Today is the final day and we are sharing presentations on case studies - the 'AT match' and how that would look in our particular school sites. It is amazing how we can all be in the same class and yet we are all take something different away from this course. We can relate to most of the in-class discussions and quickly identify students in our rooms that we know would be suitable candidates for assitive technology.
This class moved so quickly it seems like not enough time to reflect on the information and how it works for every one of us differently. The people in the class that are already in the inclusive education field are better able to apply the specific course materials to their students and that makes it all seem real. For those of us in classroom positions with little to no access to technology it seems surreal to recognize the resources we have available to assist our students in becomming indepenent learners, its blows my mind. I guess it is becacuse I want to help all my students and can definately see the beneifts of technology, for most of my students.
Technology is like our best kept secret, only children with identified learning diabailities are entitled to the benefits of technology, not even close to being fair and equitble. In the classroom children are tehnelogical savy and yet they are not educated on the lingo, buzz words or terminology for web-sites and internet exploration. Since we know that children today have a higher exposure to automation it should be something we teach and utilize in school, helping them become provicient at the skills that they are using every single day.
With the new video games, X Boxes, Play Station 3s, cell phones, MP3 players, Ipods, etc. The children today are surrounded by technology that could be avantageous in their learning, ands yet we do not ake advantage of these skills. In most schools technology of the afore mentioned in banned, therefore the students are sneaking it in the schools and using them for negative activitieis instead of the positive learning that could blossom from the proper knowledge of technology.
What if we download read alouds or free verse poetry on the MP3 players, and encourage a new genre for their listening pleasure. We could have comprehension activities and language building skills as well, this would allow students to be cool and share information like they share their video games and other tips on their communication sites.
I guess what I am seeing is that the students today want immeidate gratification becuase of the availability of all the convenience in their lives and yet we are still working 'old school' educatiton, not keeping up with the times, therefore making it more and more difficult to educate our students. It seems apparent that behavior has escalated because students are having more and more trouble attending to task, and uderstanding the complexities in the classroom.
Anyway I guess you can tell that I am a advocator for moving into the 21st century for the sake of our students today and allowing them to understand and capitalize on their global connections, this generation could be so much more united and affect change sin the worl if they were better able to understand the value of the technology that is readily available for their learning needs.
Monday, June 21, 2010
June 12, on my way to a memorial service
I almost forgot to e-journal last week because I was not in class, so I decided to respond about the learning that is taking place in and out of the AT course. I do find it difficult to grasp the availability of technology that can help students become more independent because of my lack of experience in this field. Although I was not in class I did text and stay connected to my partners to make sure that I was in the loop as we are winding down and completing our final presentations for the last day of class June 19th 2010.
It is very interesting that research shows, intervention at the early elementary level is crucial for the academic success of the student, so why it is that the resources and funding are primarily in junior and senior high school. As time passes in this master’s course I am being exposed to so many new strategies and approaches to support students with learning difficulties; we do have the technology, no pun intended. It seems that we need more education and training on what is available and how it can be incorporated in our day-to-day classroom activities, inclusion.
It is difficult to promote the use of technology when it is not readily available in all the classrooms and more importantly the teachers are not familiar with the support available for their students. It is not always about having a diagnosis, sometimes the technology is beneficial to empower and motivate students that have difficulty with the writing process.
If I had three wishes my first wish would be to give every student a computer and have them take advantage of their technology skills and produce work that can be submitted digitally, become environmentally friendlier as well as to maximize the assessment and tracking.
Teachers seemed to be bogged down with all the paperwork, marking and tracking information that the technology would minimize significantly allowing more time to support the students with their learning, which should be our focus. The profession has become so bogged down with data that we have lost sight of our role as the teacher.
It is very interesting that research shows, intervention at the early elementary level is crucial for the academic success of the student, so why it is that the resources and funding are primarily in junior and senior high school. As time passes in this master’s course I am being exposed to so many new strategies and approaches to support students with learning difficulties; we do have the technology, no pun intended. It seems that we need more education and training on what is available and how it can be incorporated in our day-to-day classroom activities, inclusion.
