Best and Worst of Tech Topics

I have really enjoyed this class overall. I feel as though I learned a lot about technology, especially technology that I can use effectively in my classroom in the future. While it is difficult at the moment with the school I currently work for to incorporate many of these ideas, I appreciate that I am now more educated in them. I think that all of the topics covered in this class are vital to helping us be the 21st Century educators that are going to be teaching the most technologically advanced generation yet.

One of my favorite parts of the class was learning about new and different presentation tools rather than just sticking to the generic PowerPoint presentations it seems that everyone uses. I liked being able to develop my own presentation on one of these other tools in order to really learn how to use it and be able to incorporate it into lessons I will teach in the future. While at times I did not really enjoy completing a lot of the work that went into our online portfolios, I really did enjoy the project as a whole. I thought it was neat to be able to build our own website filled with projects we have completed and will be able to use as a valuable resource upon entering a job search in a couple of years.

After taking this class, I have been advocating at the agency I work for to purchase more technology to be used in our classrooms. I am hoping that once our available technology is improved, I will be able to not only use a lot these tools I learned about this semester in my classroom, but to help other teachers at the agency do so as well.

Personal Learning Networks

I was unable to find any personal learning networks dedicated specifically to special ed; however, I was able to locate a PLN for educators in general that had a good variety of materials, blogs, and discussions for all types of teachers. The Educators' PLN has over 12,000 members contributing to the site in a multitude of different ways. I like that there is a good variety of resources available included with this PLN. Not only is there a forum with almost 500 different discussions for teachers to communicate ideas, struggles, and advice with one another, there are also links to over 1,000 blogs written by teachers, a live chat, links to other educationally oriented websites, and helpful videos. I thought that this PLN provided a lot of good resources for all types of teachers who are either seeking assistance with issues in their classrooms or who want to provide advice to others.

Commenting on Others' Blogs

It was a weird feeling for me to comment on another person's blog...on one hand I think that it's pretty fascinating that in the span of my lifetime out culture has progressed to one where we are able to instantaneously respond to others' thoughts and feelings in a virtual way. However, on the other hand, it's still kind of weird to me that we are able to do this in an atmosphere where anything can be written, any opinion can be shared without much regulation, however beneficial or harmful it may be. I think that blogs are a great forum for sharing/discussing ideas and opinions, but it still makes me nervous to be able to do so without knowing how such comments/reactions are going to have an effect on the writer.

Portfolios as Valid Assessment Tools

I think that portfolios can be valid assessment tools because of how comprehensive they are in their nature. Portfolios are designed to showcase the expanse of someone's ability and I think that when they are done well they can do just that. Because of the variety of materials included in a portfolio, I think that they can be more valid than other assessment tools in terms of identifying how much a student has actually learned through completing the various assignments for the portfolio. If the assignments are diversified well, portfolios can be a comprehensive form of assessment while other forms (an essay, multiple choice test, etc.) gauge a student's performance in a smaller area of expertise. While I do not necessarily enjoy having to complete all of the different aspects included in a portfolio, I do think that they can be a valid form of assessment of a student's abilities when they are formed and then completed well.

21st Century Teaching...

I think that the central tenants of educating students using 21st century teaching skills are extremely valuable in theory. However, I find it hard to be able to incorporate such ideas into my classroom. Because of the population I work with and the lack of resources available to me, it is challenging to incorporate any sort of technology into our day to day classroom work. I believe that it is vitally important to encourage students to learn how to use technology more effectively and to assimilate those skills into teaching the standard curriculum; however, there is no possible way for me to do that at the school I currently work for. I do, however, feel as though I attempt to include other 21st century teaching skills by developing hands-on projects that engage the whole student, their creative abilities, and their intellect rather than only teaching through lecture and notes on the board.

Free Write

So far, I feel this class has encouraged me to develop how often I incorporate technology into my classroom as well as improved my ability to use different types of technology. While I appreciate the exposure to these new and, at times, challenging ideas, I am still unsure how much I like the idea of blogging. It remains odd to me that anybody can access what I am writing...it is hard for me to write openly and creatively when I know that it could not only be viewed by my teacher and classmates, but to anyone who would ever happen to stumble upon it. While that fact that this is even possible does amaze me, it also makes me apprehensive to write about a lot of things.

Video Lesson Experience

It was an interesting experience for me to hear myself teaching. While I enjoyed learning about video editing as part of this assignment, I feel like it's always somewhat awkward to listen and/or watch yourself doing anything. However, I think that this assignment can also work to improve my teaching skills because it allows me to evaluate how I am coming across to my students and what I can do to teach more effectively with the type of students I have in my classroom. I guess that the awkwardness of listening to myself is outweighed by the benefits I can receive from bringing a critical eye to my teaching style and abilities.

Video Lesson Plan

My plan for the video lesson is to record myself introducing the topic of how to use guide words in the dictionary as well as demonstrating an activity that uses this skill. I think this is an important lesson for young students to learn because it not only teaches them how to use a dictionary properly, but it also emphasizes spelling skills and alphabetization skills.

Legal Case Presentation

School District of Abington Twp. v. Schempp (1962) on Prezi

Legal Concerns

Because of the type of students that I work with, myself and some of my colleagues have recently been having a discussion that centers around the legality of teachers acting in self defense against an aggressive student. In working with kids who have severe emotional disturbances and mental health issues, the behaviors that manifest as a result of these issues are generally aggressive in nature. At the facility where I work, we are trained in crisis intervention that focuses on how to verbally de-escalate students and then also implement a physical restraint as a last resort if a child’s behaviors cannot be verbally de-escalated. 

