Course Management Systems

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Reflection

UDL and Differentiated Instruction Reflection

This course, Reaching and Engaging All Learners through Technology, has shown me the importance of determining what motivates and engages students through the use of surveys revealing a student’s interests, learning styles, intelligence preferences and learning profiles. By using this information, I can determine my student’s academic strengths and weaknesses thereby adapting the classroom learning environment to help students succeed and overcome learning difficulties that may contribute to less than optimal learning outcomes (Tomlinson, 2009).

The helpful resources and feedback that I received from other classmates through the discussions from the Differential Station site has been extremely beneficial to me as well as time saving and insightful. I plan to thoroughly review, adapt and then implement their resources and suggestions as strategies for curriculum development in my classroom.

As a result of taking this class, I plan to make immediate modifications to future lessons and my classroom learning environment. These modifications include steps to implement differentiated instruction using technology and different types of assessment in order to assure optimal success for students. I also see that it is important to engage, administrators, colleagues and parents about classroom practices that incorporate Universal Design of Learning (UDL) and Differentiated Instruction (DI). Inclusion of all parties, including students, will further enhance and assure the success of my students in the classroom.

Tomlinson, C. (2009). Learning profiles and achievement. School Administrator, 66(2), 28–33. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Game Plan with Students

This course has really helped me to realize how important establishing a GAME plan and setting goals really is in my classroom. I have set goals for continuing my education, saving financially for that “big ticket” item and even my every day “To Do” list is a set of goals. But I realize now that I need to teach my students how to set goals and achieve them. Having the GAME plan formula gives teachers and students a template to be able to plan, monitor and evaluate their goals. “As you set goals, take action, monitor your learning, and evaluate your progress, you take control of your own learning process.” (Cennamo, Ertmer, and Ross, p. 7)


ISTE has established the guidelines by which teachers can implement technology into their curriculum. By using the standards (NETS-S and NETS-T) as established by ISTE, I am able to create a GAME plan that will bring new learning experiences to my students. These experiences will enable my students to show their creativity, digital citizenship, communication and collaboration skills, as well as research and problem solving skills. AS I model my GAME plan, my students will also be implementing their own GAME plan.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Reflections on My GAME Plan

As I review my goals for my GAME plan, I realize that they are just goals; they can be changed, altered and discarded. These past few weeks I have been able to accomplish some of what I set out to do. I was able to become more experienced in working with my wiki in order to communicate with my parents. I succeeded in taking more pictures of my students and uploading them onto the wiki. I was able to find some apps for the new iPads that our school has purchased. I was able to briefly work on an iPad but I feel that in order to teach a lesson using them, I will have to become more familiar with the apps and the iPad. (Maybe I’ll ask Santa Claus for an iPad for Christmas!)

Last week, I spent a great deal of time finding some new websites that I hope to be able to use. Artsonia.com looks very interesting and I can see that I could easily use it to display my student’s artwork. Arted20.ning.com will help me to continue to collaborate with other educators.

I think I’d like to establish a new goal for myself. I think it would be quite feasible and attainable to set a goal of finding 3 new websites a week. Because of a previous class with Walden, I have created an RSS reader account. I subscribe to several RSS feeds that are valuable sources of information. I just need to create a certain time during the week to look at these feeds and gather more websites that would help me in the classroom.

Revising My GAME Plan

This week has been a challenge for me. All sorts of things "cropped up" that I wasn't expecting. I wasn't able to accomplish all that I set out to do. Oh, well. I still have this week!

Again, I was unable to reserve the iPads for class use. However, I was able to practice on one of the iPads using the apps that I was able to get. That was a lot of fun. One of the apps is very much like the computer program, Pixie, that the students are already familiar with. I probably will use this app in my first lesson with the students.

A new learning goal that I would like to achieve is ongoing: that of applying technology and concepts. I see this as continuing to find and become proficient in websites and software programs that I can implement in my classroom. Just like finding some new websites like:

www.artsonia.com ( website devoted to displaying children's art work in a virtual museum)

globalartproject.org (website that pairs teachers/students with other teacher/students in another country to exchange art work)

www.glogster.com (website where users can create a poster or web page containing multimedia elements including text, audio, video, images, graphics drawings and data) There is a fee associated with this one.

www.arted20.ning.com ( a website created for art educators to collaborate)

I am really excited about finding these sites. With artsonia.com I can create a virtual museum for my students. Come to think about it, I could probably do the same thing with our class wiki, couldn't I? (I'll have to give this one more thought.) The ning will enable me to continue to collaborate with other educators once my Walden classes are finished. (I do hope to keep in touch with classmates from Walden, too)

So, to sum it up, my new learning goals are to continue finding more internet resources that I can either incorporate into my curriculum, enhance my curriculum or continue to learn from others and apply it to my classroom.

Evaluating My GAME Plan

How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?
In reviewing my GAME plan and what actions I took, I believe that I have been quite successful in meeting my goals. I have been able to locate quite a few apps on art and drawing that I can download to our iPods. I have been working with our IT department and have received approval for the apps that I have chosen. As for improving communication with my parents, I have been working on my wiki. I have uploaded new pictures of students working on projects and have added captions to the pictures.
What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
I have reserved the new iPods to be used in the classroom but have been unable to use them in a lesson. Since the iPods are new in our school, many other teachers have also been reserving them for their classes.
What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?
To continue with my goal of improving my wiki, I would like to learn more about embedding video clips and audio to the site. I also need to follow up with the other teachers in my school to make sure they have a link to my wiki on their parent communication pages so that more will know about it.
How will you adjust your plans to fit your current needs?
I realize that I will have to dedicate a specific time in my weekly schedule devoted solely to update my wiki. I have found that updating the wiki takes a bit more time than I anticipated.