Where do we go from here? What skills are you working on with your students? We should always determine the skills before we determine which tool will help us remove barriers and provide flexibility in the classroom.
Comment on what your goal for yourself is for the next month. What skill are you working on?
Well if you've made it as far as this blog then you've made it past the first couple of hours of UDL training. Congratulations! You now have the basic understanding that Universal Design for Learning is the framework for something that you've been working so hard as an educator to do for your students this year and possibly for many years past as well. You also have a digital copy of the slideshow from today's presentation to refer back to you whenever you need it along with this blog as a resource. The next step is to please read the Case Study: Teaching Probability in Middle School found at http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/casestories/cs3/ and comment on the traditional versus UDL approaches discussed towards the end. Be specific as to which approaches have been successes or failures for you and which you can see yourself attempting to implement before the end of the school year. Also, I've embedded the CommonCraft video on Social Bookmarking that we watched together. We'll be using Delicious a lot this year, so refer back to this video when you need to. Add it your bookmarks if you'd like.
Please consider joining educators from around the world in an online collaborative group to discuss the theory of Universal Design for Learning, what’s working and not working with students, and a selection of some of the best (and worst) digital tools available to help you meet the needs of all of your students.
If you are ready to explore more tools and collaborate with more educators before we meet again, you might consider joining the UDL Ning at http://udl4all.ning.com/
We’ve spent a lot of time working on our Toolkit today. You’ve reviewed a handful of tools that you may or may not want to use in your classroom. Please, before you leave, do one of the following:
1. Leave a comment here discussing which tool was your favorite, why and how specifically you see using it with your class.
2. Visit Ira Socol’s blog and read his post from April 9 called Not Getting to Universal Design. Please leave Ira a comment on his blog.
3. Visit Heather’s del.icio.us links and/or Lisa’s del.icio.us links and choose another tool tagged “UDL”. Leave a comment here letting us know which tool you selected. Be prepared to demonstrate the tool the next time we meet as a group.
We 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. You can find a digital copy of today’s presentation at Slideshare.net.
Well if you’ve made it as far as this blog then you’ve made it past the first couple of hours of UDL training. Congratulations! You now have the basic understanding that Universal Design for Learning is the framework for something that you’ve been working so hard as an educator to do for your students this year and possibly for many years past as well.
Please read the article, “Burbank Students Use Blog to Learn English”, by Kim Minugh found at http://www.sacbee.com/220/story/846880.html and comment on the digital project that Larry Ferlazzo designed in collaboration with other educators to help his students learn to become more fluent in English.
Today we reviewed the characteristics of useful digital media and evaluated websites to determine how we could utilize them in the UDL classroom to support the learning of all students. Choose a website, or digital resource, and write a recommendation for teaching colleagues. Name the site, or tool, explain why the teacher should consider it, and describe how it could be used in the UDL classroom. Use those persuasive skills to get colleagues to use new tools to ensure that all students learn.
Well if you’ve made it as far as this blog then you’ve made it past the first couple of hours of UDL training. Congratulations! You now have the basic understanding that Universal Design for Learning is the framework for something that you’ve been working so hard as an educator to do for your students this year and possibly for many years past as well.
Please read the article, “Burbank Students Use Blog to Learn English”, by Kim Minugh found at http://www.sacbee.com/220/story/846880.html and comment on the digital project that Larry Ferlazzo designed in collaboration with other educators to help his students learn to become more fluent in English.
This is our last session together before you visit Cast and before you spend some time at the College of New Jersey putting together some UDL lessons. We’re going to take some time today to look at ourselves as learners by completing an online (or print) inventory. Print out a copy of a learning styles inventory at http://www.ldrc.ca/projects/miinventory/mitest.html, take an online inventory and identify your type with the Jung Typology Test or the Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire or the Memletics Learning Style Questionnaire.
We’ll also be taking a close look at math tools that fit into the UDL classroom today. Roberta has set up an eBoard just for your group at http://hamilton.cmsce.site.eboard.com and will share the password with you during our session together. Let us know by leaving a comment here any tools that you’d like to see permanently added to the toolkit. (Don’t forget to also bookmark them to your Del.icio.us account.
During the afternoon we’ll take a look at some sample UDL lessons and a template at http://www.patinsproject.com/universal_design_for_learning_project_files/udl_lesson_template%202.doc. You’ll also find additional resources regarding the creation of UDL lessons on Roberta’s Hamilton eBoard.
Today we reviewed the characteristics of useful digital media and evaluated websites to determine how we could utilize them in the UDL classroom to support the learning of all students. Choose a website, or digital resource, and write a recommendation for teaching colleagues. Name the site, or tool, explain why the teacher should consider it, and describe how it could be used in the UDL classroom. Use those persuasive skills to get colleagues to use new tools to ensure that all students learn.
