Sharon+H

[|UDL Prezi]
My name is Sharon Harvey and I have been teaching middle school special education for 17 years. I have a 16 year old son, Nicholas, who will be a junior in high school this coming school year. My husband owns an Italian restaurant called //La Dolce Vita.//

//At school, I am very involved in the union at recording secretary and grievance chairperson. I have also coached cross country and chaired the Municipal Alliance. In my "spare" time, I enjoy watching my son run. He is a member of the high school cross country team, as well as the winter and spring track teams. We are planning a golf outing fundraiser if anyone is interested.//

My Class Website


 * __ Reflection 1 __**

I agree with this statement. I agree that the curriculum and traditional mode of teaching does not meet all learners’ needs. Students come to school with a variety of skills and backgrounds. Not only are there students with varying disabilities and or abilities, there are also students from varying cultural backgrounds. In order to meet all learners needs information needs to be presented in varying ways.

__Reflection 2__

The benefits of analyzing the curriculum for strengths and weaknesses rather than focusing on the student’s strengths and weaknesses is that the sustainability of what is analyzed. Students’ strengths and weaknesses change over time and from year to year. If the curriculum is changed it can be fitted to the students instead of the other way around. The challenge in this is that the curriculum has to be flexible and should be looked at on a regular basis. It should be ever evolving instead of stagnant.

__Reflection 3__

Utilizing a variety of materials and methods will aid in reaching more learners because it removes or eliminates the barriers for some learners. For example, if you only used textbooks and certain students are unable to read on grade level, these students would not be able to access the information in an efficiently. The challenges it presents is that all the materials should be presenting the same information. Also, it poses more planning time for the classroom teacher.

__ Reflection 4 __

The challenges of only offering traditional assessment methods is that there may be students in your classroom who are unable to communicate their knowledge of a specific topic through the same means as other. Some students can not read the questions and therefore would not understand what is being assessed. Others are unable to communicate their knowledge in a written format, however would be able to express themselves better verbally. When establishing an assessment, an educator much ask himself/herself what are you trying to assess (knowledge wise)? How that knowledge is expressed, is it part of the asssement? When use multiple means of assessment the challenges come when you want to make sure that what is being assessed is equal for everyone. Starting with generating what you want to assess and then moving forward from there will give the guidelines for means of assessement.


 * __Reflection 5__**
 * Given the realities of our modern age, I believe that teachers have an obligation to incorporate modern technologies into their classroom. Teachers need to adjust their methodologies to the ever changing world. In order to prepare their students for their futures, teachers need to utilize what technology is available to them. Teaching does allow for some flexibility in presentation of materials. In this way, teachers would have the flexibility to incorporate different multi-media tools into their classroom rountine. Additionally, teachers should be instilling a love a learning in their students. This does also apply to themselves. They, as teachers, should have a love of learning new methodologies and modern technologies which they can then in turn use in their classrooms. The goal is to be a live long learner, which should apply not only to the student, but the teacher as well.**

__Reflection 6__ __I__ am excited to go back to my classroom in September and start implementing some of the ideas that I learned from this course. This course definately gave me a clear focus of what Universal Design is and should look like in a classroom. Since I will be teaching in two UDL classrooms this fall (math and language arts) for the first time, I feel like I now have the tools to make this new position for me happen more smoothly. It has also motivated me to further research what unverisal design is and how I can bring it to my district and classroom.

**__5,4,3,2,1__**

5- Wikis, flickr, Google Docs, Google Lit, Podcast

4- One idea that I have used with my class is making online posters using Glogster. After finishing a novel the students made posters using this site. It was a different way to summarize and assess their knowledge of a novel. Additionally, the site allows the students to share and comment on each others creations. THe students were able to use their creativity and they enjoyed being able to interact with the other students in the class.

3- Representation, Expression, Engagement

2-

1- Something to try on "Monday"- I would like to start a class Wiki to have students each have a page as an electronic portfolio for writing and reflectioning on readins in the classroom. The reflection page would be something that all the students in the class could interact on.


 * What kinds of flexibility must instructional materials have to make individualization work? **


 * **Must begin with clearly stated goals**
 * ** Have a repertoire of strategies to meet the diverse needs and diverse skills **
 * ** A variety of materials used to reach goals: choices in content and tools; varying levels of challenges; varying choice in awards; choices of learning context. **
 * ** Lots of models and examples **
 * ** Multiple media and formats **
 * ** Multi-media composition tools: Hyperstudio, Kid Pix, Ppt. **
 * ** Graphic Orgs: Kidspiration and Inspiration **
 * ** Text to speech and speech to text software **
 * ** Flexible to eliminate barriers **
 * ** Various approaches to present content. **
 * ** Individualized Webquests for additional guidance **