Teaching in All the Time Zones

  I found several aspects of this class particularly beneficial and applicable to my teaching.  One of those was creating and posting to the blog.  I attended a training from George Couros who wrote The Innovator’s Mindset (2015), a few years back.  I recall him saying that it was likely to make many teachers uncomfortable, but regardless, he asked us which our future students would be more likely to write in their lives beyond school: an essay or a blog?  He was right—I was uncomfortable with this!  As a language arts teacher, I still feel that an essay is inevitable and that all students need to be able to write.  However, I have begun to see the real-world applications of having them do that writing in the form of a blog.     My current students only have limited access to technology, but I am kicking myself for the wasted opportunities in previous 1:1 classes .  I simply did not utilize technology to the extent that I should have.  I can imagine now my students having blogs as a po

 

  According to Rice (2019), all technology is “assistive” technology, whether a user is disabled or not. In this sense, any use of technology in the classroom is assistive, and designed to meet the needs of all of our students. Roblyer and Hughes (2019) explain that enhancements to online courses must occur to ensure accessibility to students with special needs such as those with vision, hearing, and physical impairments. These enhancements can include the ability to enlarge text, alternatives to mouse controls, alternative keyboards, alternatives to videos, alternatives to audio, and alternatives to text presentation.   In my own classroom, I have taught students with severe physical disabilities who have district-provided assistive technology to help them access the curriculum, and students with mild physical or learning disabilities who require me to provide access to the technology.   One form of assistive technology that I have used is providing access to read- alouds . I a

Infographic created at piktochart.com  

 Breakout EDU Link to demonstration video on Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13SR369QeGNkf2DSJyG1M94OZOMub7z4P/view?usp=sharing     I selected BreakoutEDU as a tool to help my students practice working with positive and negative connotations.  After a lesson on determining tone from our reading, I realized that students may need practice identifying the connotations of certain words to help them determine the author’s tone while reading.  I had previously been introduced to BreakoutEDU , but not yet used it.  I’m glad I found it!  Overall, I am pleased with the selection.  It is a good way to build teamwork with students as they attempt to solve the puzzles, and it gives them good practice in determining connotations.  I liked the balance of difficulty in the locks, and I think it would work well with heterogeneous groups at a station rotation in my classroom.  BreakoutEDU is a good tool to review information in a fun and challenging way.    

                           Some teachers with whom I have worked have been incorporating gaming into their curriculum. I have quietly watched the students “working” on their game worlds that either incorporate the measurement calculations they have been working on in math, or their knowledge of cultures and people from social studies. I have noticed both benefits and challenges associated with this gaming. Concerning benefits, students are certainly engaged. They have created large worlds that have required many hours of work and students are proud of what they have created. However, the challenges that I have noticed stem from the students’ ability to actually use this engaging task for learning . Students often seem more focused on what outlandish things they can design or have their characters do to entertain their peers than completing the assignments to demonstrate understanding of the content. Roblyer and Hughes (2019) explain the challenges of gaming similarly explaini