Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Podcasting Simplified - Five Easy Steps

Considering podcasting with your students this year? Still have questions about how to podcast or struggling with where to begin?

Jose Picardo has simplified the podcasting process for those of us who benefit from seeing a visual demonstration. Follow along with this short (five minute) video and you will be well on your way to podcasting with your students. Offer podcast creation as one of the choices for your students to demonstrate what they have learned. Or use podcasts as a means of content delivery for those who benefit from hearing material repeated mulitple times. They can decide how many times they need to hear the presentation.



Here's another tool that gives students control over their learning. Consider the possibilities; it just may be the tool that offers unprecendented success to a struggling learner.

Thanks to Joe Dale for sharing this resource.

Drop EVERYTHING and Watch This Keynote!

Update: Thanks to Gary Stager for some background about Dalton Sherman who aspires to one day be President. I believe it!

As Kevin Jarrett said in his blog post today, "Every. Educator. Must. Watch. This. NOW!"

This was the keynote presentation delivered last week to 20,000 Dallas Educators....by a fifth grade boy, Dalton Sherman. His passion and confidence are extraordinary. His words are inspiring. His message is critical for all educators to hear.

You have NEVER seen another keynote like this before. It is worth your time, it's impact is that significant.

"Do YOU believe in me?.... What WE need from YOU, is to believe that WE can reach our highest potential."



I wish for that same confidence for all of the students with whom I work.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Spotlighting AT Successes

Check out these videos that highlight the use of assistive technology which dramatically improves the lives of two students. The first video is a bout a six year old with autism who was essentially non-verbal when he entered preschool. The effective integration of the BookWorm Literacy Tool by Ablenet promoted Josh's language development. Click on the picture below to watch this video to learn how.


The second video is about Elina, a 10 year old girl with athetoid cerebral palsy who demonstrates her alternate computer access method, her word processing skills and her use of Clicker 5 by Cricksoft. Thank you to AssistiveWare for creating this video. You can watch it by clicking the picture below.



The Mel Levine Dilemma

What to do about Mel Levine.

What do we do when one of our professional heroes, the one whose website is entitled All Kinds of Minds (because he cares about all kinds of minds), is accused of doing harm to those he was entrusted to help?

What do we do when someone who has impacted us greatly as educators, a well-respected and admired developmental pediatrician, falls off the pedestal? When disturbing information is revealed about their past?

I have been struggling with these questions since the allegations were revealed last spring.

Mel Levine has profoundly influenced my practice as a special educator for at least 15 years. I used his assessments, read many of his books, recommended them to parents and other educators, attended conferences where he was the main speaker, required my graduate students to explore the simulation site he created with Pbs.org to help them understand learning differences in a unique way and have personally benefited from his resources while parenting my own children.

Mel Levine brought incredible wisdom and experience to understanding the challenges of struggling learners. His approach was a humane approach that viewed learning disabilities, not as disabilities, but as learning style differences. He identified neurodevelopmental constructs that led to better understanding of diverse learning styles and highlighted strategies that promoted successes. He always asked, "where is the breakdown?" when students struggled with the components of learning. He detailed the numerous skills necessary to write a paragraph, to comprehend a chapter, to attend, to remember, and to organize, among other skills. His task analysis for each skill provided valuable information to determine where the breakdown in compentency occurred to then remediate or compensate for the skill deficit.

Above all else, he emphasized and worked with student's strengths and fervently believed in the capacity of every child to want to succeed and to want to learn. He was the person that taught me that struggling students use a great deal of energy, daily, to avoid humiliation at all costs. He was the one who taught me that nothing a child does requires more energy than sitting still in school.

I find it impossible to overlook his valuable contributions and often bring him up in professional conversations, albeit with reservations, considering the accusations against him. In America, people are innocent about proven guilty.

So, what to do about Mel Levine.

Is anyone else struggling with this?

Friday, August 22, 2008

There are Jott Alternatives

Bad news for Jott users. Jott is out of beta and is converting to a three tier plan. The basic plan is still free (with ads) but the recording time has been reduced to 15 seconds; looks like the ability to Jott to folders (or subjects) which is an idea I blogged about here is still possible but is managed at jott.com.

