Day 3 Hamilton
Hamilton Township Public Schools Tagged Hamilton, INCLUDE, Math, Technology, UDL May 6th, 2008I hope the theories behind Universal Design for Learning are all coming together for you and that you are excited to implement the strategies in your classrooms.
We’ve spent a lot of time working on our Toolkit today – specifically tools for math. Before you spend the afternoon working on using our UDL Lesson Plan Template from Cast read the blog post listed below.
On April 9, 2008, Ira Socol’s posted Not Getting to Universal Design on his blog. Please read his post and leave your comment (reflections) either on his blog or here today.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:40 am
As I was reading the article I kept thinking one thing, “most people don’t have the time or desire to try new things”. A lot of the new types of instruction such as differentiated instruction, hitting on the multiple intelligences and the inclusion of technology, all take time to learn and implement. I think that some people don’t have an adversity to the new ways of teaching; they just don’t feel they have the time to learn how to implement them. I think some people get “stuck” in the old way of teaching because that is where they are most comfortable. Its not so much a problem with people wanting to keep some children back, they just don’t have the time to learn how to accommodate them.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:43 am
There are things that need to be reexamined in the education of students as well as teachers. I tutor teachers with the desire to teach, but with testing scores for the Praxis which are just below the cut offs that are required as minimums in PA & NJ. We support the desire to have differenciated learning in the classrooms for students, but only test teachers one way. That leaves great teachers with weaker test taking skills out of the classroom! That is a great loss. Sandy
May 9th, 2008 at 10:44 am
This was certainly an interesting article. While I realize that today’s educational system needs to be changed in order to achieve success for all, I never considered that the current system may be a “consciously” designed this way in an effort to prevent all people from succeeding. I’d like to believe that this was untrue. Either way, I will work hard to adopt UDL in my classroom.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Without a doubt, something has to change in education. Too many are dropping out of school. Although much of the blame has to do with problems such as family structure and poverty levels, schools must also examine ways to enable students who haven’t been suceeding to suceed. Much of the article pinpoints the problem of schools not addressing the need of many students to learn in modalities that may be familiar to the learner and not so familiar to the educator. An article I read recently described the fact that a fifty year old could go into a classroom today and not find things much different in teaching methology than when that person was ten years old. The same would be true for a seventy year old. Things have changed dramantically in society and things need to change dramatically in education.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:58 am
The article was enlightening. I was reflecting on my situation in being involved with the INCLUDE grant. The opportunities that my students will receive next year due to the grant are incredible. I always think back to our first workshop when we introduced universal design for learning and how difficult it would be without having the technology. Students who do not have access to the technology will become further behind other students who have it. And the students who are behind are the less privileged.
May 11th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. I would like to add that though I agree that time is a barrier for us as educators, I don’t believe that it should keep us from improving our teaching and learning. As Virginia said, some classrooms have not made the leaps that they need to in order to keep up with the changes in society and of course in research in how our students learn.
Time will always be in demaand – we just need to make the best use of it.
Lisa