It is difficult to promote the use of technology when it is not readily available in all the classrooms and more importantly the teachers are not familiar with the support available for their students. It is not always about having a diagnosis, sometimes the technology is beneficial to empower and motivate students that have difficulty with the writing process.
If I had three wishes my first wish would be to give every student a computer and have them take advantage of their technology skills and produce work that can be submitted digitally, become environmentally friendlier as well as to maximize the assessment and tracking.
Teachers seemed to be bogged down with all the paperwork, marking and tracking information that the technology would minimize significantly allowing more time to support the students with their learning, which should be our focus. The profession has become so bogged down with data that we have lost sight of our role as the teacher.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
June 5th 2010, Job Fair, I GOT A JOB.....
Well I must admit that I was only present for the morning and we spent that time presenting our Student Profiles and the solution we created on Kesi. It is interesting because of all the bells and whistles, reality is that there are some key advantages to this software and its ability to help students become independent learners.
It seems more and more prevalent that this software would be an asset in the elementary school setting and more students should be introduced to this software to eliminate their anxiety around reading and writing, or the lack thereof. It would appear that the biggest pressure on students in the classroom setting is to be able to read and write using the workshop models that have been established in principle by the school board.
This set the expectation for all students to be active participants in this process, whether they have the skill sets or not. There seems to be several areas that we no longer assess and I was reminded of this during the Bridges conference. Dr. Erickson made a valid point about listening comprehension and the fact that we focus so much on reading and writing that we neglect the listening component. Sometimes this is one of the reasons that the child is having difficulty with sppech the reading and writing process and struggles with the task. Listening is a big part of the understanding and comprehension process, yet we do not assess the level of listening ability for our student population before we decide how to set up the task for success. Students that can not understand the instruction piece or decode the task will become frustrated and disengaged with the learning.
The software that we are presently learning about excites me because I realize that so many of our students could benefit from all the features of this software regardless of their learning styles. Inclusion to me means every student has the benefit of the learning and yet we only offer products to students that have been identified and due to the process it takes extended periods of time to have students assessed and recommended for support, when we should be able to provide support to all our students and vary the software based on student need, not the other way around.
This is a passion of mine to provide all students the opportunity to be exposed to all the services that are available o support learning, there should not be any and, ifs or buts, we have the services and should make them available to our clientele. This would not be as costly as the program planning team, educational psychologists, speech and language specialists; the board owns the rights to most of the software that could be downloaded on the computers in the classroom, computer labs and any where else that a student could have access to this software. Some of the comic makers, and movie makers are free and this would enable students to present their work in graphic novels and pictorials with the aid of software that supports their learning.
I like to share information and believe that every students deserves the best opportunities to achieve academic success and enhance their learning, we do have the software and technology available to do that and now we need to assess the most cost effectve way to make that happen in every classroom.
It seems more and more prevalent that this software would be an asset in the elementary school setting and more students should be introduced to this software to eliminate their anxiety around reading and writing, or the lack thereof. It would appear that the biggest pressure on students in the classroom setting is to be able to read and write using the workshop models that have been established in principle by the school board.
This set the expectation for all students to be active participants in this process, whether they have the skill sets or not. There seems to be several areas that we no longer assess and I was reminded of this during the Bridges conference. Dr. Erickson made a valid point about listening comprehension and the fact that we focus so much on reading and writing that we neglect the listening component. Sometimes this is one of the reasons that the child is having difficulty with sppech the reading and writing process and struggles with the task. Listening is a big part of the understanding and comprehension process, yet we do not assess the level of listening ability for our student population before we decide how to set up the task for success. Students that can not understand the instruction piece or decode the task will become frustrated and disengaged with the learning.
The software that we are presently learning about excites me because I realize that so many of our students could benefit from all the features of this software regardless of their learning styles. Inclusion to me means every student has the benefit of the learning and yet we only offer products to students that have been identified and due to the process it takes extended periods of time to have students assessed and recommended for support, when we should be able to provide support to all our students and vary the software based on student need, not the other way around.
