This week I had the delight of discussing a variety of tech topics with my pod group. It was super interesting to hear all their ideas and see what they were passionate about.
I focused on integrating UDL guidelines into the classroom through tech. The UDL guidelines or the universal design for learning are a set of suggestions that help all learners better engaged with the teaching. Though designed to support students with disabilities they have been proven to support all learners. We had a meaningful discussion around the importance of including UDL, and how to make sure it isn’t an after thought. It is always encouraging to me to see my peers so engaged in making education more equitable! It gives me a lot of hope for the next generation!
Hailey’s topic was assessment strategies. We are all very excited to take our assessment course next year and engage with the information more on how to conduct assessment. We talked a lot about how we should engaged students in the discussions around assessment, such as having them write reflections or having them help make rubrics so they know what they are being assessed on. We also talked about how we believe assessment should be more individual so all students are working towards their own goals.
Jessica’s topic was gaming in education, which is super interesting topic. We talked a lot about kids are already gaming so integrating into the curriculum is a way of engaging them and showing that we as educators are taking the time to get to know what they are interested in. I think this can make a huge difference in how learners see education and their educators. Gaming in it’s self is also teaching kids useful tech skills, and raising their comfort level with different tech devices which is helpful for their futures.
Rachel’s topic was mental health and technology. It was great to get to swap resources we’ve either seen in classrooms or used personally for mental health. I think it is so amazing that we having these discussions and that there are resources to be talked about. I shared about seeing a website used in my link to practice classroom that led the learners through breathing exercises. Which was awesome to see, and also see what a difference it made in the kids!
As always it was great to learn from and with my amazing pod members. I’m so grateful to be sharing this journey with them!
March 26, 2022 at 2:39 pm
Hi Alice! I think that you did a great job recapping what we discussed in our conversation. I totally agree with your point about how exciting it is to see future educator’s engage with ways to make their teaching more equitable, and I think that it is a very encouraging aspect of this new generation of teachers. Thanks for sharing this week!
March 27, 2022 at 4:53 pm
Hi Alice, thank you so much for your kind words, I enjoyed learning from you and my peers very much as well! I am also glad of how much we have learned about the UDL guidelines, and how they are becoming more prevalent in education, because their inclusion will only help us to become better teachers.