Here I am at take 2 of my reflection for this week since it somehow got deleted when I tried to post it the first time…
Anyway. I felt very discouraged at the beginning of this week. I felt like my hands were tied as a special education teacher and that I was stuck in the 20th century. After some reflection, i realized that helping my students gain social skills and adaptive skills will help them access the world and they can learn more with the world. Jule and Larissa both had encouraging words to offer on my blog. They both saw the challenges that I have, thought that collaboration was a good idea, and gave hope that as more teachers adapt a 21st century learning environment that it will be easier to support my students in that as well. Larissa posted a video about how math used to be taught and how it is taught now to promote conceptual understanding with the students. I also found this from when I was a student in contrast to now as a teacher. I recently did a curriculum review in my district, so I shared with Larissa how sometimes parents want to just show their kids the algorithm before they are ready. These parents, too, grew up in a different time with a different education. Sara talked about how when she was in school that they only had a computer lab and now students had many devices. I asked Sara how she thinks we should incorporate their personal technology in the classroom without it becoming too much of a distraction. She had been wondering this as well and one thing limiting her is that she does not want students to use up their data for school based usage. Matthew’s school uses Apple TV’s for teachers in each classroom. I was wondering how he uses his technology for the students to learn WITH rather than learn FROM. Thomas and Brown share many different examples in their book of people learning with technology. As a teacher, how do we facilitate that and not just use technology as a different mode of 20th century teaching. Jule blogged about how she wants her classroom to be a place that is innovative and promotes creativity. She also wants to utilize technology within the curriculum because the students are so connected to it. She did mention that she is low on resources. I shared a link with Jule with three suggestions for fostering creativity in the classroom: give open ended projects, give time for them to research and record ideas about their interests, and promote creative team building.
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AuthorAndrea Colvin Archives
April 2017
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