The good news is there are alternatives. I haven't explored them as yet but you can read about them at Lifehacker's blog. As always, the emphasis is on free.

Adopting a Struggling Learner Mindset

Bud Hunt at Bud The Teacher recently blogged, "An Open Letter to Teachers" for the new school year. This inspirational post obviously resonated with many as there are currently 52 comments to this post. One thing that especially resonated with me is this:
First. I hope you take lots of risks for the sake of learning this year. Not just for your students, but also for you. Make it a goal to try to learn something in a sustained and meaningful way that has little to do with your classroom life. I’ve been trying to learn photography this year, and while I’m nowhere close to proficient, it has been helpful to be in the mindset of a learner who’s struggling. That’s how many of our students feel everyday. (emphasis mine)
Contemplate that. That's how many of our students feel everyday.

For some of our students, every day is a struggle, every day is a chance to be reminded of how difficult it is to attend, to write, to read, to organize, to calculate, to listen, to.... Every day is a day to be humiliated by shortcomings. Do you realize there are students in your class who look around and think about how come these things come so easily to everyone else and not me? How come I do the homework (and they don't) and yet I struggle and get lousy grades? How come I can't figure out the words and they read so easily? How come they can answer the questions and I can't even read them? (I must be _____ (fill in the blank - stupid, dumb, etc)

When you offer professional development and some of your teachers complain that this is too hard (learning technology skills) or ask "why do we need to know this?" remind them that this is what life is like on a DAILY basis for some of their kids. The continual struggle, the constant reminders that "I must be deficient." This is a teachable moment. Use it. And maybe great things will result because they will now understand how difficult school is for some students in their classroom.

Be intentional - adopt a struggling learner mindset and let it change how you teach this year.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Got Architectural Barriers?


In the past, I have blogged about a PBS site that simulates reading, math, writing and attention challenges. Simulations offer the opportunity to experience the struggles, however briefly, that our students experience daily. And the expectation is that educators adapt their curriculum appropriately to ensure success for all learners in their classrooms.

I recently learned about another simulation activity from a fellow blogger (can't remember who blogged about this). This site simulates navigating your environment while using a wheelchair. Play the architectural barriers game and see how much progress we have made since 1955. This progress resulted from federal legislation including the Americans with Disabilities Act .

Some of our schools still present barriers to our students. As the new school year begins, identify the navigation obstacles that interfere with student independence. What can you do to remove those obstacles?

Monday, August 11, 2008

Next/Generation UDL

I am forever on the search for thinking outside the box teaching that captures the best instructional methods to engage ALL learners. It is critical to share methods that detail a "whatever it takes" approach to teaching.

Dan Meyer (tag line -"Working hard to make it look easy") has created a summer video series that explains his approach to teaching. This post. the next/gen lecturer, details methods that help him rely less on textbooks (which present obstacles to learning for those who have print disabilities) and more on UDL strategies for student success.

And that's what it's always about.


dy/av : 002 : the next-gen lecturer from Dan Meyer on Vimeo.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Free Tech Toolkit for UDL - Wiki Edition

One of the best things that resulted when I attended BLC 08 was the opportunity to have many conversations with Joyce Valenza, the world-renown teacher librarian and self-proclaimed "information goddess." She is one of the most dynamic, energetic, and passionate educators that I have ever met.

Well, lucky for us, Joyce took on a project and I am thrilled to share the fruits of her labors which we can all benefit from.

Many of you have added the blog post, Free Technology Toolkit for UDL in Every Classroom to your delicious accounts. Joyce took that blog post and made it into a wiki, UDLTech Toolkit, that is easy to navigate and visually more appealing than the blog. I encourage you to bookmark this wiki also. Here is a screen shot of the home page. I'm sure you will agree that this is a much easier tool to use and there are additions there that are not in the blot post.
Check it out and let me know what you think. And please, pass along this resource to colleagues, parents and students.