Something-Insightful [Tech Style]

I Actually Did It!!

2010-04-16T15:24:00.000-04:00

I decided to cross post from my personal blog to this one, kinda tying the two together. Read on and I'm sure you'll understand why.

When I started this process over 3 years ago there was a big part of me that never saw myself actually finishing. I remember sitting there with a stack of GRE words in my lap night after night thinking, well I’ll just keep at this but I won’t get into the program. And then I did, I got in.

And then I started my first class. I’ll never forget that day, September 24, 2007, because we were in Washington DC where A. was receiving an award. But all I could think about was my class starts today! And I poured everything I had into it. It was HARD and time consuming but I loved it. And I kept thinking, well this is great but how long will I be able to keep this up? Surely I’ll never actually finish. And that was a little scary to think about considering I’ve never quit anything in my life.

But I just kept on trucking… through a struggle with infertility, then getting pregnant and working late at night until I was practically passed out in front of my computer. Then there was the summer before Andrew was born where I did nothing but tutor and study, tutor and study, sometimes up to 14 hours a day with my big swollen feet propped up on pillows and a certain person in my giant belly kicking my books off my lap. Then through having a child and reading chapters in textbooks while I pumped or nursing while I typed. He was 5 weeks old when that particular course started. I don’t even remember what it was called much less what I learned in that one.

Then I went back to working full time, doing after school tutoring and singing in the church choir. Oh there was dance in there too (something that finally had to give). I started getting up early and going into work by 7:30 so I could work for 25 minutes in the morning. Then I’d stay an extra 15 minutes in the afternoon which gave me 30 minutes to work if I had all my other stuff in order. I have become exceptionally good at squeezing every second out of a break and reading textbooks at stoplights (don’t worry Oprah, I’ve stopped).

I’ve helped raise a family (and received a lot of help too) while having a husband who travels a large percentage of each month. I have had to step away from synchronous sessions to go assure my toddler that yes Elmo, AND Mickey Mouse, AND Blankie are all safely in bed with him. I have been asked dozens and dozens of times, “what time did you come to bed last night?” with a tone that suggests I might have lost my mind to stay up past midnight working on an assignment.

I trucked on through classes I loved and a class or two I hated. I have relished the insight, the ideas, the knowledge (as cheesy as that sounds) that I have gained from every single class I have taken.

I did not ever think this day would come but tonight, I submitted my final assignment. I have completed my 12th and final course to complete a Masters of Education Degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Educational Technology. I have received a perfect score in 11 out of 12 classes and a 98% in the other course (yes, that pisses me off tremendously but hey, I had a 5 week old!) In two weeks I get to go back to Gainesville and walk across the stage one more time, one last time. And then this chapter of my life closes.

I’m finished!

What’s next?

Q & A

2010-03-30T13:32:00.000-04:00

Some of the feedback from a classmate caused me to reflect and further explain some key points that I had originally made in this journal. I am going to post the questions and responses below.

I found several interesting findings in your report. I was struck by the differences in the results for the first essay and thereafter. You explain that the first essay is 5-6 sentences, and the rest were 5 paragraphs. It is not clear that the directions were different; what accounts for the very poor essay scores on the first assignment? If the assignments ARE different, why did you include it with the others?

The first essay is a baseline. The kids come back after summer and are told to write as much as they can about something they did over the summer. It's purely a baseline. Then after several months of instruction they were given directions and explicit instruction on writing a 5 paragraph essay. One thing I definitely need to add to my inquiry is to say that MANY if not MOST are still not 5 paragraphs but they are drastic improvements from the first essay and I think that is to be expected since they would have at that point received several months of teaching. I included the assignments that I did because that was what I had to work with. I wanted to do a comparison of data and ideally I'd have time to do another essay but it can take several weeks and I've got other curriculum I need to teach before I can do another essay.

Also, did your first group have 10 returning students, too? The students that I have known who flunked a course the first time were able to frequently get an A the second time because it just took them hearing and doing it twice to finally do the expected work and get it. Maybe that also contributed to your improvements in 2010?

I always have about 20 kids and always about half are returning but NOT because they failed. Please don't take this the wrong way, but I know I get confused when I read everyone's inquiry about their context so I'm just saying this to remind you that I work in an all special ed school. We are ungraded. In my department the kids usually stay for 2 years-- It's kind of like Intermediate 1 and Intermediate 2. Now if a child stays for a 3rd year then we may consider that being held back but that's only happened once and it wasn't for either group of children in the inquiry. Since there are always about the same number returning I don't think it played a roll in the data differences. I'd have to look back and check I want to say that last year's group had 11 returning from the year before and 24 total so about the same ratio. I thought I'd mentioned this in part 1 but I can't remember now. I'll go back and check.

Finally, did you really mean that you "wrote large portions of their speeches for them", and was that factored into the final essay assessment score? With all due respect, if this is true, how can your comparisons be valid since you are grading yourself in the first group, but not in the second group?

Ah yes, this. I know. It's hard to explain and I need to word it better. Again, they are special ed so I did allow students to dictate the entire thing in some cases. I guide them all a little differently depending on their needs but in the end the guidance is usually the same from year to year. So for example, in the first group I may get a speech that is 5-10 lines written on a paper and not a lot of details. So I sit down with them one on one and I start with what they have and then I ask, "so tell me more about ___" and I make them elaborate. If they are lost for a word I might give them 4 choices or refer them to several tools I have provided for them. Is this me doing it for them or is this them telling me what to write? It's a fine line that becomes easily blurred. All I know (and what I tried to report but I see I didn't do a very good job) is that this year, when I got the essays/speeches there was much less of me helping them fill in the gaps. They took the effort to improve their own language, include research and details.

So much I have forgotten to say

2010-03-09T20:38:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't mean to ignore my blog here but so many things have happened, not the least of which me being sick... but I'll get back to that.

I've been analyzing my data for my inquiry assignment and I figured I'd make it easier on myself and give myself a stopping point so I could evaluate what I had. So I took a little blogging break.

But I've been keeping some notes on things I wanted to mention. The first and most exciting thing is that one of my students won first place in the speech contest! He was up against, get this, 3 former first place winners! And he beat them all! I could not be more thrilled. He had an amazing speech about what he'd do if he were president-- he earned my vote! I'm thinking of trying to find a way to send the finalist speeches to Mr. Obama himself!

I am trying to reflect on what made J's speech so awesome. He definitely had the drive to win. He was a finalist last year but didn't place so I know he really wanted it. He also is very into politics so this was a great topic for him. But if I could really point out one thing that made this one different from the last was the passion he showed. If you were wondering by the way, he was the one who, after watching the video clips from The West Wing, told me that he felt like he got it. So lots of things combined to help make that an incredible essay and speech but I'd like to attribute at least a small amount of that success to the SMART Board.

Another thing that happened was that speeches ended and we went back to regular instruction. Phew! I love speeches and all but I do think it gets to be a bit much after a while. I started on Adjectives which is always a review for everyone because lets face it, by the time you get to the 4th grade curriculum you've already had adjectives for the last few years. So how could I make it different? Well of course with the SB! There was this one activity I found that was kind of a cross between a cloze procedure and a mad libs. It was this story about a haunted house (they didn't seem to mind it was out of season) and they had to fill in the blanks with words that meant "scary". So I pulled up thesaurus.com and showed them how to search for words which they thought was insanely cool (they seem to have forgotten that I showed them this at the beginning of the year). Then we filled in the blanks of their story. They came out incredibly well and the kids were once again very enthusiastic about participating.

I did notice that we are back to our old behavior problems with regard to the board. The first problem came with writing words in the blanks. It is just not easy for them to write. Some of them don't press hard enough, some put their hand down on the board and that messes up their writing and some write so poorly that the kids can't read it, I can't read it and the board can't interpret it to turn it into print. So I decided after about 15 minutes of letting them write that I would instead have them pick a word from the thesaurus page and I'd write it, turn it to print and then let them drag it into the blank that they wanted and that went much more smoothly.

So finally, we get back to this week. Well I have not been to work the last 2 days because I'm sick. Unfortunately for my students that means no SMART Board for them. You see, there are not many of us at work who are comfortable with the board and the people who graciously filled in for me in my absence were definitely not going to do anything using the board so my poor kiddos had to work in the textbooks which I know they hated and almost made me show up sick just to keep them from that. But I guess they will also appreciate the board that much more when I return. We need to solve this problem either by me training my potential subs on how to use the board or me providing alternative lessons that are more fun that the textbook. Or hopefully I can just not be sick anymore and then it won't be a problem :) So there you have it! Now you're all caught up!

Fourth Participation Log

2010-03-02T14:29:00.003-05:00

Lesson: Introduction to using adjectives to improve writing. Adjectives.notebook

First Count: 8/10

Second Count: 10/10

Third Count: 9/10 (Same student as one before)

Notes: This is my least engaged lesson so far. Could the effect of the board be wearing off? I am not ready to say that just yet. It has been an odd couple of days. The students are still enthusiastic about it but are also more misbehaved. The first student was messing with his pencils and the second student was not engaged because he was distracted by the first student.

Interview

2010-02-25T13:45:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, I interviewed one of my students. The student, M, is 11 years old. She has been attending my school for the last 2 years. She was very enthusiastic about talking to me. I selected her because she is very honest and somewhat opinionated. I felt she would tell me the truth and not just what I wanted to hear. She's also quite able to express herself despite having trouble using correct grammar. The questions I asked are in bold. Her answers are given verbatim. A few times, I clarified her answers. These clarifications are found in brackets.

Tell me your thoughts about the SB?

I like the SB because you can look at anything you want and the class can see everything and it’s so much better than my teacher bringing the computer around and showing everyone.

How has it helped your learning?

Now I’ve learned so much in Social Studies the first time we used it. We looked up Indian, I mean Native American stuff and we have been learning a lot and there’s actually a lot of people who have been learning so many things that I can’t imagine.

Has it helped in any other subjects besides Social Studies?

You can learn and have fun on the SB at the same time by playing the treasure game my teacher pulled up from the internet. It’s fun and you’re learning at the same time.

So you think it’s helped you learn grammar?

Yeah. It’s better because it describes more things than the textbooks. It uses words that we understand and we get better thoughts of things rather than just having a short sentence. The book goes too fast. There’s not enough examples to get it.

Oh and there was that game we played. The one from funbrain…

You mean Mad Libs?

YEAH! That’s the one. See that was really good because it used all these nouns and stuff and adjectives and the other ones. It gave us all these good words to put in sentences and we didn’t have to spell it or anything, just touch the word. Even though sometimes it was hard to touch it when it was bouncing all over the screen but that made it fun too.

I’m glad you enjoyed that game.

Um, let’s see… We could also take SRC tests when we all read a book together we can take the test together. And Google earth was the best. We can see things like the Eiffel tower and see where our friends live and you can put the address down and see the place. Remember how on the Grandparents breakfast day they [the parents and grandparents] all wanted to see the board. My two grandmas were so excited and they asked what it was and they said “we didn’t have that when we were little”. One of my grandmas said “man that would have helped us when I was little”. She was very excited to see the differences between when she was little and now how there are tvs and computers and smarboards in the classrooms.

Your mom got to see the board too, did she have anything to say about it?

Your parents get real excited when you come home and you say Mom look what I learned on the SB today and parents are happy that the board helps you so much and you look up things and get more information and put it up on the SB so you get more time to see everything.

I think that’s it, no wait, remember in social studies. You can look stuff up during social studies when you have a question and you can find the information right there.

What do you mean by that?

In the textbooks, you know how the sentences [paragraphs] are really short? Well on the Internet it’s more like a paragraph [whole web page] and that’s so much better than one little sentence. It helps you understand it.

You can go up and get a pen and you can write things and you can write it in cursive or however you want. It’s not boring like just sitting there listening cause you get to do stuff out of your seat.

How do you think the SB helped your writing?

It helped us by showing the class and how it was a big picture and seeing it clearly and seeing it better.

Can you explain that a little more?

You know, how you can show us everything, like, just put all the sentences up so we can see what it’s supposed to be like and if we get stuck we can look at that and it helps.

I’m going to list some things that we used the board for in writing class. I want you to tell me your thoughts about each thing. If you think it wasn’t helpful, it’s okay to tell me that, too.

Doing research?
That was the most fun things because you can just imagine so many things that you can look up on the computer and you can see so many things. The White House was pretty cool. I didn’t know that it had 135 rooms. It’s way easier to find stuff on the internet than in books because you don’t even know if the stuff you want to know is in that book and maybe the library doesn’t even have the book you need but the internet does.

