An inclusive classroom is necessary for all students to succeed. Teachers should build a classroom that can foster, develop and use the abilities, gifts and strengths of all its students. Creating a classroom like this, stresses learners’ rights and their needs, and emphasizes the importance of an education rid from favoritism and isolation. An inclusive classroom rejects seperation and exclusion of learners for any reason, whether it is race, ability, sexuality, and so forth. To increase participation of students, and make learning meaningful and applicable for all students, is a very important factor in building an inclusive classroom. Diverse learning needs need to be met in order for all students to achieve greatness and this can be done in an inclusive classroom. This is the type of classroom that teachers should strive to achieve and with the use of technology, building this type of classroom is simpler. Technology is the key to building a classroom that is inclusive and one where everyone has the same opportunity to succeed. I will make my classroom inclusive by building strong family-school partnerships, collaborating with special educators, and emphasize the value of friendships.
Strong family-school partnerships are essential when it comes to having and maintaining an inclusive classroom. Strong family-school communication can help all children in the classroom make the most of their educational experience. When parent know what is going on in his or her child’s classroom it can create for discussions at home which can be very valuable for those children who need the communication with their parents. When parents know what children are learning in class they can offer the extra help that children might need at home and encourage them. Technology can really make this family-school communication possible and simpler. It is much easier for a teacher to put information up on a blog or website that a parent can access at home rather than find the time to call each and every parent letting them know what there child has been working on or needs extra time with. As a future educator, I find that blogs and websites will be very helpful in keeping me connected with my students out of class and their parents. By having that easy communication with parents, parents can give struggling children that extra push they need and encourage children who may not be struggling to keep up the good work. When parents know what their child is learning and how they are doing they can assist teachers in creating the best learning experience possible.
The collaboration between teachers and special educators can be very helpful in upholding an inclusive classroom. The purpose of this collaboration is to combine expertise and meet the needs of all students. In order to uphold my inclusive classroom I will learn to use the many assistive technologies that my students use with their special educators. I will give all my students the opportunity to work with the technology to better understand why some students may use these. By collaborating with special educators I will be able to better understand there progress out of my classroom and be able to keep the students on the track to improvement.
As a future teacher, I find friendships to be very important in a successive, inclusive classroom. The building of friendships is the building of classroom communities. All students should feel a part of the classroom and feel as though they are an important part of it. To help build my classroom into a community I will design games to help build communities using groups that will need to work together in order to succeed in their task. Many of these games can be online games. Having my students take online personality tests would be quite unique but will also bring students to understand how much they have in common. Assigning classroom jobs will create a big community of the classroom. Each job will have a purpose to the others success. Classroom jobs could include turning off the lights when exiting the room, turning on computers, and writing notes on the over-head projector for other students. Any type of assistive technology that will maintain disabled students’ feeling of acceptance and community is essential. An example of this could be a standing aid, for students who typically use a wheelchair, for when other classmates are standing for activities like the pledge of allegiance.
Technology is very important in the creation and maintaining of an inclusive classroom. Family-school communication, teacher and special education teacher collaboration, and the building of a community are three important parts of an inclusive classroom. In order to make my classroom inclusive I plan to be sure the three of these things happen. Using technology to achieve these aspects will make it easier for me to build this type of classroom and to bring about students who will use technology to their fullest, live life to there fullest, and learn to there fullest. An inclusive classroom using technology is the classroom I want to be a part of.
Sources:
Assistive Technology & Universal Design
http://maine.gov/oit/accessibility/resources.htm
http://section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Content&ID=3
http://www.cast.org/publications/UDLguidelines/version1.html#intro
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
EDU 302 - 21st Century Educator
Students of the twenty first century are communicators, media and technology savy, and collaborative. In order to be what it means to be a twenty-first teacher, we must possess these characteristics also along with many others. Three main characteristics of a twenty first century teacher are that we can adapt, take risks, and be a visionary. These three characteristics are essential for richness and engagement in the classroom. All three of characteristics are hard to achieve and portray without the use of the high-standing technology of the twenty-first century world and classroom.
In order to be an adaptive educator you must be able to adapt lesson plans to fit the diversity of your student body yet also adapt lessons to engage your students. Since the students of today are incredibly technologically savy, using computers, videos, and gaming devices can be efficient in keeping their attention since it means using something they can easily work with and enjoy working with on a daily basis. Simple programs such, as Microsoft word doesn’t only have to be used as a place to write papers. It can be used as a tool to create stories, collages, articles, and letters. By adapting lesson plans and adapting the use of technology in the classroom, students will be more likely to want to be involved and even further their involvement inside and outside of the classroom setting.
