TFTL+Standard+III

TF/TL Standard III: Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum

The performance indicators in Standard III included: integrating technology into the general curriculum, learner-centered instruction, creating opportunities for higher order thinking, allowing for diverse needs of all learners, the necessity for a good curriculum plan, and implementing research-based instruction (Williamson 66). One activity I worked on for this standard was helping students make a video using my flip camera after they had written a sketch on ideal social skills. They created a character named "Super Scholar," and wrote a sketch based on scholarly behavior. They wrote and directed, then I filmed it and edited it with our LSSP(April-May, 2010). This standard is where I was able to expand my knowledge in the area of universal design for learning, which is something I will be able to use daily since I am a special education teacher. Creating the online course was a tremendous help to me because many of my students benefit from being able to demonstrate their learning in ways outside of the traditional lecture, pen, and paper setting. I used this in the cooking club that I led last year to introduce safety and good nutrition in the kitchen (December, 2009). This information was also shared with our campus staff so that they could know about the UDL tools available and see some of my personal examples of products created on the site (December, 2009). I was able to help students learn how to use Inspiration (November, 2009) to create a flow chart of how to handle frustration in appropriate ways and Power Point (March, 2010) to write and present book reports.

I have continued to use the universal design for learning principles in my teaching and have been able to see the benefit to my students. Working with others on the creation of the student video was a great experience. Helping students learn software such as Power Point and Inspiration is a great tool to give them. They can transfer that learning to so much else that they will be doing in the future. I would like to continue to find resources where I can create online courses for my students because of the many benefits I see in that method of content delivery. There are some that are content-area specific that I am already trying to work with now, such as Riverdeep for math, Think Central for math and reading, Education City for reading, math, and science, and Spelling City for spelling and grammar. All of these include instruction, tutorials, formative and summative assessments, and can all be personalized based upon student ability levels. I wonder why some sites similar to these are still blocked by the district, though. I am hoping that over time this will change and the benefits will be seen as outweighing any other concerns that exist about money or exposure.

Williamson, J. & Redish, T. (2009). //ISTE’s technology facilitation and leadership standards: What every K-12 leader should know and be able to do//. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education, pp. 57-99.