So the SmartBoard helps with Internet searching? But can’t you just do that on a regular computer?

Yeah but it’s fun to see it all together and like, when you showed us the good websites and not the bad ones to use it was easier to do it myself.

Scholastic website?
That was also a fun thing to do. Half of the things I looked up there I didn’t know.

Personal research?
I didn’t know that people recycled 50% of the cans. I found this good website.

How did that help your writing?

I think it made my speech better to have more information in it and stuff.

Organizing paragraphs?
People can see what you’re talking about instead of just reading it and when you underline it, it’s better because you can see where the teacher was reading.

So underlining things helped?

Yeah and the colors too. Oh and saving stuff. That was the best part about the Smart Board that we got to study the same things for a couple weeks but we can still save it and go over it again if people forgot about it. And there was that one time I was absent and you printed what I missed so I didn’t get behind and all that.

YouTube Videos?

We got to watch the old cartoons [School House Rock] you learn stuff that you didn’t know and now you know it. It’s in your brain and when your teacher asks you the question it pops up in your mind and you already know it.

Do you think you could have gotten that from a book?

No. A book may give you a sentence and it would be good words but it wouldn’t give you the right words that you would need. Like a book would tell you a horse is a mammal that can run really fast but you need more to understand it. So by looking it up using the SB, people can learn more stuff and know how it helps so many people rather than just one person and it gives you information the book doesn’t.

Anything else you want to add?

You can put up a white blank board and you can write down the words that we’re having trouble on and you help us with it instead of having a regular white board. You can erase it better, there’s no marks on the board like pens do. You don’t have to clean it every single day.

What things could I do to make the board better?

Nothing that you can explain better. Nothing. If you explained it wrong someone would raise their hand and you can explain it better. We use it perfect. We use it for what we need it for. For everything! For speeches we looked up so many things on the SB. It’s fun how you use it. Not the other teachers but how you use it. You look up things and think “oh my class would love this one and you see how we love it just by our faces and you pick things how they look fun and it’s just exciting how we look up things that are fun and we’re learning.”

Thanks for talking with me.

Changing Practices

2010-02-18T20:45:00.000-05:00

I'm reviewing some notes for my class which is what this whole blog is for... I had written down a question that I was supposed to ask myself.

"How am I changing my practices with this technology?"

Well I've been thinking about this a lot. Because it's a multi-layered answer. Obviously the SmartBoard changes how I teach dramatically. From a physical standpoint, most of my regular white board is covered with the SmartBoard so I no longer teach using a regular white board. Beyond that basic change, I have changed how I teach lessons. Part of this change comes from how I prepare. After teaching the same thing for now 6 years, I don't need to put much direction in my lesson plans. "pg 16 verbs" would suffice (We mark benchmarks differently for anyone who reads this and wonders why my plans don't include benchmark notations). But now it takes a lot more than that. While the written plan might say "verbs.notebook lesson" instead, I also have to make sure that lesson exists and if it doesn't or I don't like the pre-made ones, I have to make it myself. And that takes more time and effort. At the same time, this time and effort is worth it because I know I'll be able to use it again and again. I feel like I'm dedicating more time to planning and preparing and that extra time reflects well in my presentation.

Another way the SB has changed my practice is by allowing me to integrate web based materials. In the past I had a couple of lessons where I would pull up a web page and then have the students gather around a computer 3-4 at a time. This severely limited my use of the internet and the valuable resources available there. Now I think nothing of pulling up a website and letting the kids go to town exploring and learning.

My classes are now more interactive. I used to spend 10-15 minutes at the beginning of class introducing the concept and reviewing the previous lessons. Then I would put the students in pairs and have them answer questions from the textbook. I knew that this was not the best approach. The kids liked my "lectures" (at least to a point) and I did my best to make them entertaining and memorable. But they were purely auditory and that in and of itself made the lessons less adapted to visual students. Now it's completely different. We've used the textbooks maybe 3 times since the board arrived last October and we used the books WITH the board, not instead of. The students work together using the board. My class is more unruly. They are more talkative and out of their seats. They communicate with each other. They think more. They reason more. They explore. We have broken out of the Catholic School mold of children sitting row by row with their hands folded neatly on their desks and I love it! I am happier with how I teach. I feel more effective as a teacher. I feel like no matter how boring my topic is (and let's face it, most people don't LOVE grammar) my kids will leave class with a smile because they got to answer their questions by dragging something with their finger or clicking on the right box and making it change colors or some other more enjoyable task than sitting and writing with pencil and paper.

And it's not just language arts that receives this benefit. I can show them everything. There hasn't been a time yet where I wanted to show the kids something that I couldn't find available on the Internet. In social studies, we still use textbooks but the kids have developed a sense that the book doesn't have everything in it. Last week we were studying the early Floridians. We were making a chart of the different tribes and one of the questions was about whether the tribes were mound builders or not. Well the book didn't say and that led me to think the answer was no. That answer wasn't good enough for my students who immediately directed me to Google, where they typed in their search terms and discovered that the book had not in fact included the information that the tribe were actually mound builders after all. I get the feeling every day that I use the board that the possibilities are endless. The learning is deeper and more lasting.

I can't really say enough good things about my SB. At one point this year I was getting very frustrated with school and working and being away from my toddler and it was hard and then this board arrived and it changed everything. Has the board changed my practices? It's changed my life :)

Thoughts

2010-02-16T19:43:00.001-05:00

I sat down and talked to my kids about the board again today. The results are in the posting below.

I've been digesting the things they said to me. Nothing they said was all that surprising. In fact most of it I'd already heard more informally. I could tell that a few of them were trying very hard to give thoughtful answers and those were the ones I appreciated the most.

One thing I hadn't really counted on was their inability to really put to words how the SB had helped them with their writing. In some respects, this doesn't make a huge difference for my project. They like the board and they perceive it to be helpful. Their writing scores and consistent class engagement provides support for the board but I do wish they had been able to give me some substantial feed back on why they felt the board was helpful. Maybe it's because we haven't done a board lesson for a few days but I had really hoped they could say something like, "I have a better understanding of how to structure my paragraphs." Ha even as I write that I realize it's not something any of my kids would have ever said. I guess what I have to keep in mind is that, even if they can't express the benefits, I am still seeing benefits. The focus group information was interesting but not as helpful as I had hoped it would be.

Focus Group #2

2010-02-16T16:15:00.001-05:00

What are some of your feelings about the SB now that we’ve been using it for a few months?

It’s awesome
We’re lucky to have this advanced technology.
Sometimes the internet doesn’t work and that’s really annoying.
Google Earth is the best. It really helps us learn geography.
It can help us understand more about what we learn.
It can help us learn.
We can use it like a real computer.
Instead of taking turns looking up stuff on regular computers, we can do it all together.
The internet is a powerful resource and tool to gather information and that’s why it helps us.
It does more than I thought it would do.
I like being able to touch it and being able to draw and erase with my hand.

What are some of your favorite activities that we have done so far?

Google Earth
Scholastic
Watching You Tube videos
Treasure Hunt (game)
Yeah, Treasure Hunt is the best! Can we play it now?
I like doing the Internet
I like the White House pictures (website)

How has the Smart Board helped you write your speech?

It helped us write better because we could see examples of how to write and also how to speak. The You Tube clips were awesome.
It’s great to pull up information and share it with the whole class cause then we could see how to do stuff.
It lets you go back to old stuff and make sure you’ve got everything.
It changed my life!
It makes stuff fun and not boring.
We learned about how to use Wikipedia the right way to do research.
We watched about vetoes. I didn’t know what a veto is but now I get it. So now if I’m president I will know what to do.

If you could change anything about the board, what would you change?

I’d make it cover the room and all the walls.
I would change the color—add more color markers.
I wish we could all use the board at the same time instead of only one at a time.

Well Here's Something

2010-02-11T14:37:00.000-05:00

I was concerned I wouldn't have anything to use the SB for while my kids are rehearsing their speeches in class but I was wrong! Maybe this is a little bit of a stretch but hey, I think it's worth something...

So as we started going through the speeches, I found that some kids are just struggling to get through reading theirs. We can't really work on much expression until they have the words down (and yes, you'd be surprised how hard it is to read your own work when it's spelled properly). So then there's a second group of kids. They can read their speeches just fine and now we have to work on presenting them not just reading off a sheet of paper. Well it's hard to teach kids how to show passion in their voices and it's plain to me that there really is passion in a great deal of the writing.

We were just about through the whole class worth of speeches when suddenly I had a brain storm. I thought well, it's hard to describe passion so why not show it?

I thought I may run into some issues showing an Obama speech to my students. I don't want to get in a political debate with them (or their parents!) but I did want them to see the president giving a speech with every ounce of his being. So, second best option-- The West Wing! Thankfully there are hundreds of clips from this amazing show available for viewing on You Tube and since I didn't think it would be necessary or appropriate to show them a whole episode, I just pulled up a few 2-3 minute clips. They watched in pure silence as the actors demonstrated exactly what I was talking about. One student turned to me when the second clip was over and said, "Mrs. B! I think I get it!"

Could I have possibly shown all the students these clips using one regular computer? Sure, but it would have taken the entire class period. I have found yet another wonderful use for this incredible board!!

Done! (Sort of)

2010-02-08T16:36:00.000-05:00

I haven’t been writing in my journal as much as I would like because although I’m using the Smart Board in other classes, I’m trying to keep my focus on my inquiry project which deals with writing. Last week was a really hectic week. It was Catholic Schools Week which means that nothing goes according to a normal schedule and most classes are interrupted for one reason or another. I spent the week’s language classes taking kids individually and going over their speech with them and then typing it for them. Yes, I know they should probably type it themselves but I don’t have a month to get this done and I am much faster. Plus, they type for homework 2 times a week so they are decent enough. So there wasn’t much Smart Boarding going on in language. I bet there are ways I could have integrated it but to be honest with myself I was just stressed to get this done. Sometimes I feel a little TOO much pressure to use the board. This is pressure I put entirely on myself because it is certainly not coming from my boss. It does come from students at times though. They get disappointed when I tell them I don’t have a SB lesson for them. I think that speaks highly of the board itself. I would have loved to let kids explore with it while I was helping kids get finished up with speeches but unfortunately I only have the one computer to connect it with. So anyway, that’s why I haven’t written more. Over the next few weeks we’ll be practicing and that won’t require using the board much either. Maybe I’ll take a side journey into my use of the board in other subject areas.

Fourth Participation Log

2010-02-05T15:05:00.002-05:00

Lesson: Compare and Contrast presidents.notebook file. (For background and understanding regarding speeches)
First Count: 11/11

Second Count: 9/9 (Students left for speech)

Third Count: 8/9
Notes: The students were really enthusiastic about this lesson. For the first count I wasn’t sure if everyone was paying attention but when I called on the student in question, he was ready with the correct answer so I am counting it as all being engaged. Towards the end of class they started getting antsy but it was almost lunch time so that is to be expected.

Time Crunch

2010-02-02T15:29:00.000-05:00

We’ve been in a rush to get the speeches done so we can start practicing them. I like to have the students practice for at least 2 weeks before giving their speech before the judges. I bet this seems like a really long time to an ordinary classroom teacher who would probably send his or her students home and tell them to practice it there. My kids need to feel comfortable in the environment where they will perform so we practice a LOT. It’s also neat because the repetition helps the other kids learn the facts of all the speeches. If they only heard it once or twice they would not process the information but after hearing each other’s speeches several times they start to learn new things. I guess there is not really a whole lot about Smart Boards in this posting but I guess what I’m trying to explain is why we’re not using it as much for writing these days.

Here’s what I’ve learned from this speech process:

The Smart board helps kids understand—
Paragraph structuring
Outlines
Search techniques
Editing

I don’t even have to compare one year to the other to see that these speeches are the best written I have ever seen. I’ll freely admit that there were times in the past where I had to essentially write the whole thing for students but this year EVERY single student had something written down, even if it wasn’t a complete essay it was far more than just a start. I have many of the same kids I had last year but I also have new kids. I have some very talented writers but I also have kids who struggle severely. The only change has been the Smart Board so I have to conclude that these positive changes can be attributed to this new technology. I can’t wait to crunch the numbers.

