E-Book and E-book lesson plan!

I really enjoyed using the E-book, it was extremely simple and straight to the point as far as using tools and setting up the story book itself. I can see where these book would come into play in teaching students with disabilities skills they would need for every day life. I would most definatly use this as a tool in a special education classroom in the future.

What i learned about Social Stories!

This week I was very impressed by the reading and some what surprised that i hadn't heard of these before. The idea presented in the More article,

"many children learn easily by watching others, imitating actions, and cuing into subtle social cues. However, some students with disabilities have trouble acquiring these social skills. These children require a more intensive intervention to make gains in the social area"

is what we know to be true about students with autism. That is why this idea of creating a social story is so brilliant. As it's said in the article on Polyxo.com,

"Social Stories attempt to address the "theory of mind" impairment by giving individuals some perspective on the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of others."

This different perspective is made tangible with these stories. So instead of a student having to learn a behavior from observing it, which as we know is very difficult for our students with autism, they can hold it in their hands and read it off a page. Some things to keep in mind as you're creating these stories for the children are what the problem is they are having and not making it overly complicated.This is a very successful practice that i will surely be using in my future career as a teacher.

Debriefing Newsletter and Sign up

This was a really easy couple of tools. It's all extremely spelled out and self explanatory. Another very nice part about this is the fact that I can really see myself using this in the future. These are two very easy ways to communicate with parents. So plain and simple i loved these two tools.

Blogroll reflection.

Well, today I experimented with my blogroll. I can see that this may become a very useful tool for people like me in the future. I think this simply because it's a fun way to keep yourself up to date on the latest topics throughout the education world.

The blogs I chose to follow all have a certain significance to me that can help me in the future, whether it be in the next couple months or the next couple years. The first blog I will discuss is the About.com Special education post by Jerry Webster. This blog has many things included on it, however the two posts that caught my eye were one about a refection of a book he read about teacher behaviors within a classroom and the second was about the Best Buddies Program, which has been mentioned to me on campus a few times.

My next blog was on a piece of Assistive technology called the Mindview 4. MatchWare MindView is a comprehensive, visual learning tool designed to help you develop and organize ideas. This is one tool i had never seen before that i could see extremely useful in a classroom

My third blog also had to do with Assistive technology in the classroom. I personally thought this was interesting too because it had all sorts of postings on how to use technology in several different situations. For example one that stood out to me was how a blind student could use an iPod touch in class. Also it includes a great post and video on how you can use low tech tools in an inclusion classroom.

And last but not least I chose a blog for me (click here for blog). You may not know this but i recently discovered that I am a sub-par Power Point user. Well, my last web blog i have chosen contains 100 ways and counting to be more successful teachers by using Power Point. The reason are clear why i chose this blog, I can use it for the rest of my teaching life! 

Debriefing the WebQuest assignment.....

Well to be very short sweet and to the point. I will never use webquest ever again. I really hope that I wasn't the only one who had trouble with this assignment but I spent all day on this assignment and I turned it in out of pure frustration at about 12 30 tonight. I've never done an assignment and just been so clueless. I literally have no clue why it was so difficult but the directions wern't clear. You had us do the tutorial on how to create the Webquest, and then I thought maybe I was just completing the teachers webquest from north carolina, but were we creating our own webquest for a parent? Honestly I still have no idea. Why would we have completed the tutorial on how to create a webquest if we were just going to fill one out? As I said I am at the peak of my frustration at 1:00 am on saturday morning and at this point I'm just venting, but I have never spent so much time on an assignment and just been so clueless. Hopefully you can explain this to me later but I don't even know what to say. Sorry I'm reacting this way but I really can't help it. Esspecially because I'm pretty sure I didn't complete the assignment the right way to begin with.

My First google doc experience!