This is a passion of mine to provide all students the opportunity to be exposed to all the services that are available o support learning, there should not be any and, ifs or buts, we have the services and should make them available to our clientele. This would not be as costly as the program planning team, educational psychologists, speech and language specialists; the board owns the rights to most of the software that could be downloaded on the computers in the classroom, computer labs and any where else that a student could have access to this software. Some of the comic makers, and movie makers are free and this would enable students to present their work in graphic novels and pictorials with the aid of software that supports their learning.
I like to share information and believe that every students deserves the best opportunities to achieve academic success and enhance their learning, we do have the software and technology available to do that and now we need to assess the most cost effectve way to make that happen in every classroom.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Saturday May 29th 2010
Wow, it is amazing how fast this week went by before I realized that I did not post to my blog after last weeks class, brain overload. I must say that the time was well spent designing and planning a student profile and preparing a presentation on how best to service this student. It seems surreal sometimes that we do indeed have the ways and means to support all children within the school system yet we tend to only service the 'worst' case. It does not make sense to me, why not prepare and plan for all our students needs, and then our classroom would be more efficient and effective because out students would be engaged in their own learning.
I know I am idealistic but it seem an end to a means. We know that our classroom management is the key to academic success yet there are no outcomes that speak to behavior. It is the lack of student engagement and the disruption to the classroom that is effecting student learning and yet we do not have a plan that would address this ongoing dilemma; student behavior.
Sometimes it seems that the behavior is a direct result of not knowing the material, the inability to tend to the task or the lack of skill sets that would allow the student t complete the task. Anyway you look at it we have a big problem with no immediate solution in the horizon.
Case in point, a principal at an inner city school, lost his way and assaulted a student, leaving the community and the principal in a very difficult situation. The principal was immediately removed from the site and the media has deemed that teaching is such a difficult task, because of the lack of discipline or consequences for students. They know there is nothing we can do to change their behavior or engage them in student learning. Well it was society and the pressure to give students less responsibility for their own decisions that now we have generated a society of students that are expecting that we owe them a living and thy do not have to be appreciative or responsible, that is our job. As educators we have a job to create and develop independent learners, how can we do this if we do have the necessary support and guidelines in place to allow us to do our jobs.
It surprises me the difficulty that some children are experiencing in attending to task and yet we have no solutions readily available to support the classroom teachers, resource is given to the worst case, who decides the worst case, we should be providing support to all our students, in the classroom with the right solutions for each child. I now know the dilemma we are facing; resources and money. Unfortunately as more and more students are entering the school system without the required skill sets and home support and we are expected to educate them at the cost of the other students.
We always talk about the individual students and the importance of creating that identity and yet when we plan our lessons or write the curriculum we do not take into consideration the individual at all. It would seem that if we could plan for the students and their individual needs then we would assist all student in their learning and ultimately create the independent learner.
I know I am idealistic but it seem an end to a means. We know that our classroom management is the key to academic success yet there are no outcomes that speak to behavior. It is the lack of student engagement and the disruption to the classroom that is effecting student learning and yet we do not have a plan that would address this ongoing dilemma; student behavior.
Sometimes it seems that the behavior is a direct result of not knowing the material, the inability to tend to the task or the lack of skill sets that would allow the student t complete the task. Anyway you look at it we have a big problem with no immediate solution in the horizon.
Case in point, a principal at an inner city school, lost his way and assaulted a student, leaving the community and the principal in a very difficult situation. The principal was immediately removed from the site and the media has deemed that teaching is such a difficult task, because of the lack of discipline or consequences for students. They know there is nothing we can do to change their behavior or engage them in student learning. Well it was society and the pressure to give students less responsibility for their own decisions that now we have generated a society of students that are expecting that we owe them a living and thy do not have to be appreciative or responsible, that is our job. As educators we have a job to create and develop independent learners, how can we do this if we do have the necessary support and guidelines in place to allow us to do our jobs.