Feedback

2010-01-29T13:38:00.002-05:00

I got to “meet” with my classmates last night. I put meet in quotes because it was an online meeting in real time using a program called elluminate. It allows for voice discussion and text chat. There is also a board where things can be posted. I’ve only used it 3 times now but it’s very enjoyable and makes me feel like I’m in school again—oh wait, I AM in school :)

Anyway, I got a suggestion to discuss how my observation with my principal went. Well that was about 6 weeks ago but I do remember it pretty well. Here’s my take on my observation a little bit after the fact… (The participation log from the Observation is still available from my post back in November)

Observation

Today my principal came in to observe my class. This is something she does twice a year formally and at random times more informally. I’ve never been bothered by observations. I’ve always gotten good reviews and fair assessments. I was a little nervous though because I did a Smart Board lesson for my observation and this was the first time my boss has seen the board in action. I wanted to make sure she felt like she was getting her money’s worth. The lesson went really well. I did a combination of lessons I found on http://exchange.smarttech.com/ . The lessons were on verb tenses. I know from past years that it would have been a very dry lesson but they were extremely well engaged. I used this opportunity to do one of my logs of student engagement since this is already something my boss does during observations. All students were engaged!! I think that is a first! Usually there is always one student who is off in lala land that I don’t notice quickly enough to bring their attention back to the lesson but this time they were all there. My boss also noted that one of the students that she has never seen contribute to class was contributing and that is a very big deal! It’s true, this one student never used to raise his hand for anything. He would answer reluctantly if I called on him but he was itching to demonstrate something, anything on the board so his hand was up constantly. Overall my boss loved the lesson and the kids behaved well for the most part except a few were a little over zealous and wanted to show off what they could do. I’d rather over enthusiasm than the opposite. I wanted to mention that this behavior was not at all unusual and I don’t think it reflects on having the principal in the room. Some kids are always a little off the wall and that’s part of the reason why they’re at my school. They may have been slightly better behaved than normal but not drastically so. I think she got a fair and accurate picture of life in my classroom. Overall, it was a great observation

Ooooh This is Cool Too!

2010-01-25T14:33:00.000-05:00

Well one thing I have a really hard time getting my kids to do is editing. They are stubborn and sometimes simply downright unwilling to look at their work after they are supposedly done. I was thinking about how modeling worked for Internet searches and how I’d used the Smart Board to show kids how to edit late last year. I had a student type his speech and then I brought it up on the screen so everyone could watch us edit the paper together. I think maybe there was something freeing about seeing that this student, who is a top performer, made mistakes that needed correcting. I think too often my students, even with their disabilities, strive for impossible perfection. They tend to think if they forget one capital letter then the whole paper is a failure. They watched as we quickly and easily edited the mistakes in the paper and how we rearranged sentences to create a better flow. The best thing I got out of this lesson was the following comment: Me: “Austin are you ready to type your speech?”
Austin: “No, Mrs. B, I haven’t done my proofreading yet!”

Maybe the concept of editing isn’t so scary anymore.

Writing: Day 2

2010-01-19T15:54:00.000-05:00

Writing is going much better than expected. It was nice to simply pull up the file I saved yesterday so I didn’t have to redo the lesson. My kids need constant reminders of what they have learned and visually, since the pages from yesterday are the same as today they form a familiarity with the concepts. Of course once they got started, many realized they still needed more information. This is where this whole Smart Board/Writing process got increasingly interesting.

I need to start by explaining the old process of doing research—step one: go to the library and get a book. Step two—flip rapidly through the pages of the book. Step three—determine that there is nothing useful in the book. Step four—try the Internet instead. Step five—open Internet Explorer. Step six—ask for help because you have no idea what to do.

Well that’s not what happened this time. Kids would ask me if they could look up information on the Internet and after I granted the permission they would proceed to open the Internet browser and do their search. Sure, I had to spell some words for them but after that I didn’t hear from them. I always keep a close eye on kids using the Internet and I hate to use the word astonishing again but that’s how I felt because I saw them systematically evaluating the web pages and finding what we agreed were terrific resources. Now part of this I can attribute to a generational difference. Granted it’s only been 6 years since I started here but each year brings me a more tech savvy group than the last. I don’t think that one can attribute their searching success entirely to their previous exposure to the Internet. No, I believe that after watching me demonstrate search techniques on the SB and doing searches in a guided group fashion, they have picked up on the intricacies of performing a quality web search. At this point, I don’t think about it that much. I search and scan and kind of know what I’m looking for but that’s a hard concept to teach. Instead of teaching it directly, I taught my students how to do an effective search just through modeling. Who knew it could be that easy? Well I was impressed with the things they found. These will be the best researched speeches we have done yet!

Starting to Write

2010-01-18T13:27:00.000-05:00

Writing is a daunting task for my kids. Well in fairness, it’s a struggle for a lot of kids, even “neurotypical” students. (This is the word I’ve just been taught to use to refer to “normal” kids.) So I had them compete some worksheets that I made that were intended to get their ideas flowing and to provide a place for them to write notes or facts that they had learned from our previous web exploration of the presidency.

Now I’ve done speeches for 5 previous years and we do at least 2 additional full essays each year so I’ve done the “get started writing” day dozens of times. I was shocked at how well it went. Now I realize that writing stuff on an electronic board may not seem all that different than providing a typed outline or writing directly on a white board. I can’t fully explain the difference or why it’s so much better. Maybe the kids instinctively pay more attention to something that has the tech appeal. But I also think that being able to go back and forth between “boards” without erasing lets me provide more information because I know I’m not going to just erase it in a minute or two.
So what I did was create 5 boxes representing the 5 paragraphs. At first I just made the boxes and I put the topic sentence in each box for them. I told them they could either copy my sentence or put it in their own words. I see this more as modeling technique than simply giving away answers. Anyway, after I wrote down the outline, I selected the bottom 4 paragraph boxes and shifted them down giving myself space to make more notes about the first paragraph. I noticed that this helped the kids see the structure of an essay. I often have problems with kids who try to write down all the main ideas first and then realize they don’t have space to write the details. They get frustrated with erasing. I think by seeing the writing space on the board it helped them better understand the scaffold of the entire essay. Whatever the cause or reason, I did not have a single student make more than a basic structuring error and that is astonishing.

I kept the notes displayed by opening Smart Notebook twice and putting one page up on one sides and the other page up on the other. There may be an easier way to display to “boards” at one time but this worked for us.

Back on Track

2010-01-14T15:46:00.000-05:00

Well after yesterday’s fiasco, the Internet is up and running again. The kids did some exploration of the White House website. We also talked about Air Force One. Their enthusiasm was pretty evident through the lesson although there wasn’t as much interaction as they would have liked. There’s not much to do TO the White House website, it’s mostly reading but they did seem to like the pictures. We got into a good discussion about the secret service. One student had this realization of what having secret service protection meant and says, “You mean there are people who would die for you just because you’re president?” I thought this was quite insightful. It led us down a path I hadn’t intended but thankfully, with the functioning internet and the SB, I was able to give the kids the info they were looking for on the fly. Overall, today’s lesson turned out pretty well.

Crisis

2010-01-13T14:31:00.000-05:00

After some preparation, I decided we would do a very streamlined, mini webquest using the Smart Board. I wanted the kids to find interesting facts about the White House and I felt the SB would be a great way to go about doing it. I found this neat tool on Scholastic http://www.scholastic.com/kids/president/ called “If You Were President”. We got through the first part of the lesson using the Scholastic site and then we were moving on to look at the White House website. Well down went the Internet. We have some issues with our Internet connections here at the school. Part of it might be older equipment but mostly it’s an issue with the Internet service so it’s not really anything that we can control. So here I am totally stuck without a lesson to do with my kids. I had pulled some library books and so I ended up resorting to that but I was frustrated and the kids were frustrated that a promising lesson had to be postponed.

So there is one major problem. We need to get our internet service worked out.

More on Speeches

2010-01-08T15:12:00.000-05:00

Ok well I’ve come up with a plan. It doesn’t feel like the same type of speech that we’ve done before so I’m still nervous about it but I’m SO GLAD I have my Smart Board now because it will definitely make things easier.

Here’s my plan: Introduce the topic by covering places and things associated with president and government—the White House, Air Force One, the secret service, congress, the supreme court, etc.

Then help students figure out a topic that they would like to make their main focus if they were president—a cause if you will.

Finally, I’ve provided kids with a list of leadership terms. I want them to read the descriptions and pick 3 terms that they think best defines who they are as a person. Then I want them to explain why these traits would make them a good president.

We’ll see how this goes.

It's Time for Speeches

2010-01-07T16:29:00.000-05:00

I’m not sure how I feel about this year’s topic. We’ve done a wide variety of topics provided by Modern Woodmen of America http://www.modern-woodmen.org/Public/MemberBenefits/YouthPrograms/YouthEducationalPrograms/SchoolSpeechContest.htm Topics in the past have ranged from “My State” to “A Person Who has Touched Many Lives” This year’s topic is “If I Were President”. The guide lines are a little vague and right now I’m having a hard time conceptualizing how I’m going to make this work. I’ll sleep on it.

Third Participation Log

2010-01-06T15:22:00.000-05:00

Lesson: Contractions using contractions.notebook and contractions dominos.notebook
First Count: 10/11

Second Count: 10/11 (Different student)

Third Count: 8/8 (Students left for speech)

Notes: We were interrupted by the SLP coming to take 3 of the students out of the room. The disengaged student was one of the speech students. I think she was preoccupied with waiting to be called out of class. She is usually pretty focused on lessons but she was either watching the clock or reading a book under her desk (until I took the book away). One student that used to be goofing off all the time had his hand raised for just about every question.

Third Participation Log

2010-01-06T15:07:00.001-05:00

Christmas

2009-12-12T13:13:00.001-05:00

What a week it has been! Our school’s Christmas play was last night—they were amazing! We have definitely gone off our normal routine since many classes were shortened or canceled due to play practice but I found it really easy to do a prepared SMART notebook lesson when the class was short. I rarely get to do whole group activities in reading so I took an opportunity to focus on some different things like cause and effect and inferencing.

I decided to sit down and write some thoughts on what is going well and what things need work still. One thing I’m noticing that is a huge advantage is being able to pull up previous lessons. On the regular board, when something is erased it’s gone but I have a “scratch sheet” set up for each topic and I add pages to it each day and save it. That way I can refer back to it when needed. I have been able to print out notes for kids who missed class and also for kids who were there in class but need review. Every teacher has that “know it all” who likes to point out things like, “you didn’t say that!” well, with that particular student in my class I’m able to pull the notes back up and point out where that information has been provided. Very helpful and saves needless conflict.

Another thing that I really like is being able to move objects. If I’m demonstrating writing a sentence and I decide to add a word, I can simply move part of the sentence over and insert the new word. Students enjoy doing this with their own sentences or helping add to other students’ sentences. I am really seeing how this is helping the writing process. Students who have trouble visualizing the structure of an essay can see paragraph structure on the smart board and I’m seeing a lot less confusion and a lot more writing.

There have been some disadvantages though and while I wouldn’t trade the board for anything at all, I do wish I could get to the bottom of some continuing behavior issues related to the board. Sometimes when kids are taking their turn they take forever to answer a question, or they will drag whatever object they are manipulating all over the screen instead of simply moving it to the correct place and answering the question. There is a lot of competition over who uses the board the most. I try to keep things as even as possible but I fear sometimes that they spend too much brain power keeping a running tabulation of who has used the board when and for how long.

Another thing is that I’m finding it harder to keep the class in order when they are using the board. I have kids jumping out of their seats and arguing over who is going to get to touch the board or write on it. I love the enthusiasm and I’m not one of those teachers who insists on perfect hands-folded-on-the-desk behavior but I can’t have chaos either, it’s quite frowned upon. So one of the ways I’ve found to keep things even and orderly is to come up with a random but set order. For example, one class we might take turns by alphabetical order or sometimes by birthday or age (since it’s a multi age class). Other times I’ve passed out president cards and whoever had the older president gets to go first and so on. We’ve had fun thinking of creative ways to take turns and it definitely helps but it also takes some of the spontaneous fun out of things. I think there must be a balance and I’m still looking for it.

Fun with MadLibs

2009-12-03T14:27:00.000-05:00

Another great find—funbrain.com! They have this section of Mad Libs stories. The kids not only get to think about parts of speech but they get exposed to a variety of random and sometimes unusual words. The colorful words bounce across the screen and the kids work together, shouting out their word choice as another student chases down their selection. In the end, one student reads the story to the class. I think this is helping kids see how different parts of speech are structured in a sentence and also places where descriptive vocabulary can be used. We used to kill time at the end of class being not so productive but now I have a quick easy and educational filler lesson for those times when we get done a little bit early.