Risk-taking can often frighten teachers, especially ones new to the field; yet risk-taking can be just the thing to engage interest and collaboration of students. Having a set lesson plan can keep you organized as well as your students but is it always going to keep them interested and entertained? Are they always going to want to learn things your way? Taking risks in teaching is very beneficial. In a lecture, if a new topic boils up in a conversation, why not forget the lesson plan and work with the area the students are engaged and interested in knowing and learning more about and where they want to be involved. Have them “google it”. Being able to find things on their own and even teach themselves something can sometimes be more beneficial. Of course the lesson plan needs to be presented but take risks in teaching it. Lectures are not always going to keep students attention. Many students need to learn “hands-on”. With supervision let the students just look up random words, animals, or people. Take the risk of building a volcano not knowing yourself how it will work out. Take the risk and let a student teach a lesson to the class that really strikes them as interesting. Let them build a PowerPoint on a topic of interest. Why not?
To be a visionary means to use your imagination. In order to entertain, keep interest, and teach you must use your imagination. Any one can read a book to a class and tell them to write about it. Any one can give out a picture for students to color. Any one can have students look at pictures of whales on the Internet. A teacher can have students read together about whales and the types, use the details about the types to explore and find pictures of each type of whale, and even take the risk and use their imagination to draw the types of whale and a whale they create. Students use their imagination all the time whether it be playing “house”, drawing, writing a story, or even spitting out excuses for being late to class. If students use their imagination they must enjoy doing it, so why not use your imagination too? Keep your students engaged with your imaginations and their own.
Students and teachers of the twenty-first century have become evolved in the use of technology in and out of the classroom. In order for students to learn they need a teacher who adapt, use their imagination, and take risks. With the use of technology all of these characteristics of a twenty-first century are possible. Technology creates for new possibilities to create, teach, learn, and explore. A twenty-first teacher is a visionary, is adaptive, and takes risks. Why not use technology? It opens many doors of the twenty-first century classroom.
In order to be an adaptive educator you must be able to adapt lesson plans to fit the diversity of your student body yet also adapt lessons to engage your students. Since the students of today are incredibly technologically savy, using computers, videos, and gaming devices can be efficient in keeping their attention since it means using something they can easily work with and enjoy working with on a daily basis. Simple programs such, as Microsoft word doesn’t only have to be used as a place to write papers. It can be used as a tool to create stories, collages, articles, and letters. By adapting lesson plans and adapting the use of technology in the classroom, students will be more likely to want to be involved and even further their involvement inside and outside of the classroom setting.
Risk-taking can often frighten teachers, especially ones new to the field; yet risk-taking can be just the thing to engage interest and collaboration of students. Having a set lesson plan can keep you organized as well as your students but is it always going to keep them interested and entertained? Are they always going to want to learn things your way? Taking risks in teaching is very beneficial. In a lecture, if a new topic boils up in a conversation, why not forget the lesson plan and work with the area the students are engaged and interested in knowing and learning more about and where they want to be involved. Have them “google it”. Being able to find things on their own and even teach themselves something can sometimes be more beneficial. Of course the lesson plan needs to be presented but take risks in teaching it. Lectures are not always going to keep students attention. Many students need to learn “hands-on”. With supervision let the students just look up random words, animals, or people. Take the risk of building a volcano not knowing yourself how it will work out. Take the risk and let a student teach a lesson to the class that really strikes them as interesting. Let them build a PowerPoint on a topic of interest. Why not?
To be a visionary means to use your imagination. In order to entertain, keep interest, and teach you must use your imagination. Any one can read a book to a class and tell them to write about it. Any one can give out a picture for students to color. Any one can have students look at pictures of whales on the Internet. A teacher can have students read together about whales and the types, use the details about the types to explore and find pictures of each type of whale, and even take the risk and use their imagination to draw the types of whale and a whale they create. Students use their imagination all the time whether it be playing “house”, drawing, writing a story, or even spitting out excuses for being late to class. If students use their imagination they must enjoy doing it, so why not use your imagination too? Keep your students engaged with your imaginations and their own.
Students and teachers of the twenty-first century have become evolved in the use of technology in and out of the classroom. In order for students to learn they need a teacher who adapt, use their imagination, and take risks. With the use of technology all of these characteristics of a twenty-first century are possible. Technology creates for new possibilities to create, teach, learn, and explore. A twenty-first teacher is a visionary, is adaptive, and takes risks. Why not use technology? It opens many doors of the twenty-first century classroom.
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