Community and Student Profile

For EDu 379, we had to create a student and community profile for the school. When I first started I thought that the school wasn't that diverse. I do my practicum at Parker Elementary in Cortland, NY. Parker is a great school because the school is a very close knit family. Everyone knows everyone. I think this is great because when you have a close school like this, students will be ready to learn and teachers will be ready to teach.
Just within my practicum classroom, there are many different types of learners. There are kinetic learners, visual, textile and others. So, as you can imagine the school is very diverse and every student is different.
Something else I noticed is that in my class, the students are on different levels of where they are in learning. As a teacher this is where it is great to be a constructivist. If the teacher differentiates the lesson plan so that all students will learn in the way that they are comfortable, will lead to many positive results. My teacher is not very good at this. She doesnt differentiate the lesson and just teaches the traditional way of lecturing the children. The children get bored with this and they dont sit still. This is a problem that she is facing everyday with her class.
The range of communities that Cortland and the surrounding area has, is very diverse and students come form these communities with different mind sets.
So, the community and student profile is very diverse at Parker. This is something that I am going to have to consider when I become a Teacher!

UDL

For EDU 379 we had to complete a UDL module. The module was about differentiation of a lesson so all students can learn from it. This really made me think about the way I think of teaching because you cant just teach one way and get away with it. Students learn differently, whether that is through visual, kinetics or even audio.
This just shows me that when you teach you have to be ready for anything. Even though this is more work for the teacher to do, the positive side is that all students will learn to their full potential.

Learning About the Standards

This week I had to write an essay on the National Educational Technological Standards. These standards were just like any other topic in school. When I first read the standards, I had no idea what I was doing for this essay. But, after re-reading the standards and the essay one requirements it started to make sense.

The standard that I did not feel comfortable about was the second standard. The reason is because the technology that we are using in class is not the technology that I am use too. I mean i have an iPhone and I am pretty good with technology, but i am not good using windows or even a smartboard. But, luckily for me in our EDU 315 class we are doing a SmartBoard teaching lesson.

I have realized over the past few weeks that I should start using more and more technology more because if I become use to it and know how to work it, I can use it in my classroom to help expand my students knowledge. So, even if this involves staying after class just to use the smartboard for 5 minutes, at least I am getting practice. And like any sport, subject in school or anything you need to practice in order to master it.