EXE 375

I learned so much abiout technology and teaching it in your classroom. There are so many useful websites out there that I would've never knoew about had I not taken this class and student taught. There are so many different ways of accomodating to students with disabilitied I am amazed! I loved making the E-book it is a great tool to use for students with problems with social interaction. I also really enjoyed making the flyer for our classroom. It was so simple and looked great. So many tools we used this semester were great I just struggled to learn how to use them, and once I got the hang of using the site they were so easy. We learned so many different websites, and resources to go through I definately would like to add all these websites to my favorites list and used the in the furture. Technology is only going to increase, so I hope that I can incorporate all of these fun websites into my teaching. I can see the students really enjoying them. Besides learning about a lot of new teaching technology I also feel like I have become more teachnologiaclly savy in general. I had no idea what a lot of these websites were or how to make my own websites. I really enjoyed playing around on all the websites they were all very useful in some way or another. The only website or project I did not like doing was thw webquest. I was very complicated, and too broad. I didn't understand what the teach was looking for. I can see webquests being beneficial if I made one up myself!  One of my favorite parts of the class was the guest speaker on technology and devices to help accomodate students with disabilites. All the technologies the woman spoke about were very unique and geared toward a couple specific disabilites. I enjoyed the scavenger hunt. I would love to do one with my future classroom. It helped my learn while looking around different beneficial websites at the same time. I definately liked creating the E-book the most it was very fun once I found the photostory download, and was able to figure out how to import pictures. I liked narrating my book with my own "teacher voice" and that this kind of story can accomodate many students that struggle with disabilites.

Social Stories

Social stories simply are away for students to express a task, or behavior during school. Like needing to follow certain directions, or simply a reason we do thinng the way we do. These stories are to help student create a social understanding about something. "Social Stories are relatively short, straightforward descriptions of social situations, specifically detailing what an individual might expect from the situation and what may be expected of him." Social stories are used a lot of the time for students who are socially akward. It helps them understand when they are doing something wrong, or why they should do something a certain way. Social stories can be very helpful for students with autism. "Competence in social skills is a significant indicator of a student’s success in and out of the classroom.""Social Stories attempt to address the "theory of mind" impairment by giving individuals some perspective on the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of others." "Social Stories also give individuals direct contact with social information, contact through pictures and text as opposed to speech or observation, notable areas of weakness for kids with autism." The benefits of social stories are there are all differents kinds. There are digital, they can be done through illustrations, symdols, on tape, video, or story boxes. One must consider that all children learn differently, and deal with social interaction in different ways. Reviewings of the childs' stories should be maintained daily and monitored. Social stories is a very beneficial approach for young students with autism because it helps with their skills anf behavior.

Using Microsoft Publisher & Sign up Genius

I struggled using Microsoft publisher in the beginning because I did not have the program. I also went on my parents computer who also did not have the program either. I finally found the program on a MAC computer and once I was on the program it was very easy to use, finding it was the hard part. The program wsa easy to enter text into and had many different newletter templates. I really enjoyed making my newsletter. I put a lot of time and effort into it. It was a very simple program that I would definately consider using again if it was more accessible to me. Sign up Genius was a lot easier to find than Publisher. It was so simple I would use it all the time if I had parent sign ups. As long as everyone in your classroom has a computer at home it is a very useful tool. The steps to make a sign up sheet are so straight forward. Anyone could make one. I thought it was going to be a much more complex website then what it was. I probably took me 15 minutes at the most to do. I would absolutely recommend this website to any teacher I talk to.

Good Educational Blogs

I have come across many useful educational blogs. A lot of bloggers blogged about types of learning and how important technology is becoming in the educational field and in the classroom. The first blog I liked was "Connected teaching" by Ann Michaelsen. She blogged about needing to partipate as an educator online, using skype, twitter, and blogging. All of the above can also be very beneficial in the classroom. There is Twitter with literacy, and blogging can improves students typing skills and ways of communications and finding common interests in the classroom. Another blog I found is Novemeber Learning. Which explains why every leader should be a Network Learner. A Network Learner is someone whos learns from connections of others. The final blog I really enjoyed reading was "Learning Virtually, Learning Together" by Susan Carter Morgan. The author explains how a virtual institute should be instilled into many school districts. And teaching about online learning as well.

Adaptive and Assistive Technology

Adaptive and assisitive technology has become a major part of special education. All the tools and devices LD students can use now a days is incredible. Students with learning disabilites lives are becoming easier to adapt to. Using different technologies students can now communicate with one another even if they can not physically talk. They can use devices to help them communicate. They can tell family memebers what they need, or just let them know they appreciate all the help. AAL is better in academically as well because now teachers are able to find out if the student is understand what they are working on in class. Teachers can use multiple different devices to accomodate to their students needs. Teaching and learning has become so much easier using adaptive and assistive technology. Using all these devices make it easier for all students to interact with each other, and learn from one another, whether they need assistance or not. As well as make it easier on the students with the LD to live an easier life. They better communicate with the people around them.

My first Webquest

My first webquest was quite time consuming, but definately beneficial in the end. I learned a great deal about AAC, and I had never heard of this until doing the Webquest. I disliked the set-up. It was kind of confusing to understnad what is was I was supposed to be doing. I liked all the links I could use to help me during my webquest they were very beneficial. By doing this webquest I became very interested in AAC, it just has so much to it. I have to say I am not a fan of the webquest, but it did benefit me, so that is a plus. It was just such a long process to do the charts, and make it look like a normal chart. I struggled, but tried my best.

Using Google Documents to Collaborate with Other's

Using google documents was some thing I had never used before. It seems crazy that you can collaborate with someone on the same document. I was very anxious to wait for someone else to put their findings on the document. I really like that you can go into the document and edit whatever you would like because I have a pet peeve about grammar and spelling. So, knowing I could read what my partners were typing and just simply fix them in the same document was nice. Google docs could be extremely useful for students. I remember always needing to meet up with people in groups and such outside of school and now you can do it all on the computer. I found it fun to be able to collaborate with others, but also annoying to wait for someone else to post their part of the task. It was like I was wondering if they were ever going to do it. When it comes to typing papers and projects I have to admit I like doing a lot of things myself, so it was hard to adjust that I'd be working on a task with someone, and we had to write. I like doing group projects with people but it becomes difficult when people don't put in the efforts you do.