It surprises me the difficulty that some children are experiencing in attending to task and yet we have no solutions readily available to support the classroom teachers, resource is given to the worst case, who decides the worst case, we should be providing support to all our students, in the classroom with the right solutions for each child. I now know the dilemma we are facing; resources and money. Unfortunately as more and more students are entering the school system without the required skill sets and home support and we are expected to educate them at the cost of the other students.
We always talk about the individual students and the importance of creating that identity and yet when we plan our lessons or write the curriculum we do not take into consideration the individual at all. It would seem that if we could plan for the students and their individual needs then we would assist all student in their learning and ultimately create the independent learner.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Had a little break before I started again
I did see that Dragon works with Read Out Loud, and it appears that the improvements are more user friendly and easier for the students to utilize for reading, writing, tests, spreadsheets, a comprehensive software package, that does come with portable readers/writers.
While they were showing the exhibitors I was listening and moving around trying to get a little work done and the one that I did pay attention to is the Kesi 12 new version and the changes that have been made to make this software even more accessible. I have been thinking about my own site and what we have available to our students, very little technology. I know we have classroom suites and probably Kesi, have not seen it, and a few other book share software. It made me question does the needs of the school determine what technology is available? Most of the students at my site have autism, and Down syndrome and I thought about their abilities to progress into junior high and how that technology could support their learning.
Monique and her two teachers had a presentation that is on li jsut ne in a blog and is using road signs to highlight and focus on the process of improving a child's ability through technology. They talked about the realities, costs, bumps in the road and the curves, which seem to be heir solution. The presentation was called Taking the Plunge, teacher interventions, learning with our students and how to motivate people in junior high to be on side with technology. this presentation was full of information and she offered the site for a step by step for parents and their children. They work in the Ottawa area and have certainly made some great strides toward AT in the past couple of years. She also works with OCRI - Ottawa Council of Research Innovation, which hope one day to be a world wide resource for assistive technology and what is available in the marketplace to service our student population. Remembering that these students will grow into adults and require on going services and support one they leave the school setting.
Good questions came after this presentation about affordability and is there funding or financial support for parents that are struggling to support their children. They talked about freeware and non for profit organizations that provide technology as well as the government (income tax) in particular that could offer deductions for special circumstances or assistive technology.
I found this presentation to be full of good information just overload, so much in a short period of time but I know that I can use the web site as a reference and see this information on the blog as well.
Finally I watched Karen Erickson, well she is a dynamo and talked about Literacy or lack thereof and I was glued to the screen.
She is working with pilot projects and test schools to ascertain the requirements to have all children fundamental readers, with
listening comprenhsion and fluency skills, I was impressed to hear her passion and how committed she was to making sure that graduation does not come before the skills set required in life, being literate.
While they were showing the exhibitors I was listening and moving around trying to get a little work done and the one that I did pay attention to is the Kesi 12 new version and the changes that have been made to make this software even more accessible. I have been thinking about my own site and what we have available to our students, very little technology. I know we have classroom suites and probably Kesi, have not seen it, and a few other book share software. It made me question does the needs of the school determine what technology is available? Most of the students at my site have autism, and Down syndrome and I thought about their abilities to progress into junior high and how that technology could support their learning.
Monique and her two teachers had a presentation that is on li jsut ne in a blog and is using road signs to highlight and focus on the process of improving a child's ability through technology. They talked about the realities, costs, bumps in the road and the curves, which seem to be heir solution. The presentation was called Taking the Plunge, teacher interventions, learning with our students and how to motivate people in junior high to be on side with technology. this presentation was full of information and she offered the site for a step by step for parents and their children. They work in the Ottawa area and have certainly made some great strides toward AT in the past couple of years. She also works with OCRI - Ottawa Council of Research Innovation, which hope one day to be a world wide resource for assistive technology and what is available in the marketplace to service our student population. Remembering that these students will grow into adults and require on going services and support one they leave the school setting.
Good questions came after this presentation about affordability and is there funding or financial support for parents that are struggling to support their children. They talked about freeware and non for profit organizations that provide technology as well as the government (income tax) in particular that could offer deductions for special circumstances or assistive technology.