Second Participation Log

2009-12-02T15:42:00.001-05:00

Lesson: The Special Verb “be” using http://www.funbrain.com/verb/index.html
First Count: 7/7 (Students absent or at speech)

Second Count: 6/7

Third Count: 7/7
Notes: I had decided to do the log today and I thought maybe I shouldn’t since so many kids were out but it went pretty well anyway. Only one student was off task today. He was playing with something inside his desk and I had to go over and remove the item (an eraser). After that he was involved in the lesson. They really seemed to like the game on FunBrain.

Just Chatting

2009-12-01T15:15:00.000-05:00

Well we’ve been trucking along and things are still going well. Of course we had a shortened week last week with the holiday but now we’re back to work. I still teach grammar. I’ve heard a lot of public schools no longer teach grammatical conventions and parts of speech. Wow that is somewhat shocking?! How can kids learn how to write if they don’t understand the basics of a sentence? Well I guess I’m feeling “old school” but I’m teaching verbs right now. I have found dozens of good pre-made SMART notebook activities that I can download but I’ve practiced making a few too. Yesterday I gave a lesson where I used the textbook (oh how ancient) as a guide. I used it for the questions and then I made a word bank. The kids got up in a line in front of the board and I set the timer for 2 minutes. They had to silently answer any question they could and then go to the back of the line. When it was the next student’s turn, he or she had the option of answering their own new question or correcting someone else’s mistake. The goal was to silently answer all the questions correctly in under 2 minutes.

Well can you believe THEY DID IT? This group seldom can get a pencil and paper out in less than 5 minutes and most of the time, working independently from the textbook they don’t come close to finishing the lesson. So this was GREAT! I think a big part of it was that they didn’t get bogged down with the mechanics of writing because they could just drag their finger across the screen to answer a question. Another thing was that they were working together and so one wrong answer didn’t fall on that one person who made the mistake—everyone else had a chance to correct it—so it was a great group activity. Finally, I think the fact that they had to evaluate all the questions AND the answers and were able to complete the activity in a game like setting was a key factor for making this lesson work. I will definitely be trying something like this again in the future.

Old Meets New

2009-11-25T15:25:00.000-05:00

Today was pretty exciting. It is the half day before Thanksgiving and it was rather crazy how many students were absent. I had planned, as I usually do now, a Smart Board activity which I thought would be fun and engaging on a day before a holiday. I found this great page on the Scholastic Website all about Thanksgiving. My first class had 8 (out of 10) students present so they just sat at their desks but my second class only had 4 kids present so I had them bring their chairs around the board, that way each child could touch and interact with the board without waiting to be called upon or walk up to the front of the room. It felt so neat to teach this way. The site is jam packed with information too. Even I learned several new things. What I keep thinking about is how this would not be possible without the board. Sure, the kids could take turns looking at the web site on the computer but what would I be doing with the rest of the students? And when they interact with the website independently what things would they be missing that I needed to explain to them? I used to want a laptop for each student but this is so much better!

Scholastic Thanksgiving Website
http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/

First Participation Log

2009-11-19T14:32:00.013-05:00

Lesson: PastTense.notebook lesson--adding suffix -ed, irregular verbs, doubling the final consonant.
Number of Students Engaged/Number of Students in Class
First Count: 10/10

Second Count: 10/10

Third Count: 10/10

Notes: Students were fully engaged throughout the lesson. Some were a little over enthusiastic. I think the newness of the board is still working in my favor. It didn’t hurt that the principal was in the room. Some students weren’t behaved perfectly but they were all engaged in the lesson.

Finding a Groove

2009-11-12T15:23:00.000-05:00

We’re getting more and more used to the Smart Board in our daily routine. Instead of the kids always asking if we’re going to use the board in class they are starting to just expect it. I’m feeling some personal pressure to make sure the board lives up to their expectations but I realize that by itself it’s just a fancy piece of electronics and it’s up to me to guide the lessons to make sure they are getting everything out of it that they should. I have found several downloadable Smart Notebook presentations but the greatest find for me has been from the BBC website. It’s called “Treasure Hunt” and if the kids answer the subject/verb agreement question correctly they get to hunt for treasure. They’re actually getting pretty good at it and it’s definitely the first time they’ve ever begged me to do something this academic!

Here’s a link to the site.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/sentencebasics/verbsubjectagreement/game.shtml

In Their Own Words

2009-11-09T15:06:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to get my data together in anticipation of what I might be doing next semester in my graduate class. I am hoping that the final Practicum assignment will be open ended enough that I can apply my work on studying the SMART Board and how it helps my kiddos. Since I already kinda started on this project during the current semester, I have an idea about where I want to go with it but what I've already done is only the tip of the iceberg. Just to be prepared I asked my students a few questions so I could record their attitudes towards the SB. Here's a record of what they said:

We have had the Smart Board for 2 weeks. What are some of the things you like about it?

It’s awesome
It can do everything.
I like touching the board
When you write it feels funny.
I like to use my finger to write on the board.
I like using the Internet on the board.
It’s more fun to do stuff on the board than in (text) books.
We had one in my old school, so it’s not that neat to me.
When I missed class Mrs. Bennett printed out the stuff I missed. That was cool!

What are some things you don’t like about it?

It’s really big. It makes the room feel smaller.
The thing sticks out funny (The projector)
Sometimes it’s hard to write on it.
If someone touches the board when you are trying to use it, it won’t work.
People get really noisy when we use the smart board. Sometimes people get out of their seats when they’re not supposed to.

How do you think this will change your learning?

It will help us understand more.
Mrs. Bennett will be able to show us stuff instead of just saying it.
We can see things right in front of us instead of having to always read it.
I think it will make learning better and more interesting than before.
Sometimes books are boring but when we use the board it’s easy to pay attention.
Everyone likes using the board because it’s the best. We’re the luckiest class in the whole school.
It might make me get all As.
I think my parents might buy me one cause it helps me learn better.

What are you most looking forward to doing with the board?
I don’t know
Playing games
Watching movies
I don’t know everything it does.
Drawing pictures on the board.
Using books less than before.

Training

2009-11-05T21:00:00.000-05:00

Well good things have been happening! I am seeing first hand what a draw this board is in my class. On a most basic level, I can use my computer a LOT more! There are so many times that I have wanted to show my kids something and had to make them gather around my desktop. Well I have a laptop now which was good because I could bring it to them but now I find myself just saying, "Oh let me show you" and that is such a great way to learn!

Well I was still disappointed in myself because I had not really covered a REAL lesson using the SB the way it was intended. That was until yesterday. Now I was really unsure about the notebook presentation I downloaded. It was for first graders. I thought, they'll see right through this and think it's for babies. But nope-- NOT AT ALL! I made a few changes so it wasn't so babyish and they LOVED it. They were practically leaping over each other to get a chance to come up and touch the board and drag the characters across it to see if they got the right answer. It would have been a boring lesson-- I know. I've taught it for 5 years in a row now. But instead I had everyone's focus and attention and I had every hand raised. It was incredible!

So today, I tried a different lesson. I made it into a game and it was very basic but yet again they LOVED it! I also thought of ideas on how to modify it on the fly so we did that too and get this, not ONE SINGLE STUDENT told me it was getting to be close to lunch time. Usually they sit and watch the clock (well, in fairness the clock had to be moved to accommodate the board but even so) but today they wanted to keep going even if it meant being late for lunch!

Then this afternoon I had training. It was the best training session I've ever attended on any topic. I was pretty happy with myself for having discovered quite a bit on my own in the last 2 weeks but my head is now swimming with ideas on ways that I can use the SB. The trainer was awesome!

Honestly, I feel like this was just what I needed. I was feeling slightly burned out which is bad for someone only 6 years into a career. I was missing my baby boy at home. But now I am so excited to go to work every day. I hope the enthusiasm never wears off!

I GOT A SMARTBOARD!

2009-11-05T20:53:00.000-05:00

Part of this is for my class but part of this is just for me to get some feedback and document my thoughts as I undertake what is quite possibly the most exciting thing that has happened in my career thus far. I am going to post my first three entries below and then I hope to continue adding to this blog on a regular basis! "Tech Style" is Back!

10/21/09
My SmartBoard is here! The guy is installing it in my room right now. The kids have gone home and I’m about to leave too. I wish I could stay but I don’t want to pay the nanny extra and hey, I’ve got this board as long as I’m teaching here which may well be forever. The kids are so excited. They know it will be here tomorrow and have been talking about it all day long. I am sure I won’t get much done in the morning because they’ll all want to see it. This board is requiring some changes to my classroom set up. It’s a lot bigger than I expected so I’m having to move some things around. It’s not really a big deal though. It’s worth it to have this board that I’ve been practically begging for for the last 2 years.

10/22/09
Wow that was a whirlwind day. The kids reacted about the way I expected them to. There were a lot of “woah” and “can I use it?” responses. A few of them even asked me if they could take it home! Ha! As if! Jimmy was the only one who really couldn’t handle the major change in the classroom. He got really upset and started yelling. That sort of outburst is pretty typical of him though. It is because of his disability. The rest of the responses were very positive. It took me most of the day to get it all set up. I could have set it up more quickly but I was obviously teaching and spending a minute or two here and there while the kids were working made it pretty hard to get it set up. I had to get Mr. Reed to come in and finally get the last thing taken care of and then all of the sudden it was up and running. I gave each student a chance to write on the board using the electronic pens. They were so excited. It turned out to be a good move to let them all try it out too because some of them found it was trickier to write on than they expected. A bunch of the other teachers stopped by to see what the board looked like when it was up and running. Our class was definitely in the spotlight today! Overall their enthusiasm was even better than I expected and I know they will still be buzzing about it tomorrow.

10/26/09
The newness has not yet worn off from the installation of the board. I still haven’t been trained on how to use it so I feel like I’m just on the tip of the iceberg with regard to the capabilities of this tool. It’s so exciting to be able to quickly and easily pull up a piece of information or a picture without always trying to describe it. I have a handful of kids who have auditory processing problems and they are really helped by the visuals I can give them. Today we were reading Meiko and the Fifth Treasure, which is about a girl who experienced the bombing of Nagasaki during WWII. Last week I tried to explain what the bombs were like and today I just pulled up some pictures that the whole class could see. We had a good discussion as a result and that made me feel like I was really blending the subjects and creating interest. I also keep getting a lot of questions from the other teachers about how it’s going. I still don’t know much about how to use it yet so I’m really looking forward to the training.

Until Further Notice...

2008-12-18T22:35:00.002-05:00

Several years ago I decided I wanted to learn web design so I bought a book and spent about a month trying to figure it out. The result was okay and I've gotten a lot better at it since. Part of that experience was learning how to do my own blog. And so while it seems that everyone uses blogger, I'm mighty proud of the one I set up myself (using Wordpress). In fact, the only reason I have this blog is because it was a requirement for one of my courses for my graduate program (hence all the tech/school/teaching stuff). So until further notice you really won't find me here, you'll find me back at my original blog which can be found here:
http://www.something-insightful.com

See you there :-)

Where Do You Want To Go Today?

2008-06-12T12:49:00.001-04:00

Fitting with my last suggestion in the previous post, I hope this short video will help make learning more enjoyable. I compiled images from various trips I've taken to take students on a virtual tour of the United States. I think this would be a great introduction to a social studies class.

Turning Words into Actions

2008-06-12T12:40:00.002-04:00

With the last several posts I’ve talked about advocacy, accommodations and the issue of fairness. I feel like it’s time now for me to actually talk about the ways in which I have put these ideas into practice in my own classroom. Whether you are a special education teacher or a general education teacher, these concepts can be explored and implemented without much interruption from the daily routine and it’s well worth the benefit to the student.
Tips for accommodating students with special learning needs:
· Provide Visual and Auditory examples at all times. Rather than expect students to copy notes off the board, provide them with a copy so their full attention can be on you while you are teaching. Help students identify what is important by using colors, stars, circles, underlines, etc.
· Unless the test is in reading, read tests to students. You cannot know what a student really knows if they are being held back by a reading disability. Also, accept oral answers and refrain from using bubble sheets which can be very difficult for students with fine motor skills problems.
· Allow students to dictate work to the teacher or another student who can write it for them. So many students with difficulty writing and forming letters have wonderful, creative ideas but are not able to express themselves appropriately.
· Allow children with math disabilities to use calculators. This is so important! A student can struggle for years with basic concepts and be held back from making real progress. There are calculators these days that can do just about anything from basic addition and subtraction to order of operations and reducing fractions. Why not use this technology that is available?
· Accept work according to the individual ability of each student. Do not compare students to one another, especially from a “normal” child to a child with disabilities. Look for students to improve their individual skills and grade based on that.
· Treat each child as an individual.
· If one way doesn’t work, find another way to teach.
· Break concepts down into the smallest of pieces. Slow down the process. If it slows down the whole class to do this for one student, take the student aside and help him or her separately.
· Finally, (not really finally, there are so many other ways to help) work to make things fun. This will benefit all students, not just students with special learning needs.

