Chrissy

__Reflection of Day 1__

Hey Jon! I found your presentation yesterday refreshing! I love your energy and your obvious enthusiasm for teaching...not only teaching children, but us adults. I have 2 years of experience with UDL, but I am still looking for that moment when the lightbulb goes off!! I am hoping that over the next few days, I will gain something new to take into my classroom for the upcoming school year.

I liked when we took the opportunity to think about both a negative and positive experiences during our schooling.....it made me think about how my students may perceive me and the way that I teach. I also enjoyed the activity where we chose a sentence, phrase, and word that was meaningful for us. I could see this working in any classroom, with any subject matter.

I look forward to the rest of the workshop.

__I apsire to....__

In an ideal world, all students will learn everything that they are expected to. In reality, we are faced with so many obstacles in our classroom. I aspire to find ways to reach all learners, and never to assume that they way that I have chosen for them to learn will work for them. Even when you give a student choice, you are still saying, "Okay, choose from Activity A or Activity B." While this may be better than the traditional way of learning something, it still may not be the way that it works best for that particular student. We are assuming that all students would like to either: 1. Make a Poster 2. Make a Power Point or 3. Write a Report on a particular topic. Why not ask THEM what way would help them learn the best??

In addition to the child with what we have labeled "disabilities", I also want to consider the gifted child. This is the child who has entered my class already knowing what I'm about to teach, or the child who quickly picked it up, and no longer needs my assistance on a particular topic. Is he/she now "disabled" because I am holding him/her back? How about choices for that student.....to go beyond the curriculum. I aspire to provide outlets for that student. Possibly an "independent study" or something similar.

__Reflection of Wednesday__ I very much enjoyed reading the article, "The Future is in the Margin". It certainly made me think about some things. The part about how students should be measured based on their learning, not necessarily the content that they have learned was a true eye-opener. I wish all schools and governments believed in this same philosophy. I'm a big believer that my role as an educator is to teach students how to LEARN, not just shove facts down their throats. However, with the pressures of state testing, sometimes we have no choice. This is unfortunate.

The article also had a good point about all environments not working for all students. For example, what works for a student with ADHD may actually be traumatizing for a student with Autism. I had this exact situation in my classroom this year, and it is something that I hadn't thought about. I had a very learner-active classroom with many high energy students. While I was always concerned about my student with Autism, I never really thought about how the actual environment may have affected him. I'm now thinking about his anxieties, and how he may have felt with all of the movement and conversation that was happening around him.

__LESSON PLAN__ I revamped a previous lesson to now reflect the Common Core Standards and the UDL Principles. It is still a work in progress.