I found this presentation to be full of good information just overload, so much in a short period of time but I know that I can use the web site as a reference and see this information on the blog as well.
Finally I watched Karen Erickson, well she is a dynamo and talked about Literacy or lack thereof and I was glued to the screen.
She is working with pilot projects and test schools to ascertain the requirements to have all children fundamental readers, with
listening comprenhsion and fluency skills, I was impressed to hear her passion and how committed she was to making sure that graduation does not come before the skills set required in life, being literate.
Saturday Bridges to Learning Conference 2010
Well to start off I was on line all day, fortunately able to watch all the sessions except 'Action Research', not sure how I missed that I did not even see it on the time table. It looked like a few presenters changed at the last minute. It is amazing to see the amount of information that we need to know about supporting our students. Congrats to you Barb Welsford, your presentation was wonderful and you looked great. The most impressive part of your presentation was the student successes, that must be a wonderful accomplishment to see the fruits of your efforts. Once again you reinforced the importance of the team all being on the same page and that training is a key component to the success of the client.
I also recognized that your daughter Lindsay is working and supporting students and it was nice to put a face to a name, and to note that she was a bit pregnant in the testimonial. Before I became a teacher I was an entrepreneur and I know how important the testimonial can be toward future success. It appears that if you are aware of what is available to support your particular students then you need to find a resolution, whatever that may take. I sense that sometimes this can have a rocky beginning, but the success can be measured by creating the independent learner, and that helps solidify the importance of inclusion.
I will say that the exhibitors certainly had valuable information to share with the participants of this conference and I am sure that it was awesome to be able to see what is up and coming in the AT software and hardware industry. It is an industry all on its own, that certainly could benefit more students than the ones that are already identified and assist them in achieving success as they are faced with more and more challenges in school.
I did pick up that training the team is a crucial part of the overall success and how difficult that can be sometimes when all participants are struggling with the frustration of the lack of resources and support for their child. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all this knowledge and yet I can see the benefits and success from the children that are properly supported. For me I believe that all children deserve the right to become independent learners and did not realize the magnitude of that statement, yet you have shown through your commitment to the AT in the South Shore that it is possible. I know that we are blessed to have an instructor that can talk the talk and walk the walk, that is the best wisdom you can share, your experience, thank you.
It is also important to recognize that most technology is attainable and affordable we just need to find the right solution and people to help us motivate the team and implement the process. It seemed that most of the presenters talked about motivation, knowledge and support in order to find a workable solution for all parties concerned. Then you can look at the growth and development of the students on an ongoing basis to continually assess the needs and make sure that the solution can and will grow with the development of the child.
When I was started watching Kevin Johnson he was talking about Daisy files, that did not make a lot of sense to me until I saw him demonstrate Read Out Loud. He helped me realize that there is a lo classrroms t of software available tha Kevein t can be easily accessed through the internet and most of the hand held devices available are capable. His presentation reminded me of what we have been learning about Kesi, yet he said the training for his product would take about 30 minutes, and I know that for people that are not used to using this technology, it would take longer than that. None the less it is amazing to see the tolls that are available to students that will allow they to be independent learners, I could easily see a need for these products in all our classrooms to ensure that every student is being properly supported.
Literacy is my passion and I was on side with Dr Erickson when she was talking about the literacy scores and the problem with listening, reading and fluency in literacy and how we seem to overlook the basis skill and look toward graduation and forget that if a grade twelve students does not have functional literacy skills that the certificate of graduation can be meaningless.
I know I jumped from one thing to another I just wanted to add that piece because Kevin Johnston did talk about listening comprehension which is something we test for in our, its more reading and writing comprehension, synthesizing and inferencing not listening.
I also recognized that your daughter Lindsay is working and supporting students and it was nice to put a face to a name, and to note that she was a bit pregnant in the testimonial. Before I became a teacher I was an entrepreneur and I know how important the testimonial can be toward future success. It appears that if you are aware of what is available to support your particular students then you need to find a resolution, whatever that may take. I sense that sometimes this can have a rocky beginning, but the success can be measured by creating the independent learner, and that helps solidify the importance of inclusion.