Fairness

2008-06-10T13:33:00.001-04:00

In the field of advocates for students with learning disabilities, there are few more powerful speakers than a man named Rick Lavoie. I have not had the opportunity to hear him speak personally however, I have watched some of his videos and listened to my coworkers discuss his methods. (My coworkers got to see him at a seminar but I was still in college at the time and not yet working at my school.) One of the main themes by which we operate at my school is the one Mr. Lavoie discusses in the following video clip
It is the theme of fairness—“fairness is not getting the same as everyone else, it’s getting what you need.” We operate with this principle in mind at all times, hoping to give kids the best we possibly can. The students understand this concept as well because it is explained to them early on. Perhaps Cathy needs her test read to her while the other students can read it on their own. Or, Jim dictates his paper to the teacher while she types it for him because he is unable to use his hands in the same way as the other students. So many people consider this to be “cheating” or an “unfair advantage” but would it not be a tragic disadvantage not to provide it? How would you really know how much Cathy knows about science if she can’t read the test? How will you evaluate Jim’s writing skills if he forms brilliant thoughts but is unable to form the letters on the paper? How do you really know how well any child can do unless you give them every possible advantage for success?
Kids who understand this are usually much more comfortable in the classroom because they know if the time should come where they need additional support they will receive it, too.
Mr. Lavoie describes a setting where a teacher in a regular education classroom does not give the special needs student the extra assistance because “it wouldn’t be fair to everyone else”. With this idea in mind, I must go back to my prior post from June 9, 2008 about Inclusion because it is this mentality that keeps students with learning disabilities from getting the most from their educational experience. It is this mentality that makes me question why any parent would prefer to have their child struggle through a regular education classroom as opposed to an environment where special needs are met according to the individual rather than what is “fair” for the whole class. And to be completely fair myself, I fully acknowledge that there are exceptional teachers out there who do assist their special needs students in every way possible. But I do not come across these teachers nearly as frequently as I do the other sort. I encourage you to watch this video. If you are a regular education teacher yourself, ask yourself if this theme is one you’ve found yourself saying before and then ask yourself why. Whether you believe in Inclusion or not, it makes no difference. To be truly “Inclusive” we have to reinvent our idea of fairness.

Inclusion?

2008-06-09T13:07:00.000-04:00

Today I want to talk about Inclusion because it’s a relatively controversial issue, at least at my school, and I would like feedback. I discovered an excellent blog and in exploring the postings, I came across one about Inclusion from about a year and a half ago. It can be found here Segregation or Inclusion Supports.
I’ll just do a brief summary since I realize that not all my readers may be teachers. Inclusion is the practice of taking children with disabilities of all degrees and placing them in the general education classroom. The advantages of this are that students with disabilities witness socially appropriate models of behavior and have an opportunity to take part in activities with their same age peers. It is also believed that normally achieving students benefit from getting to know and learning with a child with disabilities. The disadvantages are not commonly discussed because it is the practice of most districts to allow full inclusion and, at least when I was going through college, it was the practice of the University to teach Inclusion to the future teachers.
It’s not that I have a huge problem with Inclusion and I do recognize the potential for benefit however, I have a big problem with the blog posting liked above which calls anything but Inclusion, “segregation”. The word segregation carries with it extremely negative connotation and immediately turns people off to the idea allowing children with disabilities to be educated with others who are like them. My school is one such school that takes only students with special learning needs. Nearly all of the students who attend have been in a public school Inclusion setting prior to attending. The stories they tell make me feel like Inclusion in practice isn’t the glowing, happy, let’s-all-be-friends concept that some would have you think it is. The disadvantages with Inclusion that I see come from first hand experience. One student in the past had a public school regular education teacher explain to his whole class that SLD meant “slow learning dummy” (and was serious). I have had other students who were flat out ignored by teachers in regular education classrooms; students who were bullied and called “stupid” and “retarded” more times than anyone’s self-esteem could handle and students who were given passing grades so they could be pushed through the system despite major learning disabilities. Students who come to my school from a public school are typically depressed, have low self-esteem, and are underachieving academically (as reported by parents). So is Inclusion really the best way to go or is it just something we do to make it seem like everyone is being treated fairly? Do we sacrifice the true needs of our students just to keep from using the dreaded word “segregation?” or can we possibly call specialized learning environments a less harsh, negative word? Let’s at least be open to the ideas put forth and examine the potential positives for students rather than let negative words sway us in a direction which just may not be the best way to go.

Advocacy for LD students

2008-06-04T22:12:00.003-04:00

I’ve been thinking about advocacy for students with learning disabilities and have been searching for programs, websites, blogs, etc that address this particular issue. I came across a great site called The Advocacy and Learning Center (TALC)
This site really covers a wide range of issues and I particularly like the section for teachers. In the teacher section which is near the bottom of the navigation pane, you can find articles, essays and other resources. I read one essay that really made me think. It was called “Stop Yelling, It Doesn’t Help”
I think this past school year is the first year of my teaching career where I did actually yell at my students. In the past it was unnecessary but the group I had this year was very difficult to control. All teachers agreed they were a very tough group. So I was not alone in that I resorted to yelling occasionally. The article reminded me of the reasons why this was pointless and only led to more problems but it also got me thinking in a different direction. I have never taught children without disabilities. I am not often around “normal” children and I think it’s easy to forget sometimes that these kids are different and typical strategies don’t always work with them. I wonder if this is part of the reason why schools and even parents struggle and why there is such a need for student advocacy. Particularly for students with LD, the problem is often masked by ordinary looking, speaking, and acting children. There is no major sign to indicate there is any sort of problem. So people look at a perfectly normal looking, speaking and acting child, ask them to read something and then get angry or frustrated when they can’t do it. I believe this is much the same way I got frustrated with my students enough to raise my voice in an attempt to control them—there were times when I almost forgot they needed extra patience and time from me.
I suppose the purpose of this posting is really to remind myself and others that students with LD need the help of their teachers and parents and they need the acceptance of school administrators not for looking ordinary but for learning differently. Don’t judge a book by its cover and remember that some problems that are well hidden still need to be addressed.

The image above is by Jana Christy and was found on www.flickr.com

Another Shift of Focus

2008-05-28T21:59:00.004-04:00

I'm dusting off the old blog here to use for a different course. For the next few weeks I will attempt to share some of the resources I have gathered as a special education teacher over the last 4 years with the hope of gaining feedback from others. There are millions of blogs out there but not enough that focus on curriculum for students with learning disabilities so hopefully I can make my own small contribution.

Recently I discovered a blog written by a special education teacher which can be found here:
Special Education Teacher in Washington DC
This blog was really the inspiration for my current blogging project. I believe this is a terrific resource for educators. It made me think about advocacy and how important it is to be an advocate for children in general but particularly for those with learning disabilities. There is too much misinformation about children with learning disabilities and special education. I figure a great way to start changing the mindset of others is to quote one of my students who struggles with dyslexia. In her self-assured manner, she simply explained to a visitor one day, "We're just like everyone else, but we learn differently." What is amusing is how complex learning disabilities are but how simply they can be explained.

That student is an example of a child who is a self advocate. In addition to explaining how she learns, she is also able to explain her disability to others, why she struggles, what she does to compensate and how others can help her. Shouldn't educators begin advocacy by teaching students to become advocates for themselves? Why do we hide from them, their disabilities. Why do we explain it away, chalk it up to nothing, pretend it doesn't exist. Do we fear they will be so overcome with pain they will not be able to go on? Don't we know that students with disabilities already know there is something different about how they learn and understand things?

These are the things I think of when I view the aforementioned blog. Here, in this blog, I hope to share some of the things I've done in my classroom to help students who "learn differently" and I contribute these ideas with the mindset that I do my job because I want to help my students advance in this world and say, "You know what? I have a learning disability but I can do anything I want to in spite of it."

Last Stop: Social Skills

2008-04-16T16:16:00.001-04:00

I wish I had more time to spend on this topic but I wanted to make sure I covered the main three subjects thoroughly. While many students struggle with one of the three: Reading, Writing or Math, it’s important to note that students with disabilities often struggle with social skills as well. At my school we believe in educating the “whole child” to the point where it’s even part of our mission statement. So to me that means that even if we can get a child to read, write, and perform math skills on grade level and send them off happily to high school and hopefully college then we haven’t fully done our jobs if they are still unable to function socially. In general, I think it’s helpful for our students to simply be around each other. Some people may fear that our students pick up the worst habits of their peers but really, the opposite is true. They often pick up the best skills their peers have to offer. I think this is in part due to the fact that they see each other as being alike. It’s tough to try to emulate someone who seems so unlike you but when you see someone struggle the same way you do but also find success, it makes you want to try harder yourself.
To some extent I believe most children struggle at one time or another with social skills, especially in the awkward preteen and teenage years. But that’s not really the type of social skills disability I’m talking about here. Students in the autism spectrum or those with non-verbal learning disabilities often have a tough time making friends and in particular, reading social cues. The device discussed in this blog http://specialedlaw.blogs.com/home/2006/04/httpwwwnewscien.html offers a unique approach to the problem. It doesn’t take away the need for regular training and therapy however it does provide students with more instantaneous feedback. The device is a small camera that can attach to a pair of glasses. It is attached to a small computer and when the user is interacting with others, the camera reads the expressions, voice tones and body language of the listener and vibrates to let the user know the person with whom they are speaking is showing signs of boredom or irritation. This helps the user know it is time to change the conversation. Without such feedback, students with social skill deficiencies often are clueless about the problems. They are unable to read the cues. I’ve seen firsthand how children will internalize this, reaching damaging, unhealthy conclusions like, “she didn’t want to talk to me because I’m ugly” or “he won’t be my friend because he thinks I’m stupid” when really the problem is that the student doesn’t know how to have a proper conversation or when to stop one that is headed in the wrong direction. Just the fact that I was able to find a tool to help kids with social skills problems is promising. I know in the long run a person doesn’t have to be popular or a social butterfly to get by in life but having friends can work wonders for a child who struggles in so many other ways as well. Hopefully, we can utilize technology in the future to further assist children (and adults) in need of help with social skills.
Well there you have it. Six weeks of blog postings. I hope you learned as much as I did! Thanks for reading!

Tools of the Trade

2008-04-15T17:20:00.000-04:00

Well if you didn’t like the concept of having students listen to their stories and lessons on tape the you’re really not going to like this idea (I’m talking about any other readers, I know my group mates are open minded!) I think students with math disabilities absolutely must master the use of a calculator with as many helpful functions as possible. Disagree with me? That’s okay, one of my coworkers tends to disagree with me there as well. But hear me out: Math isn’t like reading. Students CAN compensate for math disabilities far more easily than they can a reading disability. If a student can complete a problem using a calculator but struggle with out one then for goodness sake, let them use the calculator. How many adults do you know (teachers excluded) that do long division with paper and pencil? If you find one let me know so I can ask them why they don’t have better things to do. Calculators are simple, relatively inexpensive pieces of technology that were made to be used and in the field of assistive technology, there are calculators and then there are CALCULATORS. Some of these do just about everything you can think of. This website run by the University of Texas http://www.edb.utexas.edu/ATLab/Labinventory/Classroom/classroom-ld-math.php offers some interesting products including software but what intrigued me the most were the calculators. All the way at the bottom of the page is a calculator that looks essentially normal except that it speaks to help those students with visual impairments. Then, towards the top of the page is something called Big Calc which can be programmed to meet the needs of the individual student plus it is appealing to young children because it is colorful and friendly looking. Finally there are the two that I like the most. One is called the Coin-u-lator (which I’ve seen at teacher stores) and then the Money Calc which I’ve never seen before. Both incorporate coins and bills to help students add and subtract money. The Money Calc also does regular calculator functions. I’ve seen students who are terrific readers and reasonably decent math students look at a pile of coins with a look of such confusion you have to stop and double check to make sure you remembered to use American currency. So they may not like carrying around the big yellow Coin-u-lator but at least it would get the job done. I worry about kids who have issues counting money the most because I feel like they are targets for dishonest cashiers. I’d rather see them carrying around this calculator than be swindled. The last calculator I want to mention isn’t found on this site. It’s something the middle school math teacher at my school discovered and for the sake of continuity I want to list it here. This calculator—http://www.amazon.com/Casio-Fraction-Calculator/dp/B00154GSM4/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1208217469&sr=8-24 does just about everything a student would need to carry them through 8th grade math at the least and probably further. It does order of operations and most importantly it does fractions which I’ve seen stump student after student and tie them up for months as they try to battle through the fraction chapter. Many students at my school are already using this device which is far cheaper and far less intimidating than a graphing calculator. You can find calculators out there that do just about everything and websites that help with the rest. For example, this website helps with converting fractions to decimals http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fractions/FractionsCalc.html . The possibilities are endless. All a student with math disabilities needs is a teacher who will help them use these tools with confidence and not try to convince them that they are somehow cheating the system but using a calculator.