What has spurred this discussion between my colleagues is the recent addition of a new student to our program who has a history of barricading adults in classrooms and being extremely physically aggressive toward them. While we have been trained to handle such situations, it is difficult to implement any sort of restraint on a large teenager with just one person, especially when that teenager is extremely aggressive. So, our question has been, is there ever a situation where a teacher is legally justified in using self defense against a student who is physically aggressive toward them? 

While I know that the stance of the agency I work for is that there never is and that we have been trained to use protective stances, I personally think that there should be situations where it is justified to defend oneself. While it may be wrong, I for one don’t think that I could just stand there and do nothing to protect myself if a fourteen year old with mood disorder and conduct disorder is punching me repeatedly while I am trapped in a room with them. So, I guess overall my concern is, where do we draw the line between protecting our students and protecting ourselves? Does this line even exist or do we, as teachers, have no right to defend ourselves against aggressive students? If this situation were to occur, how would it affect a teacher’s license? 

Presentation Tools

    While this may label me as being far out of the technological loop, I must admit that I have never used or seen another presentation tool other than PowerPoint. Thus, I was very intrigued by the in-class demonstration of various presentation tools. I was very intrigued by the varying aspects of Glogster and Prezi. While examining the different aspects that these tools allow one to use, I discovered that I like the flexibility within both of them to visually express ideas. The creativeness of Prezi was definitely a plus for me, but I also appreciated how large of a canvas you can create on Glogster to display a unified idea, but also break it down into smaller parts. Another aspect of both presentation tools that appealed to me was the ability to easily embed multiple medias into the presentation while still creating a cohesive project overall.
    In terms of teaching, I think that both of these tools could offer valuable benefits to me in a classroom setting. I feel as though PowerPoints have become standard in the presentation world and many students are used to having information presented to them in that manner. So, using a tool like Glogster or Prezi, I think, could re-engage an audience by presenting information in a different manner, especially since both have the capability to show an overall picture while still being able to access the important details. I also like the fact that presentations using both tools can be made accessible to the students so that they are able to reference them outside of the classroom as well. However, I also struggle to see how these tools are particularly beneficial to me in my current position in a setting where technology is very limited and many of my students do not have access to the internet outside of the school setting.

Journal Article Review

    In Using the Smart Board in Teaching Social Stories to Students With Autism, Joy Xin and Frank Sutman examine the benefits a growing technology that is being used to improve the social abilities of students with autism. The authors argue that Smart Boards can assist educators in creating an engaging method of helping students with autism learn how to manage themselves in specific social situations. The article analyzes how two teachers were able to use this technology to help two different students who were on varying degrees of the autistic spectrum utilize social stories to modify their behaviors.  By integrating the three primary methods of teaching social stories (reading the story, presenting the story using audio equipment, and presenting the story through a computer program or video), the Smart Board method showed a decrease in the targeted behavior (making noises when needing attention) and an increased learning of appropriate behavior (raising hand) for the boy studied. Similarly, the girl participating in the study was able to significantly improve her ability to initiate an interaction with peers and ask if she could play with her peers at recess using this method.
     Initially, I was intrigued by the findings of this article and felt that utilizing the Smart Board to help students with autism learn through the use of social stories was an innovative idea. I appreciated the ways in which the students were able to become more directly involved with the social story because of the tactile dimension to the Smart Board. I am curious as to how long-lasting the behavioral changes are in the students tested as well as whether students who are taught social stories in more traditional manners have comparable results or not. It would be interesting to both develop a more longitudinal study to the what the long-term effects of using this technology is as well as a study that compares this method and more traditional methods in order to determine if there is a significant different in results achieved in terms of behavioral modification. While this article solely examines the behavioral changes made by two children, it would also be beneficial to expand this study and see if the results are replicable to a greater number and variety of children who span the autistic spectrum. Overall I think that this novel approach to an integral aspect of teaching students with autism how to improve their social skills could have very positive benefits if the study results can be replicated and expanded.

References

Xin, J., & Sutman, F. (2011). Using the Smart board in Teaching Social Stories to Students With           Autism. Teaching Exceptional Children, 43, 18-24.

Eudcational Philosophy

    When it comes to teaching children with special needs, I believe the strongest attribute an educator can maintain and develop is their relationship with each child in the classroom. To me, the stronger and more comprehensive the relationship a teacher has with each of their students, the higher the level of academic, social, and overall success of each student can be achieved.
    As a current teacher in a behavioral special education classroom, I have come to believe that the more I know about my students the better I can relate to them. When I am able relate to them on a more concrete level, I can more easily foster a stronger sense of confidence in their abilities, better manage their behaviors, work to increase their positive, prosocial behaviors, and challenge them academically without receiving as much of a negative behavioral backlash.
    It is my belief that these ideals would hold true in other educational settings as well. I think that the better any teacher is able to connect with their students individually, the more easily they will be able to connect with their students as a cohesive unified classroom. When this is the case, the educator is more in tune with not only the collective needs of the classroom, but how the individual needs of each child fit together to create, develop, and challenge the dynamic of the classroom. To borrow a notion from Gestalt psychology, it appears in this way that the sum of the parts is always greater than the whole. However, to me, it is knowing the shape, dimension, shade, and edges of each part that make the whole successful in the end.
   It is my aim as a teacher to better the life of each child that is in my classroom, even if it is in a minute way. I know that most of the children I currently teach have histories so severe that their options for the future have already become limited because of their behavioral issues. However, I feel that if I can help each child to leave our program even just a little bit more able to control their anger or with the ability to identify their negative feelings without engaging in disruptive behaviors then I have done my job. When I can see these moments in my students, moments where things change and become better for them, I continue to have a purpose to keep teaching through even the most challenging days. This is why I teach, to see these small victories, these tiny steps of improvement, especially in this environment where so little can actually mean so much.

First Post

This is my first time using a blog... I'm interested to learn about this new type of technology and how I can incorporate it into my own classroom.