Disability Culture

The article The Psychological View of Disability Culture, by Carol Jill, gives great insight to the disabled community. Things we must keep in mind as teachers of disabled students. Ms Jill states, “Core values of the disabled are: 1) An acceptance of human differences, 2) A matter-of-fact orientation toward helping; an acceptance of human vulnerability and interdependence as part of life, 3)  A flexible, adaptive approach to tasks; a creativity stimulated by both limited resources and experience with untraditional modes of operating.” Teachers must also hold these values when creating a learning environment for their disabled students.

Teaching Special Education

This article Teaching Special Kids, gives special education teachers wonderful resouces. More educators are teaching children with learning disabilities. With more states and districts mainstreaming special education students and those with learning disabilities, classroom teachers as well as special education teachers need to know the laws and policies that apply to students with disabilities and strategies to maximize their learning.

“Learning disabilities” is a term used to describe the seeming unexplained difficulty a person of at least average intelligence has in acquiring basic academic skills. These skills are essential for success at school and work, and for coping with life in general. A learning disability is not a single disorder. It is a term that refers to a group of disorders and can become apparent in different ways with different people, at different stages of development and in different settings. Learning disabilities can affect a person’s ability in the areas of listening, speaking, reading writing, and mathematics and is often first suspected when there is a clear and unexplained gap between an individual’s level of expected and actual levels of achievement. Learning disabilities also can encompass problems in the area of social-emotional skills and behavior, and some individuals with learning disabilities struggle with peer relationships and social interactions in addition to academic challenges.

Teachers must be prepared for the challenge of teaching diverse learners in all settings. This site can answer many questions that teachers face daily. It provides on-line resources, behavior management, lesson/activities,  informational resources, technology resources, and additional special education sites. If you are a special education teacher please check out this article.

Teaching in a Diverse Community

This video is based in a school near Boston were the population is 33% special education. The video explains inclusion the classroom and the demands of the teachers. Technology in the classroom is used for low to the extremely high learners. Technology can give slower learners support and challenge the higher learners. Technology is not for one type of learner it can be used successfully within the most diverse settings. Students respond to technology. Technology motivates students in the classroom. A teacher that is able to use technology in the classroom for all learners is setting an environment of successful learning.

Evaluating Web Sites

Principles of evaluating web sites, by Steven Downes states, “How do you know whether something you read on the web is true? You can’t know, at least, not for sure. This makes it important to read carefully and to evaluate what you read. This is the most important principle of reading on the internet. You must determine for yourself whether or not something is true.” The guide that Steven Downes has written is an easy read for anyone who is evaluating web sites for classroom use. It is a step by step guide that anyone can understand and impliment within the classroom.

Blogs, Wiki, and Podcasts

Sue’s blog gives ideas for using blogs, wiki, and podcasts in the classroom. She posts other teacher’s blogs for more ideas and activities using technology in the classroom. There are various resouce links that teachers can use. There is a link for students to create digital portfolios for their classroom. There are so many great ideas I cannot list them all. Check out Sue’s video and blog above and lets all get connected.

Rubrics

Rubistar saves you many hours of making rubrics for your classroom. This site has templates for rubrics. You can customize the rubric to fit your needs or use the template that is available. This is a free site and can be used at anytime. In the classroom the use of a rubric is important to let your students know your expectations on assignments. Rubistar is a resource that teachers can use easily and effectively.

Reading

Reading A to Z is one of my favorite sites. As a special education teacher I find this site helpful when all students are at a different level of reading. On this site you can print book for your students to help them with reading, phonics, and it has great activities as well. Frederick County subscribes to this site. This site will save you money because you can print books instead of having to purchase books. The books themselves are geared to specific diverse learning abilities.

Power Point

Teachers using technology site was an interesting twist to power points. I had always used power points as a tool for presentations and learning. I had not thought about the idea this site uses. The teacher used power point as an assessment for a test. The students had to present a power point about what they learned in reading a particular chapter. Students could use clip art to describe learning if their writing skills were lacking for a diverse population. I thought this was a great idea I had not thought of before for student assessment.

Net Trekker

Net Trekker is a educational search engine that brings the best of the web to students, teachers, and parents. This site connects you and your students to more than 180,000 hand-selected, educator-approved sites. The site is organized by readability level and aligned with your state standards, providing resources ideal for every student’s learning needs with safe, reliable results. So as a teacher this site can save you time and energy! Instead of long hours searching the net for the perfect site, this site can connect you quickly and safely. This site has a free-trail so please check it out!

Podcasts

This blog by Allisyn Levy is a great resource for first time podcast users in the classroom. The teacher gives simple step by step instructions on how she implimented podcasting in her classroom. She states, ” I realized that creating classroom podcasts could be one those projects that I might actually be able to pull off! By having students record audio and/or video either individually or in small groups, podcasts can become a successful classroom project.” These easy instructions can be used by any teacher that is a tech beginner like myself.