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.