I will say that the exhibitors certainly had valuable information to share with the participants of this conference and I am sure that it was awesome to be able to see what is up and coming in the AT software and hardware industry. It is an industry all on its own, that certainly could benefit more students than the ones that are already identified and assist them in achieving success as they are faced with more and more challenges in school.
I did pick up that training the team is a crucial part of the overall success and how difficult that can be sometimes when all participants are struggling with the frustration of the lack of resources and support for their child. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all this knowledge and yet I can see the benefits and success from the children that are properly supported. For me I believe that all children deserve the right to become independent learners and did not realize the magnitude of that statement, yet you have shown through your commitment to the AT in the South Shore that it is possible. I know that we are blessed to have an instructor that can talk the talk and walk the walk, that is the best wisdom you can share, your experience, thank you.
It is also important to recognize that most technology is attainable and affordable we just need to find the right solution and people to help us motivate the team and implement the process. It seemed that most of the presenters talked about motivation, knowledge and support in order to find a workable solution for all parties concerned. Then you can look at the growth and development of the students on an ongoing basis to continually assess the needs and make sure that the solution can and will grow with the development of the child.
When I was started watching Kevin Johnson he was talking about Daisy files, that did not make a lot of sense to me until I saw him demonstrate Read Out Loud. He helped me realize that there is a lo classrroms t of software available tha Kevein t can be easily accessed through the internet and most of the hand held devices available are capable. His presentation reminded me of what we have been learning about Kesi, yet he said the training for his product would take about 30 minutes, and I know that for people that are not used to using this technology, it would take longer than that. None the less it is amazing to see the tolls that are available to students that will allow they to be independent learners, I could easily see a need for these products in all our classrooms to ensure that every student is being properly supported.
Literacy is my passion and I was on side with Dr Erickson when she was talking about the literacy scores and the problem with listening, reading and fluency in literacy and how we seem to overlook the basis skill and look toward graduation and forget that if a grade twelve students does not have functional literacy skills that the certificate of graduation can be meaningless.
I know I jumped from one thing to another I just wanted to add that piece because Kevin Johnston did talk about listening comprehension which is something we test for in our, its more reading and writing comprehension, synthesizing and inferencing not listening.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Mothers Day
I decided to change Mother's Day until the end of the month because two of my three children are out of the country. So to all you Mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day, and to the mothers to be this is a practice run, and for the new grandmother congratulations.
I must say that the space was certainly large and a perfect fit for a class that requires movement, technology and air conditioning. I must say the time in class moves so quickly that it is hard to reflect on the class until the next day. I certainly feel that there is a lot of information and I really want to get my biggest bang for my buck, no pun intended. I know the value in being able to support all students to become independent learners and this assistive technology course certainly has the potential to give me the knowledge and awareness that I need to become an informed educator. I am scared that the information is coming so fast that I might miss something and then I get to a point that my brain can not focus on anything specifically, just the moment.
It is wonderful to have an instructor that walks the walks, talks the talk, and can access the technology and give examples, but more importantly can support her students with experience and prior knowledge. I do not want to miss one minute of the instruction and yet it seems to be coming so fast that I do not feel I have the time to amply process the material.
As I was walking to my car yesterday I was talking to one of my colleagues and we were discussing how nice it would be for every student to have access to technology and provide individual support for specific students. It would allow for better observation and assessment, it would take the stress from the scribing, or spelling and it would allow our children to use their imagination and work with what they know. Not to mention we would not be pressured into specific outcome deadlines we would be expected to ensure success in student learning, by keeping all students engaged in the learning process. What a change this would make in the classroom environment. We would not over stimulate some of our children or disengage other students because we can not support their specific needs in the time allotted so we tend to try and overcompensate for our lack of resources and support which only makes matters more frustrating.
I know that inclusion means we take care of all our student population not just the ones with the greatest needs, that is not our decision to make, we should have the resources and ability to support our school population, whatever that looks like.
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