TouchMath

2008-04-14T20:25:00.001-04:00

Here I am starting my last week of blogging. I could try to come up with some really fancy way of saying this but it’s easier to sum it up with one simple word—valuable. I would never have found the information I’ve come to find nor developed such a sense of the field of technology for students with LD had I not been forced to thoroughly search and research the web for ideas, opinions and programs. I can’t promise I’ll keep up the blogging but I can say for certain that I will use what I’ve found. My professor suggested that we become “experts” in our field. Well I’m sure not an expert of the field but I know I am the expert on my school’s staff. That leads me back to my original word—valuable.
So I wanted to continue the focus on Math since I really only covered it in two postings last week. I came across a blog this evening that was written by a mom whose son struggled with math. The original posting can be found here http://adhdguide.blogspot.com/2007/03/touchmathhelp-for-children-with.html. The mother’s story led me to a site that features the concept of TouchMath found here http://www.touchmath.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=about.welcome&gPage=23. I’ve seen a couple of kids use this technique before to some success but it has never been one of the primary techniques used at my school. I thought I’d look into it a little more to see if perhaps it should be.
TouchMath is an extremely simple concept that uses zero electronic technology. This is probably the biggest plus because it means I can implement it instantly and not wait to purchase a program. It also got me thinking that I shouldn’t put all my eggs in the technology basket because sometimes things can be done the same or better without the fancy computer or electronic device. TouchMath is based on the concept that all numbers 1-9 have TouchPoints. If you’ve ever seen a student tapping the paper on the ends of the number, he or she was probably using this technique. I think counting fingers works just as well but kids get embarrassed sometimes when they have to count fingers so this would encourage them to use a tool that can be implemented discretely. It’s really as simple as that. I’m feeling silly for not teaching this to all my students already but it just goes to show that you miss out on simple things sometimes when you go with the same techniques and traditions that the other teachers have always followed. Here’s just one more simple technique that can be used to help students with math disabilities.

The Media Equation

2008-04-09T09:12:00.000-04:00

You were expecting math? Well this week’s blog includes a special segment on the media equation (part of the assignment). It’s helpful to any readers who are not group members to briefly explain the media equation. In chapter one of the book conveniently titled The Media Equation, authors Reeves and Nass explain a concept that leaves many with the initial response, “but certainly not me!” Can you tell the difference between human and machine? Well you may think so but the research demonstrates that humans are inherently social beings and therefore have a tendency to apply human social interactions to objects that are, well, not alive. Still skeptical? Well have you ever coddled your computer when it was running a little slowly or begged your car to make it just a little further to the gas station? Perhaps because more than you may realize, media equals real life. Our brains have been trained for so long to believe that what seems real is real that it’s now difficult to differentiate between the two and we don’t even realize we are doing it. Now that I have your attention, I suggest reading the entire first chapter (it’s not that long) for all the excellent examples provided by Reeves and Nass. The article can be found here http://guir.berkeley.edu/courses/cs198/papers/mediaeq.pdf or if you want the whole book, here http://www.amazon.com/Media-Equation-Computers-Television-Lecture/dp/1575860538.
Before you lose complete faith in the mental state of mankind, let’s examine some positive aspects of this vulnerability in the human conscience and the impact it could have on education. First of all it seems that children are even more likely to believe what they see is real and apply human attributes to machines. So knowing the emotional impact a computer program could potentially have on a child, designers should incorporate computer reactions that will elicit the proper emotional response in a child. For example, a child who is using an educational game may receive basic feedback on answers but what if the computer instead played a friendly face that explained the problem and provided warm and positive feedback. Or perhaps in the older grades, the computer provided positive social responses, in effect, modeling appropriate behavior or actions. If kids are not exposed to enough positive social role models, the maybe the computer can act as the positive role model for them. Even more importantly, this could work for students with LD who often exhibit poor social skills. There is a severe shortage of social skills training courses available to parents of children with social skills problems, particularly for adolescents and teens who I believe often need it most. A digital teacher, who is being perceived as a real person in many respects, could provide the necessary training in the privacy of one’s home. It may seem counter-intuitive to teach social skills in an isolated setting but first of all, if the student perceives the computer character/ teacher to be real then they do not feel alone and second, this is a better option if the alternative is not having training at all.
I think the key is to be cautious and to help students gain self awareness of this “issue”. Too often kids get too involved in video and computer games, applying so many human qualities to animated characters that they get fully depressed when something happens to that character in the game. I’ve seen this happen first hand when I once had two students cry while playing the game Petz after their animated dog ran away. We should be cautious also to make sure we don’t allow media to replace real human interaction. No device can substitute the need all people have for true human relationships.
Well I’ve beaten on my poor computer enough for one day. It’s tired and wants to go into hibernation now. I’ll miss it while it’s sleeping but I know it will be ready to greet me later.
Until next week!

TEAM

2008-04-08T17:34:00.001-04:00

After some disappointing web searches the past couple of weeks, I was literally giddy to find the website I will discuss today. It’s not often that I read information geared towards teaching students with learning disabilities and think, wow, these people get it. The website for TEAM which stands for Teaching Enhanced Anchored Mathematics can be found here http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/TEAM/index.html The TEAM project is associated with the University of Wisconsin- Madison and I cannot do it justice in simply trying to describe it, but I will try. Under Projects and Funding, you can find a good summary of the research used to create this program. One particular sentence jumped out at me.
“…many teachers of low-achieving students are reluctant to teach challenging math problems before they have mastered basic skills, which often leads students to dislike mathematics and drastically reduces to their motivation to learn it.”
This could not be more true to my experience. Actually, my fellow coworker and I have long disagreed on how math should be taught. He believes students cannot advance to the next chapter or concept until they have mastered the first which leaves some 12 year olds working in a second grade math book on the addition chapter. The research from this program has identified instructional practices that make it possible to teach low achieving students to solve complex problems. The program accomplishes this by helping kids develop problem solving skills in a real world context. Now this seems intuitive but unfortunately it does not seem to be the norm in classrooms across this country. In fact, the latest TIMSS report from 2003 (the 2007 results won’t be available until late 2008) still show American math and science test score falling well behind other nations. (http://nces.ed.gov/timss/TIMSS03Tables.asp?Quest=3&Figure=5) So I have to ask why more schools aren’t taking this research into account when teaching kids math. Going back to the TEAM program, the instructional program developed by the researchers is called EAI which stands for Enhanced Anchored Instruction. EAI uses video based problems delivered by CD-ROM to help students complete what I would consider to be rather complex tasks. I loved how the researchers noted the importance of this sort of delivery system for students with reading disabilities. Having something that students can watch and listen to eliminates the barrier students with reading disabilities immediately encounter when opening any text book. I see this as a huge step. To get a real feel for the actual program, an example can be viewed here http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/TEAM/products.html I was disappointed that I could not get the video to load despite many attempts however the teacher’s manual provides a very detailed description of the video and the TEAM project offers teachers a free CD-ROM for use in the classroom. The only unfortunate thing about this program is that it was designed for middle schoolers so it is not something I can use for my own students but it is something that I know the middle school students at my school would really enjoy so I will be passing this information on to the middle school math teacher at my school.
I am thrilled to have found such an interesting program and I hope my continued searches are as successful. I am also pleased that I now have research to show kids can move past the basic skills and learn more complex ones that will not only have real world significance but also be more age appropriate than the current text books.

Refining the Focus

2008-04-07T18:40:00.001-04:00

Here we are nearing the end of this blogging assignment and after speaking with the professor, I finally have a solid grasp on my end goal. In my school we essentially create our own curriculum. We don’t follow premade lesson plans unless we happen to find one we like. It is then usually adapted to meet the needs of our student population. In that sense my goal is to become an expert in content area best practices with technology. I’d love for a coworker to be able to say, “I’m having trouble helping Jimmy understand rhyming patterns.” And then in turn point that coworker in the direction of a technology program, device or activity they could try. I feel that the more I advocate for better uses of technology, the more my school will see the need to improve our current tech set-up.
Now that we’ve settled that (phew!) I’d like to move on to my final content area focus which is math. I don’t teach math this year although I have the previous 3. I do miss teaching the subject because I’ve always enjoyed math and I find for many kids, it is their strength which means they enjoy the learning process. There are many however, who struggle terribly with math and whose parents shake their heads and say things like, “we’ll make sure she has a debit card.” There are those who push math aside as being of secondary importance to things like reading and writing. I believe math is every bit as important as the other two subjects.
I’m a strong believer that kids need to use manipulatives as much as possible especially in math. I also believe that the objects don’t have to tie directly to a certain math concept (ie: fraction bars or clocks). At http://www.mindwareonline.com/MWESTORE/Home/HomePage.aspx? Teachers and parents can find an array of mind puzzles that kids love. This is not computer technology however it is definitely a form of technology in my opinion. Kids learn logic, problem solving, even engineering (like when building a marble run). In no classroom should computer technology replace hands on tools like the ones found at mindwareonline. Research does indicate that math disabilities can be improved with technology. LD online always has a vast array of information. At this site http://www.ldonline.org/article/6291 if you scroll down to the subheading “Developing fluency in math-delayed children using technology” you can find research assessing the use of technology for students with math disabilities. Very interestingly, the study found that “computerized drill and practice was ineffective in developing declarative fact knowledge in students with math difficulty” (Hasselbring, Goin, and Sherwood, 1986). I hear many teachers out there saying, “oops!” and we’ve had this research for the last 22 years? Most computer math games do little more than quiz students on math facts with fancy graphics or animated characters. No wonder it’s not helpful. Luckily, I have not been using such games. Hasselbring and Goin developed a program in 2005 called FASTT (Fluency and Automaticity through Systematic Teaching with Technology) which helps students develop “declarative fact knowledge.” The resulting computer program called FASTT Math has been shown to create positive results both for students with disabilities and those without. This makes it perfect for a mainstream classroom and a special education classroom. The same article goes on to describe research in increasingly complex areas of math however, I am going to leave the focus here for now because math basics are often the most difficult and also most vital for students with math disabilities. Without the basics, the rest become an insurmountable goal. I’ll be adding this program to my list of “best practices.”