Quite honestly folks google docs is a great concept but, it has it's flaws. I would much rather do the work on my own home computer and be completly secure about who can edit your document after you put all that hard work in. I mean really I see the upsides to it but i need that security at home, you never know who's out there trying to delete your work. However it is quite easy to use,

                                                                 -Eric D

Motivating teachers to Motivate Learners with Flickr

Hey all,
            yeah i put a little twist on the first title very simply because i feel that all of these tools that have been presented to me in these articles should be there to motivate kids to learn in, and outside the classroom. But, i also feel that for the bored teachers, the burnt out teachers who came into teaching for the right reasons but now are just irritated by everyday work. So for those teachers this is also for you! It's a quick easy way for everybody to have fun in class and still learn the same amount of information. The teacher has fun while they are putting the lesson together and obviously the student has fun using this activity. This is a great example of a puzzle that could be used in a history lesson. you could prompt this puzzle by asking the question who is the first president of the united states?

In the first article i read it mentioned several ways i havn't thought of that would be really good to pratice a child's english skills, as far as, responding to an article. Things just as simple as responding in complete sentences could be very valuble to students in building there english language skills. Also i feel incorporating pictures and topics of intrest can make these activitys fun for almost any student. And i feel anytime you incorporate photo sharing websites you will get students excited about learning.

My new favorite tool online!!

Today through this assignment i discovered a web tool called Blerp. This at first struck me as a strange tool to try to use in a classroom setting, and then it hit me! I could use this web tool for any child who wanted to research a topic, with or without my assistance, depending on the age of the children. This web site allows you to call up and website that has a URL(all of them) and simpley comment on them. So my idea was to have a child who is researching a topic take notes on this web site. Obviously anyone in class could use this tool but i'm currently just thinking children with special needs. If a child doesn't have legible hand writing, or for some other reason cannot take nots or do reasearch this is the perfect tool for you

                         Check it out for yourself and be amazed-------> http://www.blerp.com/browser/index

Tonight's Class!

I'm pretty excited to finally be in class and working with the computer and having these great discussions with all of my wonderful classmates. It's awsome to be able to test my opinion of a subject against other individuals within the class who are in, or going into the same field of study as me. I'mt siked to get to work on some of these projects and really think im going to do well. I see myself as a pretty technologically savy guy. This is probably because i took pretty much every course in high school that had to do with technology except for keyboarding. I'm also looking forward to working with WIX to make my website on muscular dystrophy. This is a topic that i've selected because i have great memories of one of my first kidergaten students, that i worked with. She was a saint in class, the only thing i wish was that i could do more for her within the classroom. This way i won't miss another oppurtunity. Ultimatly i'm really looking forward to this whole class.

How UDL fits in Web 2.0

Topic: After reading the article Web 2.0: A New Generation of Learners and watching the Web 2.0 video , discuss how a classroom routed in Universal Design for Learning fits in to the Web 2.0 world. Enhance your response by discussing any specific benefits but also potential negatives or drawbacks when thinking about individuals with disabilities.

General Thoughts: Honestly shown by this article, the main idea is the fact that the internet can really be used by anybody today to communicate any type of information. To jump into the connection to Universal Design for Learning right away, i thought back to the video from last week. The original and first connection in my brain i made between UDL and Web 2.0 was the fact that the teacher in that UDL video almost right off the bat said, "the teachers need to meet their curriculum goals and hev a very diverse group of students." In my mind today with the children in our society the internet is a tool that everyone learns how to use. So in my mind no matter how diverse a class is, Web 2.0 used correctly by students can level the playing field and shrink this diversity or even take it away all together. This thought goes hand in hand with the next point made in the UDL video. The thought that UDL is put in place to minimize barriers in the educational process. Through using web 2.0 some of these barriers can be broken down. For example if there is a language barrier with a student within a classroom, that student may be able to get some active help through the internet.
I feel that the idea behind web 2.0 has all of the characteristics of a Universal, well designed program indeed. It can be used by many groups of people, and it is relitivly easy with some practice.
The only flaw in the idea of Web 2.0 that i see is the fact that anyone can go on and publish information. This can very quickly be avoided in my mind by a quick set of guidelines while trying to find a source that can be set by a teacher in any individual class.
While this can be very benificial for most children for other children with certain dissabilities that cannot always use technology such as a computer, this can be just another one of the many obsticals to overcome on the long road to "overcoming" their disability.
In conclusion, i do agree their is a place for this in a certain class, with kids of a certain age, but this is not always the greatest way of teaching.