Reflection

The ending of a Walden course has arrived once again. With that ending, as always, there comes a need for reflection on topics covered, lessons learned, and resources discovered. This course focused on the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Differentiated Instruction (DI). The major difference between this course and its predecessors was the use of a social network consisting of classmates. Discussions were held each week to share various resources on DI and technology. While there were many suggestions for technology implementation, I feel that focusing on a few will help me be realistic about implementation in the classroom. Trying everything only leads to confusion or the use of technology for varied teaching methods criteria.

As I don’t want to be the teacher who is always in the computer lab but my students only use one type of media, I have chosen a few resources to try implementing next year. The most popular resource in the social network appeared to be Survey Monkey (an online survey creation program). I will be using this to gain information about student backgrounds and preferences in the beginning of the school year. While I have used paper handouts in the past, I know that this will be more efficient as the review of the work can be done while checking my email (a task that happens much more frequently than reading a stack of papers).

The one resource that I am most excited about is a free webpage design located at http://www.wix.com/. This site allows you to create a simple website for free with easy navigation and copy/paste options. While I would eventually use this for a student project, my focus for this year will be to design a web quest for my U.S. history class. Most web quests I have found do not differentiate for students with special needs. Essentially there are no options for reading, skills, or interest levels. While students may enjoy using the computer to search for information, that does not guarantee their success if they cannot navigate or understand the sites.

I will be implementing these new resources during this school year. However, the overall change that I will be focusing on is getting to know my students. I already design my lessons to include various learning styles. By learning the preferences of my students earlier in the year, I hope to create more student driven lessons that are specific to this year’s classroom environment. Students will always vary but that does not mean that planning for learning styles rather than specific student groups will always work. Granted, I realize that every student does not need an individual lesson plan. Nevertheless, I should have a plan to know each individual student.