1. Ruth Chamberlin

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Prenski Article:  comments

Within the specific area of my profession, Sp. Ed.,  I have struggled as an immigrant within the technology spectrum due to the fact that most of my required paper work (which is a huge percentage of my time) requires word processing on documents created by someone at the state level and formatted in a very defined way. The forms and formatting change regularly, for ex. 4 different IEP forms within the past 8 years. Every time I think that I may have advanced a level in my abilities to handle the technology.....it all changes....French mastered oops new forms in Italian.

Another personal experience that relates to being an immigrant within the world of technology occurred at least 10 years ago when we had high-schoolers at home and purchased the 1st, 2nd and third computers in order to keep up with the natives technological needs.  Whenever I tried to accomplish ANYTHING aboard a computer and ran into trouble....I asked the natives....The natives said, "You just have to keep playing with it until you find out for yourself.  The only way to learn, MOM, is to just do it".  How frustrating!!!!! I even took a couple of basic courses, but still ended up an imigrant.

Day Two 

Required Reading:

I chose to read the article about differentiated instruction.  I found the information very interesting and although, as I read along, I kept getting this mental image of what it must be like to be "the perfect teacher" and be able to incorporate all of the strategies within the classroom environment,  I also think that every good teacher tries to differentiate their instruction in every way possible, however, the restraints of the design of our school systems is not always conducive to employing all of the strategies...Differentiating content, Differentiating the process/activities, Differentiating the product,and Differentiating the learning environment according to individual student needs. The ideas and strategies within this web site are definately useful and I hope to return to it at a later time. There was soooo much information, and many topics, particularly under learning styles, assessment info. and rubrics that I would like to have time to get back to. I certainly think that although we all try to use differentiated instruction as best we can, the use of the technology embedded within the article would surely making an otherwise imposing task more user friendly for both the teacher and the student. Differentiated instruction is an incredibly valuable strategy for the disabled learners within our classrooms. Parts of the article read like the accommodations and recommendations that are included on every child's IEP. A valuable outcome of a lengthly and timely student evaluation is the incredible amount of information that is gained about a specific child's learning style and basic needs in order to access information within the classroom environment. I think that being a native within the field of technology and being a student in a classroom where the teacher uses a variety of strategies in order to engage ALL students will be a way to throw a rope to drowning students who cannot read, have a written language deficit or need alternative ways to solve math calculation and/or math reasoning problems. I think that the use of Differentiated Instruction within the classroom is a "self-esteem" builder for children with learning disabilities because activities that accommodate individual learning styles and move on a continuum of complexity eliminates the "Dummy" complex.

I agree with what you said about the image of "the perfect teacher" and differentiating all instruction to meet the needs of all students.  It is not always easy and can sometimes feel overwhelming.  Learning more about technology this week has given me some inspiration!  Next year, I will have one IEP student and several Title I students and I am thinking about how to use what I learned this week and connect that with their accomodations and goals.  I think many of those children will be motivated to use the tools we have been shown this week.-Kate

Day Three:  Kathy Schrock

Items of interest to me after a quick glance include:

• Special Education site
• Gifted Education Resource Guide/Hoagies' Gifted Education Page
• Rubrics and Assessment tools site
• Literature and Language Arts   (AEsop's Fables)  (Grammar and Writing)

 This is definately a site that I will get back to over the summer for beginning of the school year planning. I am on the WSSU committee to explore the possibility of a gifted and talented program and I found information that will be helpful for summer meetings. Rubrics have long been a favorite tool for incorporating the advancement of particular skills within an IEP and there are TONS of rubrics to look at and get ideas from.  The RED RIBBON award in literature caught my eye...I often start the Lab School Classes' year off with a study of Aesop and here they are all in one place with lots of teaching ideas.   This could be fun.