EUD 6714-Reflection Week 8

Throughout this course I have learned about many valuable resources for differentiating instruction and implementing technology. I have been working through this course as well as another, EDU 6713, with both courses in session simultaneously I have been able to receive fabulous feedback from peers about ideas for implementing lessons in the classroom.

The differentiation station assignment using the NING was awesome. As mentioned before I was participating in this class and another which used a wiki to communicate with group members. I found the NING to be easier to access, communicate with peers, and post ideas. I really enjoyed the feature of adding blog posts and being able to have “chats” with classmates during a live session. This would be ideal for implementing my blog assignments in my classroom. I plan to change my blog through Google reader to a NING for my classroom. This may be a challenge since they are no long free to teachers but I hope to have my school pick up the cost if possible. I will start this at the beginning of the school year so my students have time to become accumulated with using the NING to communicate their ideas. I will also have students post different projects they complete to the site so their classmates can view their work.

The ideas of Universal Design for Learning will also be implemented in my classroom next year. Using the NING I will be able to have students work on problem based learning projects while implementing the three principles of UDL. I will work toward learning more about my students’ interests and learning styles so I can use these topics in my discussions and readings. Researching my students’ interests and taking the time to get to know them will also allow me to differentiate instruction for my students. Dr. Tomlinson suggests layering curriculum or assignments for students and I have taken the steps to do this for my first unit of the school year. These steps toward changing my instruction will take time but I plan to follow Tomlinson’s recommendation to take it one step at a time.