Response to Intervention

2008-04-02T21:16:00.001-04:00

I heard about this (what do you call it? Process? Program?) A couple years ago and was pretty fascinated by the concept. Before I go any further, let me not assume that my only readers are my three excellent group mates. If you are unfamiliar with RtI, then read this summary from Wikipedia which does a fair job of explaining the program. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_to_intervention
There, got it? Of course. Now I could have made RtI my entire Blog topic and not come close to covering all the details so I’m certainly not going to attempt to cover everything today. I came across this blog http://ldblog.com/tag/rti/ which really got me thinking and I figured it was a perfect way to end my two week examination of the writing process with respect to learning disabilities and technology.
RtI is not something that has had any effect on me as of yet. After all, students who attend my school have all been identified (if they weren’t yet identified, they wouldn’t be there—it’s a school for only students with LD). I figure in the future we may see “treatment resistors”—those who do not respond to intervention. To this point however, I’m not even certain this is happening in the public schools in my area.
When I first heard about RtI the first initial concern I had was “what about students with LD that are not reading disabilities?” and this concern is noted by Blogger “JohnL” in his posting. This concern is also echoed in my experiences for the last two weeks in searching for writing programs. Finding information to blog about reading disabilities and accommodations was quite easy. There is a tremendous amount of support for struggling readers and that’s not a bad thing. After all, not being able to read can be extremely debilitating, especially for adults. It can negatively impact one’s entire life from career to family to health and finances. But what about writing? There is a severe lack of solid support materials for struggling writers and I don’t mean students who reverse letters, or misspell words. I don’t even mean those with bad handwriting. I mean those students with severe expressive language disorder, those who simply cannot express themselves with language—oral or written. Is this not a tremendous problem too?
The blogger says in his posting that we should not expect learning disabilities to disappear as some may have you believe is possible with RtI and I agree. How can we expect learning disabilities to disappear when we don’t even address all of the problems? Writing/ Written expression is not addressed with RtI and neither is Math which accounts for approximately 25% of learning problems (according to the blog). JohnL (blogger) states at the end that “there is much more to special education than the methods for determining eligibility of students with Learning Disabilities” and he couldn’t be more right. Let’s not put all our eggs in the reading basket and ignore struggling writers. RtI is a good start but not if it leads people to the false belief that it is a cure-all for LD.
So where am I going from here? Well I’ve exhausted the searching for writing programs so in my mind I’m working on ways I can do this on my own. I’ll let you all in on a little secret. I don’t think I want to be a teacher forever, eventually someday I want to write textbooks (who knows, maybe they won’t be in book form by that point) but regardless, I feel like I’ve found a goal for myself—find a solution to this writing problem and create a program that actually works for students. So having exhausted the writing and having addressed reading, next week I plan to move on to the subject of Math disabilities and what forms of technology can do to aid those struggling with dyscalculia. I hope I don’t find the shortage of support for Math disabilities as I found for writing. Then, if all goes well I will look to tie all the loose ends together. Maybe even address LD and social skills. That’s the rough plan but I’m letting the blog dictate my direction.

Grab Bag

2008-04-01T21:03:00.001-04:00

In searching for today’s blog posting I found two things I wanted to talk about that were very different from one another. The first is found here http://www.donjohnston.com/products/write_outloud/index.html . This is another product that is supposed to help struggling writers. It shows some pretty dramatic positive results and I say if it really works like that then sign me up. But I’m somewhat skeptical. After two weeks of searching, I don’t believe there is one magic program out there. This one does have some neat features however. It provides basic items like spell checker and dictionary as well as a device which helps students create a bibliography (much like the newest versions of Word). There is also a function that allows teachers to track students’ needs for remediation and growth. This program is part of a larger “literacy suite” called SOLO which has several programs all to aid struggling writers. This program seems better than the one I discovered last week in that it offers more ways to assist students. I feel like this may help “unlock” some of the doors that block students who are capable of being good writers but are unable to produce because of various difficulties. I still don’t think this solves the problem for kids who simply don’t know what to write but then again, no single program is intended to solve every problem.

The second thing I wanted to mention today is found here http://ldblog.com/special-content/correcting-reversals . It’s an interesting blog posting about letter reversals. This is a problem for both readers and writers but in my opinion, more often a problem for writers. I actually have a couple of students who routinely misspell their own names because they reverse b and d. The blog cites research which suggests a method for correcting letter reversals by essentially using positive reinforcement to acknowledge correct letter formation. Eventually over time the child will correctly write the letters. I can see how this very simple (low tech) method would work. I see my students with this problem get to certain letters on spelling tests (whether a b or a d) and debate with themselves over which direction to make the letter. It’s not as though they don’t know which letter they should use, they simply can’t remember which way the letter goes. I have unknowingly been doing this very method with my students but need to work on employing it more consistently. So there you have it, two different methods to solve writing problems; two very different levels of technology.

Back to Basics

2008-03-31T21:19:00.000-04:00

I set out to find ways in which technology could be used to enhance learning for students with disabilities and to this point, the information I’ve found does focus primarily on this topic. However, after a lot of searching last week, I decided that it may just be time to find some solutions to the writing problem without worrying so much how a computer or electronic device could help me.
I believe the programs I found last week are decent and would likely be helpful and it’s certainly not an exhaustive list. I also have come to realize that there is a lot I can do to help students the old fashioned way—by teaching them with paper and pencils. The article found here http://www.readingrockets.org/article/6213 outlines a study titled “Prevention and Intervention of Writing Difficulties for Students with Learning Disabilities”. Again this is a long one so I had to decide what parts of it I wanted to focus on without turning this blog entry into a 6 page essay (although it’s a good read and the authors make several comparisons and points using the Peanuts Characters to keep things interesting). One particular statement validated my current frustrations: “The writing problems of children with LD are not transitory difficulties that are easily fixed.” Thank goodness! I’m not the only one who sees this!
About a third of the way down the page, under a section called Table 1, the study outlines key points that represent “Exemplary Writing Instruction”. I focused heavily on this because I want to make sure that I am, at the very least, providing exemplary instruction. Of course I wasn’t surprised to see there are things I can do differently like the ninth tip:
“Instruction covering a broad range of skills, knowledge, and strategies, including phonological awareness, handwriting and spelling, writing conventions, sentence-level skills, text structure, the functions of writing, and planning and revising.
We typically isolate handwriting and spelling from the subject of writing to allow kids an opportunity to be successful in at least one area without worrying about the others. For example, kids can be great writers and horrible spellers. If you combine the two it brings down the so called quality of the writing. It’s interesting to see the suggestion of combining all the areas of writing into one instructional set and it’s worth trying.
Another tip was to integrate writing across the curriculum. This has been something I’ve wanted to do for a while now and something I do attempt now and then but the biggest obstacle to having students write in other subjects is the sheer amount of extra time it takes. It’s one thing to spend 45 minutes of a writing class on writing, it’s quite another to spend 45 minutes of social studies on writing. I think before we get to this point we still have to overcome the hurdle of simply not knowing how to put thoughts on paper.
There are adaptations listed as well but realistically, the teachers at my school have been doing these things for years so this area wasn’t particularly helpful.
The last item of interest is towards the very end. The research describes the importance of early intervention. It states that to the point the article was written, only 4 studies had been done on the effectiveness of early intervention for writing disabilities. Interestingly, in one of the studies research showed that supplementary handwriting instruction raised compositional quality. This is of great importance to me because we focus very heavily on teaching kids to type while spending only about 20 minutes a week on handwriting instruction. Unfortunately a separate study was not able to replicate these results. In any case, all studies demonstrated a positive result for struggling writers when early intervention took place which is further evidence for me, that as a teacher of students with disabilities, the most important step I can take is to return to basics and in the future, start earlier.

Hopeful

2008-03-28T17:25:00.001-04:00

Well I think I was taking the wrong approach looking for the “magic” program or technique to fix writing problems which was naïve of me. I know better than to think any one approach will work for everyone, after all, I’ve built my entire class on coming up with ways to teach kids individually. Regardless, my few students with severe writing difficulties probably need to start at a more basic level and I’m starting to see how I am probably part of the problem and so is the school system. I am pressured by the school and parents to prepare kids for middle school and I in turn try my hardest to get my students to write even those that simply can’t. I’m really just frustrating them. I discovered a program called Fast ForWord. There are a number of products associated with this program. I have had some students use the reading programs with great success but I was not aware that they also had language programs. At this site: http://www.scilearn.com/products/elementary-products/fast-forword-language-basics/index.php one can find a description of the Language Basics program. For those who are unfamiliar with Fast ForWord, it is a set of products that “develop brain processing efficiency through intensive, adaptive software exercises.” There are products for the elementary and secondary levels and the program claims to have one to two year gains in 8-12 weeks of use. The Language Basics program works to improve memory, visual and auditory attention, visual processing, and sequencing skills. It also builds computer skills and techniques. For students who advance past the Basics program, there is a follow up program called Fast ForWord Language which is for slightly older children. Perhaps my only concern is the cost. The website does not display a price for the program but I’ve been told it is quite expensive. It still seems worth recommending to parents and even suggesting it is placed on the school wish list.
It is my belief that without the proper foundation for learning and acquiring knowledge, students will be lost. For students with severe language problems, one must consider the idea that extreme remediation needs to take place. The website explains that the software works as an exercise program for the brain and this makes good sense. Right now I’m asking kids to run a marathon before helping them practice running a mile. Regardless of what program is used, remediation seems to be the answer.

What Now?

2008-03-27T11:27:00.001-04:00

After the goal I set for myself in my last blog I’m starting to understand why in my four years of teaching and actively seeking an answer to this question I’ve not yet found a solution (not that I’m giving up). After a great deal of searching, the same program kept coming up as a solution for kids with expressive language disorders: Kidspiration. Towards the middle of the page on this site http://www.synapseadaptive.com/learning_disorders.html there is a brief outline on the various types of language disorders (articulation, expressive and reception which are just to name a few). The site then provides a link to Visual Thinking Software which is this site http://www.synapseadaptive.com/inspiration/default.htm discussing Inspiration.
I must say I am a bit disappointed and not because Inspiration and Kidspiration aren’t fantastic programs—they truly are. I use Kidspiration in my classroom already and kids enjoy it. I should actually say that some kids enjoy it because others, the same that I keep in mind when searching for writing programs, are completely frustrated by it. The blank screen stays blank until they get direct assistance. If they work with a peer, the peer ends up doing it for them. Pre-made graphic organizers remain blank as well. I routinely get the question, “What am I supposed to put here?” And before any reader thinks I leave my students directionless, please let me assure you I typically spend 2-3 class periods preparing for writing before asking students to put the first word on paper. We go through an extensive process of brain storming and modeling. It works well for probably 85% of them. I still have a few that are unable to produce a single sentence. Kidspiration doesn’t help them. So what now? More searching.

Writing Programs

2008-03-24T19:17:00.000-04:00

This week, I’m hoping to find as much valuable information about teaching language and writing to kids with disabilities as I was able to find about teaching reading. Since I’ve only been teaching Reading this school year and Language/Writing for the last 4, I’m much more familiar with the curriculum however, I’m always on the search for new ideas and I like to hear the thoughts of others on how to teach writing to kids with disabilities. I went to a writing workshop a few years ago and came back armed with all these great techniques to try. Sadly, they all failed miserably (and I tried and persisted with all of them to no avail). With any luck this search will result in a more fruitful acquisition of knowledge.
There are countless products out there to help students with writing disabilities (or even regular ability). The product described on this website http://www.wordq.com is called Word Q. This software program works with any word processor. It predicts words and provides speech feedback. You can also have text read back to you. It doesn’t correct spelling or grammar but that is rather irrelevant because the word processor itself does that. I think one of the most key tools associated with this software is that it claims to have the ability to predict words based on “creative spelling” and if it can predict the spelling of words for some of my students then it’s worth its weight in gold. One of the biggest problems with using the regular word processor is that kids type stories and essays and get discouraged because every last word is underlined with a squiggly red line. I would hope this program could alleviate some of those problems.
So Word Q is one of many products out there that aids students with writing disabilities and I can see how it would work for some, even many students. I feel like this program is still just a band-aid for the real problem which is that students with learning disabilities and expressive language problems would be doing well to put ANY idea down on paper. I have on many occasions asked frustrated students to dictate stories, sentences, and ideas to me so I can write it for them. Many are still unable to get thoughts out on paper. So while I’m pleased to find programs like Word Q, I am still on a quest for a solution to the greater problem: how do you get students to form ideas, organize those ideas and put them on paper in the form of a readable essay/story/sentence?

