Peggy+W

﻿﻿﻿  Hi Everyone !  I'm Peggy Wittman (officially listed as Margaret but only my Daddy calls me that on a regular basis ; ) and this is my second class with RTC. I am in the application process for the Gratz Master's program. I am a special educator assigned to the career and tech center in Caroline County (formerly known as vo-tech for those not familiar with CTE) and also teach general education courses in the Alternative school program (for the "bad" kids). I teach middle school social studies and will be teaching a class of 'alternative' high school math second semester of the coming year. This will be my sixth year of teaching (full-time) and I have yet to do the exact same thing two years in a row so I'm very much a jack of all trades (and master of none... yet).

 I live in Easton, MD with my husband, Todd, and our 11 year old twin daughters, Emily and Abigail (who are not very happy about having to get up early again for a whole week this summer). I am trying to really enjoy this last summer with my "little" girls before they enter middle school this year and become full blown drama queens. Like everyone else in the free- ﻿ education world, I enjoy reading for pleasure in my (vast amount of) free time. I also enjoy anything involved with water in the summer (boating, swimming, the beach, the pool, fishing - on occasion). I'm hoping to continue our tour of nearby beaches this summer after this week (traveling from Va. Beach up to the South Jersey Shore and back, hopefully, several times).

I'm looking forward to integrating some more fun technology stuff into my classes and looking forward to lots of engaging conversations in this class.

Willing to be disturbed - "My way or the Highway" old school thinking that has to change for success today.

Four different areas of concern Change, Beliefs, Listening, Needs. Don't have to agree to think well together.

Complexity: work together but think differently.

Curiosity: it's a gift involves good listening

Confusion: deals with change and promotes curiosity

Sharing of ideas, giving up your perceptions. Actively seek to listen to what you don't agree with so you can change your way of thinking or expand upon your ideas.

National Center on UDL: Examples and Resources Love the checkpoints and suggestions for how to get there when creating lessons. Site provides a quick reference check (a how to) for providing options within the three major categories.

Click on examples for great links to other websites to assist with whatever you're trying to do. For example, trying to teach mathematical symbols? Use Math Glosary to create images for math vocabulary (conveniently enough under the standard clarify vocabulary). Checkpoints are action specific - very user friendly with tons of ideas!! <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This is a ready made guide/tool to use to ensure you're hitting all the points in designing UDL lessons.

However, several of the sites were listed as free resources when in reality they were not - they offered trial periods- or they offered too broad of an example/category to be effective for some of my purposes. Overall though I will visit this resource to assist me in my planning and design of lessons.

<span style="color: #008080; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">I am…..

I am from Virginia Beach but now make my home on the Eastern Shore. Special items in my home include Abby, Emily, Todd, Raz and Chloe (my cats), pictures from a lifetime of experiences, my grandmother’s china and her engagement ring, amethyst necklacee (mom-in-law) and pearl earrings (mom), Pat the Bunny, crocheted blankies. Special items in my yard include (on occasion) my cats, our firepit, the shed that holds all of our toys. Garrett and Eleanor Spickerman, Ellen and Arthur Esenberg, Marilyn Briggs – Dietz, Larry Wittman, Helen Rowkoski Nickname – Boo; saying – (from my grandmother) wish in one hand, crap in the other and see which one fills up first (though she didn’t use crap and she didn’t use this saying around children until about age 13). Virginia Beach; Long Island; Fort Myers, FL; Orlando; Rome, Venice; Paris; Brussels; Chicoteague, VA; Margate City, NJ; Atlantic City, NJ; Laughlin, NV; Waldorf, MD; Ocean City, MD; Ocean City, NJ; Easton, MD To own a home on the water (preferably a beach house but a river or lake will do), for my husband to own his own boat brokerage business, for my daughters to both graduate from college and pursue careers that are fulfilling to them, to travel to the Caribean, Europe, South East Asia with my husband. I am most proud of my intelligent, beautiful, well-mannered daughters.

<span style="color: #0eff00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 150%;">Our UDL visual presentation[|Concept web]

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0eff00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 150%;">

<span style="color: #0eff00; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 20px; line-height: 29px;">Jigsaw Chapters 3,4,6,7

Links for chapter 3 on Debbie K.'s/Charlie's page - Sound/Speech can make the biggest impact on presentation. Digital Media is pliable: it can be varied, changed, transformed, connected and networked.

Chapter 4 - UDL - what is it and why? Flexible methods for reaching the 3 areas of the brain dealing with recognition, strategic, and affective learning. See summary on Chap. 4 link (my page) Tools for planning using UDL - Templates available for download through the CAST website (since the UDL one has disappeared) or use above templates to assist in the "hows" of implementing UDL

Chapter 6 - Examples of what recognition, strategic, and affective learning look like (fun activity!) - links on Chris P.'s wiki with great examples and pics of posters on main wiki page for reminders.

Chapter 7 Teaching every student - the whys and hows of assessment. UDL stresses authentic assessment and allowing students to "show what they know" through varied processes. Teachers need to rely more on formative assessment than those big overarching county summatives (which are not very student friendly). Review CAST website and chapter 7 online for examples, clarifications, and ways to overcome barriers to assessment.

USE OF VOICETHREAD voicethread - easy to set up an account + self reflection, feedback, collaboration, self-esteem building, intereseting, self expression, share thoughts-hear, see others, - someone to monitor, monitor responses, log-ins for students, blocked pages, network issues-tech down, not free for over 100 students ($1.00 each after first 100).

