himself?
The last blog I wish to spotlight is Web 2.0 Classroom . This is different from the other two because it allows a variety of authors to make posts related to the use of technology in education. I like the variety of topics and perspectives presented on this site. As did the others, this site is one to empowers teachers with ideas, knowledge, and experiences. The first blog, Creating Learning Centers in a Blended Literacy Classroom, Centers, details the importance of centers to meet students’ diverse needs. In addition, the author, Shaelynn Farnsworth, gives teachers ideas as to how technology can play a role within centers with an easy to use chart. Ten Characteristics of an Authentic Classroom is a post that I enjoyed. The authors, Steven Anderson and Shaelynn Farnsworth, help the reader understand the power of an authentic classroom. By listing ten characteristics, it is easy to see why this approach to learning is so powerful. While technology was not the focus of this post, the author connects its role in achieving the goal for creating an authentic-based classroom. The last post to include is Math and Science Simulation Resources . The title is obvious. Teachers can use these resources to find one or two tools that will help them in their instruction. The two I liked best was visual fractions and NASA Simulations. As both a math and science teacher, this was a quick read that allowed me to gain some new resources to my instructional tool belt.
Blogs that detail the advances, tools, and experiences with blended learning are part of my professional development. While my county has pushed the 1:1 initiatives, the training for teachers has not followed. Blogs such as the ones included here will help me continue to grow as I create a blended learning environment for my 5th graders. They allow me to share ideas with others and my administrators too.
Sources:
Bergman, Jon. Weblog post. Flipped Learning Simplified, http://www.jonbergmann.com/flgi/.
Blogging About the Web 2.0 Classroom, blog.web20classroom.org/.
Nielsen, Lisa. Weblog post. The Innovative Educator, theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/.
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