Reading for Real Life

2008-03-19T20:25:00.000-04:00

Today I’ve taken quite a turn from my last several blogs but there is good reason behind it. First of all, I had a conference today. The parent wanted to discuss her child’s progress and where she is headed. This child should be in 7th grade but is currently performing at around the 4th grade level. The mother said she had heard all you really need to get through life 6th grade reading and math proficiency. She hoped her daughter would achieve this. (Yes, if I have anything to say about it and oh yes, I do!) So of course I got to wondering about this 6th grade level thing. After doing some searching I found a web article that claims newspapers are in fact written at the middle school level.
See: http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/archives/000418.html
On the one hand, I feel a sense of relief for my students some of whom will struggle with reading their entire life. I’m pleased to know that they will be able to read the news as adults, even if they never become “great” readers. On the other hand I am completely appalled that these are the standards in our country. We as teachers work incredibly hard to build and sustain the foundation that children need to excel through school. We pour blood sweat and tears into teaching struggling readers how to read and purchase hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of equipment in an effort to aid these students. Then we have parents shooting low because that’s where the rest of society has already set the bar. There is however, a bright spot. The article talks about the Flesch-Kincaid tool which measures the readability of any document. The scale measures on a scale of 1-100 with, as the author puts it, 100 being a stop sign, and 1 being “practically impossible to read”. The average newspaper story falls between 70-80 (about 8th grade level) while the top 5 internet blogs (based on a source called the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem http://truthlaidbear.com/ecosystem.php ) score significantly better scores-- between 45 and 55 (10th-12th grade level). What this tells me is that when given the opportunity, people want to read more challenging work and as a teacher, this tells me that if I want to give my students a good challenge I should encourage them to read blogs rather than newspaper articles for a good mental workout. I hope that if students become more accustomed to reading quality writing they won’t want to stop at the 6th grade level of reading, that they’ll push beyond that to read what is interesting and challenging. Why should we let students settle for mediocrity when something better exists at our fingertips?
Before I close I found something else interesting. It’s called “The Blog Readability Test”. Simply enter the URL of your blog and it will tell you the reading level. http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx. This blog is currently at the college level.

Super Pens

2008-03-18T21:56:00.000-04:00

Well the name of the item isn’t really “Super Pen” But I just can imagine putting one of these in the hands of one of my students. In my mind this is what he called it so that is the title of this blog.
The article http://jset.unlv.edu/20/JSETv20n1.pdf is rather long. If you’d like to read it, it’s on pages 31-40 in the Journal of Special Education Technology (Hey, perfect! Right?). The title of this research is, “The Compensatory Effectiveness of the Quicktionary Reading Pen II on the Reading Comprehension of Students with Learning Disabilities.” And I know now that you’ve gotten through the title you’re thinking I’m crazy if I think you’re going to read through this whole article (It’s okay). Basically a study was done to see how effective this new OCR pen is for students with learning disabilities. In the past there was somewhat conflicting evidence on the effectiveness of the pen. This one is different because students are intended to use it to decode single words, not entire phrases of text which can interfere with comprehension. The pen is connected to an ear bud which allows a student to use the device privately. The research points out that students with reading disabilities often have no trouble understanding spoken language so if you can aid a student with the reading aspect, then comprehension will follow. Thirty children ages 10-18 were trained on how to use the pen. Then, students were tested twice using the Formal Reading Inventory (FRI). Students scored significantly better when using the pen. Obviously there is more to the research than this short summary but the important part is that the research indicates that this pen can benefit students with reading disabilities. My thoughts upon reading this research went immediately to my students, not now but in the future. While they are in my classroom, I know I can help them get through their reading assignments. I accommodate in every way possible. But I also know that the time will come when they leave my school and hopefully attend a regular high school. A device like this would be a fantastic tool for students who just need a little extra help but who, at the age of 14 or 15, don’t want to ask someone to read a word for them. It grants independence while aiding studying and comprehension. The best part is, it’s so small and portable that peers may as well not know it exists. I know for my students, it is important for them to feel “normal” around their peers. They don’t want others to know they need help. I did some further research and this pen is available for around $275 (some cheaper on ebay) which if it helps a student, is really a small price to pay for the potential benefits.

Storybooks on Computer

2008-03-17T21:24:00.000-04:00

It had been my intention to move forward this week in the blogging, to focus on another of the classes that I teach. Last week I covered reading and this week I was going to try to cover writing but I don’t feel finished with Reading. In doing my research, I found so many promising programs and interesting articles that I want to continue with Reading for now and see where that takes me. Maybe I’ll move to writing next week, we shall see! For now I’m thinking of readjusting my topic (yet again) to focus not just on technology for students with learning disabilities but also on how different programs can be integrated into the daily curriculum. I teach reading and language. While I don’t teach Math this year, it is something I’d like to cover as well. Finally, I’d like to see what I can find that has to do with social skills training. I’m hoping that if I cover all these concepts, I’ll be able to have a really good grasp on how to use technology to benefit achievement for students with learning disabilities.
So for my first link of the week:
http://www2.edc.org/ncip/library/ec/storybks.htm
This article is called Storybooks on Computers: An Overview. It outlines the many benefits of having children listen to stories. What is neat about this program is that it’s not a simple recorded book. This program actually allows kids to “turn” the pages on the computer. As the article point out, this is helpful for kids with fine motor difficulties because it allows them to experience reading like a peer would. It also allows a visually impaired child to enlarge the text. One of the best features in my opinion is that the stories are illustrated with interactive graphics. The example given in the article states that a child can click on a dog in the story and it will wag its tail. There are several other variations that can be selected (changing the speed of the reading, gender of the reader, and whether syllables, words or whole sentences are highlighted, etc). I was thinking about how this sort of thing would be great in the classroom as a center in the younger grades, especially in a mainstream classroom because “normal” (I hate that term) children and children with disabilities could work together. Both children could benefit from the activity without one feeling as though they were different because of the accommodations. Another great place to use this would be at home although my fear would be of parents using the program as a replacement for actually reading to their child. I’m sure in some cases however, this program would be better than not being read to at all. The article starts by saying “All children can benefit from having story books read aloud to them.” I couldn’t agree more. With or without disabilities, all children could enjoy a program like this.

What's Available?

2008-03-12T17:17:00.001-04:00

Well I couldn’t talk all about reading accommodations without finding a program that could actually do it and do it well. One of the programs recommended by http://www.readingrockets.org is called NaturalReaders. A demo of the product can be seen here http://www.naturalreaders.com/. In spending a bit of time with the program I can see how tremendously beneficial this could be for my students. The program is available as a free download or it can be purchased for around $40 to $100 depending on how fancy you want to get with it. While I didn’t purchase it to see for certain, I believe the $40 version would be sufficient for my students because it reads Web pages and Word documents (among other things). This would be unbelievably helpful when my students are doing research. Right now what happens is this:
Student types their topic into the internet search bar. Student pulls up a list of web pages. Student clicks on the first page that comes up. Student calls me over to the computer to read the page to him or her. All other students throw a party while my back is turned.
Well maybe that last part isn’t entirely true (most of the time).
The fact remains, students would gain a tremendous amount of independence if they did not have to rely on a peer or me to read everything to them. Even kids who are grade level readers can’t necessarily read all the words on a webpage. Having this program available empowers students both at school and at home where parents are not always around to help read aloud either. One thing I’ve discovered is that children with reading disabilities often can comprehend quite well (at least in my experience) so these students will actually get much more out of a lesson that is read to them than a student who tries to read it him or herself and only decodes every third word.
Furthermore, if the program reads word documents then a student could type his or her report and then have the program read it back to them so they can hear their mistakes and more easily make corrections.
I believe I’ve found my first product for classroom implementation!
Feeling a little wiser,
EmTech

Fighting for Accommodations

2008-03-11T17:28:00.000-04:00

Just about more than any other thing I hear from new parents was how unwilling the public school system was to accommodate their son or daughter’s special learning needs. It’s pretty sad because I have spoken to public school teachers who complain about having to deal with kids with learning disabilities in their classroom. I can’t help but wonder why a school doesn’t just give students the accommodations they need since it would benefit everyone involved, most importantly—the student. Then I remembered, oh yeah, it’s the money. Assistive technology costs money, usually a lot of it. Once it goes in a student’s IEP, that’s it, the school must provide it. Really it’s rather unfair not to since the school is getting more funding for that child to begin with. But I digress…
The author of this blog: http://specialedlaw.blogs.com/home/2008/01/accessible-e-te.html talks about how important it is for students with reading disabilities to have texts that can be converted to spoken word. He emphasizes how valuable e-texts have been for his son. His post led me to this nifty article which helps parents realize the full potential of the provisions of IDEIA. This article http://www.readingrockets.org/article/16308 provides essential tips for parents including information on the IEP process. It also encourages parents to try out the many e-text programs available before committing to one in the IEP. The blog posting and the article do more than describe some of the resources available, they talk about something perhaps even more important, that no matter what technology is out there, it takes parent intervention to make sure it becomes available to their child. If parents are not advocates for their kids then who will be?
EmTech

Audio Books

2008-03-10T19:32:00.000-04:00

After selecting my topic, I had a bit of a fear that I’d picked something too specific; that maybe it would be difficult to find information on technology for ESE students. Wow, was I wrong! There is a ton out there but at least in my first round of searching, a great deal of the information seems to focus on products—adaptive technology. So I decided that instead of picking something too specific, I really went too broad. I have chosen to focus on technology for students with learning disabilities since this information can and will directly impact what I do for a living.
So where to begin? I thought for the first two weeks I could focus on the subjects I teach. I’m starting with reading. Many of my students have reading disabilities. In fact the breakdown goes like this: of 20 total students the youngest is 9 and the oldest is 12. Age has no correlation to reading grade level. I have 11 students reading (some struggling) at the second grade level. I have 3 at the third grade level. There are 4 at the fourth grade level and 2 at the fifth grade level. Ironically, one of my fifth grade readers is only 9. So reading is a struggle for most of my kids. Probably the most high tech thing they use right now is a tape recorder to listen to their stories on tape. In fairness, my students have made terrific progress this year but I’m sure there are programs and devices that could help them more.
http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.aspx?r=1066
The link above takes you to an article about an organization called Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) that provides audio recordings of all varieties of books. These aren’t just regular stories. Many of the audio books they offer are actually textbooks. The books allow a student with a reading disability to listen along to assigned reading and stay up to speed with classmates. The article really hit home on some of the issues I find myself defending to other people who are not as familiar with learning disabilities and sometimes, sadly, even parents of students. One of those issues is that listening to something being read to you is actually cheating because you don’t have to read it yourself. The article disagrees, as do I, saying that anecdotal evidence provides countless stories of kids who once hated reading and now enjoy it (and who also learned to read in part by following along with the audio and the text). RFB&D calls audio books a bridge of the “remediation-accommodation continuum.” Essentially saying that while you’re trying to teach a student how you read, you also should provide them with a means to learn their other subjects since a reading disability creates a barrier to the understanding of all other subjects.
The article really validates what we do at my school which is a private school solely for students with learning disabilities. We accommodate students in any way we can and if that means giving them their lessons on tape then so be it. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to look into the services of RFB&D to see if any of our textbooks are available. Decades from now I know that most of my students will be leading successful and fulfilling lives and if they listened to their science rather than read it, who cares? There is no rule on how one must acquire knowledge. Audio books just level the playing field.
EmTech

A New Blog is Born

2008-03-08T14:43:00.000-05:00

The first question I should answer is maybe not even your question. I’ll explain anyway. The title, Something-Insightful comes from my main site found at www.something-insightful.com which began as a way for me to explore the world of web design and blogging. I’ll only ask that you not look for updates there if you expect to find them here.
Posting to a specific topic is new to me. If you read any of my other blog, you’ll find there is no pattern, rhyme or reason to the topics which are so varied they sometimes make even my head spin. For the sake of good grades and useful practice, I’ve decided to explore the world of technology in exceptional student education. It’s an easy choice for me. As an ESE teacher any information I find can be used to better serve my students. As someone truly interested in what technology can do for students with special learning needs, I am excited to explore what’s out there in this field.
You’ll be “seeing” me soon!

“Expert” in the making,
Em

Something-Insightful [Tech Style]

I Actually Did It!!

Q & A

So much I have forgotten to say

Fourth Participation Log

Interview

Changing Practices

Thoughts

Focus Group #2

Well Here's Something

Done! (Sort of)

Fourth Participation Log

Time Crunch

Feedback

Ooooh This is Cool Too!

Writing: Day 2

Starting to Write

Back on Track

Crisis

More on Speeches

It's Time for Speeches

Third Participation Log

Third Participation Log

Christmas

Fun with MadLibs

Second Participation Log

Just Chatting

Old Meets New

First Participation Log

Finding a Groove

In Their Own Words

Training

I GOT A SMARTBOARD!

Until Further Notice...

More About the Previous Post

Where Do You Want To Go Today?

Turning Words into Actions

Fairness

Inclusion?

Advocacy for LD students

Another Shift of Focus

Last Stop: Social Skills

Tools of the Trade

TouchMath

The Media Equation

TEAM

Refining the Focus

Response to Intervention

Grab Bag

Back to Basics

Hopeful

What Now?

Writing Programs

Reading for Real Life

Super Pens

Storybooks on Computer

What's Available?

Fighting for Accommodations

Audio Books

A New Blog is Born