[|child labor wordle]

__ Reflection #1 __ At the core of UDL is the premise that often the curriculum is disabled (and disabling!). It is not flexible; it often poses barriers, and consequently prevents rather than supports optimal learning experiences. Do you agree or disagree with this view? Why or why not?

I disagree with this view because the curriculum does not prescribe how we are to teach the content to students. I view the curriculum as the set content we are to teach but not the actual methods of teaching the content. Some of the materials we may use to teach and assess could be considered inflexible (such as textbooks, standardized tests, county benchmarks) but these are only parts of the big picture – not the entirety. It is very possible, with diligent planning and the use of digital media (and some non-digital tools), to create methods and materials that flexibly teach and assess the curriculum. In addition (as a special educator), I understand that the curriculum can be modified (for example just pulling out the big ideas) and the content can be layered to reach students at different levels of readiness. For these reasons, I disagree with the statement that the curriculum itself is disabled.

After discussing this question in class, I am surprised that, essentially, we all had the same concerns (whether we answered yes or no). All of us felt that it was not the content we are required to teach that is disabling, it is the county and state mandated assessments that are inflexible. The other point that was presented that I did not recall in my own reflection was a point regarding pacing guides for certain content areas (particularly math). Pacing guides do make it difficult to really spend the time needed to reteach content when needed. However, once again, this is not so much an example of the content itself as an example of the methods and materials used to teach the content.

UDL planning involves goals, methods, materials, and assessment for all learners. Goals need to be specific but not include how it will be done.

__Goals__ - Benchmarks or expectations for teaching and learning. __Methods__ - Specific instructional methods for the teacher. __Materials__ - Media and tools that are used for teaching and learning. __Assessment__ - Reasons for and methods of measuring student progress.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt;">**Reflection #2** // What are the benefits of analyzing the curriculum for strengths and weaknesses rather than focusing on the student’s strengths and weaknesses? What are the challenges of this approach? //

The benefits of analyzing the curriculum are that you get a better overall big picture of what the content and methods are as opposed to evaluating one aspect at a time. You also can start deconstucting it in using your own learning style; this makes evaluating it quicker and easier. You don’t need to put yourself in the shoes of a student (right off the bat) to evaluate what will be difficult or easy. The challenges to this approach are that it’s not always evident what the weaknesses in the curriculum are. This is especially true when you know the assessment picture will be the biggest problem but you don’t have access to that piece (because of state or county control). I could go on and on so I will cut myself off on this topic. The over-riding comment I heard was that as teachers we have flexibility in controlling the methods of delivery but not so much the "curriculum" or in many cases the assessments tied to that curriculum. The other factor that really hit home for me is that if we take the time to incorporate UDL into our lessons on the front end, ensuring that we consider all the various MI as we develop these lessons, we will then have these resources available repeatedly as opposed to recreating the wheel every semester (or year).

Podcasting - reminder to use within classroom or have students create podcasts for performance tasks. Love XtraNormal - will allow kids to create animated movies without all the hassle of Imovie for fun way to assess! Note to self: set up delicious account - put the common craft movie about delicious in my presentation. I had heard about delicious years ago but didn't get it. Now I understand how it works. Before I thought it was only a web-based spot to store bookmarks and I thought to myself "yeah, and so what." Now I realize the benefit of organizing, tagging, and sharing bookmarks. I don't even need to create my own, I could just look through others but I'm sure that I will stumble across at least one site that's useful enough to share.

Culminating lesson sites:

Prezi

http://prezi.com/k6p31qxh-6s3/significant-figures/

Youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB2szfcwu1A

Sig Fig Podcast:

http://swcta.net/locklear/files/2010/10/Locklear-Podcast.m4v


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<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; color: #5049d0; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">5 new technologies to try and 4 ideas to share with others =====

|| WORDLE!!! - share with anyone who will listen - really I'll share it with my entire faculty and admininstration during staff development PREZI - will especially use with Wordle to emphasize vocabulary - will share with my colleagues (especially those teaching in the Alternative Program) and my husband since it has business applications.

XTRANORMAL - will share with my students (absolutely will use for performance tasks) and (again) with my husband.

Google Docs - I'll be sharing it with my classmates (we'll be working on some prof. development ideas together), my husband (for business), and my colleagues at school.

Delicious.com - now that I understand the real value in this site, I'll be using it myself (and even though I only need to list 4 technologies, I'll be sharing it with anyone else who will listen to me)

3 principles of Universal Design for Learning
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Components of UDL - <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16px;">Representation (what) / Content-Curriculum - provide multiple formats <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16px;">Expression and Action (how) / Process - provide multiple pathways <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16px;">Engagement (why) / through learning, interest profiles, readiness and can lead to Product - provide choice to engage interest

2 changes in your teaching to reach all learners in the Digital Age
I will incorporate more choice using technology in both my methods of teaching and student assessment products. I will more carefully examine my goals and objectives and begin with designing my lessons using UDL as opposed to "retrofitting" my lessons with accommodations.

1 BIG idea to implement “on Monday” - or when we return to school -
UDL is not a strategy or a method - it's a framework that I can use to "deconstruct and reconstruct" the curriculum to ensure that I am looking at all the weaknesses and strengths on the front end (once again) as opposed to "retrofitting."


 * Choice #7: LEP - Presentation Plan – (30 – 60 minutes) = 36 Points (for your part) **

1. Length: approximately 5 – 7 slides = **30 Points (total)**

2. Provide objective(s) & purpose(s) = **2 Points (total)**

3. Provide Agenda & time segments = **2 Points (total)**

4. Where applicable - Include reference information on each slide using APA style = **2 Points (total)**