I wandered around the school this morning before kids went to class and photographed kids texting.  I captured a total of 24 students sending text messages.  I watched fingers click and move quickly, students smiling at peers and texting at the same time.  I saw students walking and texting and I saw a huge variety of cell phones. 

I also saw students communicating, contacting, writing.  I saw students maximise the technology within their grasp, sitting in the back pockets. 

The moment students enter classrooms they are expected to put the phones away and not bring them out again.  In fact, they are banned. 

Surely there is a way to capitalise on the use of this technology in the school setting.  Certainly the vid. clip Pay Attention  is worth watching in terms of using technology in the classroom. 

How amazing it would be for students to conduct phone interviews or text interviews during class time.  Adaptations that students often need, such as calculators or the use of a planner, a reading program, are all a component (or an addon feature) of using a cell phone. 

Cell phones have enormous potential.  As educators, we should be capitalising on the tiny little computers in back pockets.

I have a delicious account for sharing with other staff who have SMART Boards, and I also have Diigo account for my own bookmarks which has been very helpful in terms of keeping things organised…but I continue to find myself overwhelmed with the sheer amount of ‘stuff’ out there. 

I think the main problem is that I want to ‘know it all’ rather than focus on key areas.  Hmmmmmmmm.

One of the greatest barriers stems from a mindset and a mindset is affected by many factors.  One of those factors is the perception of what grade level means.    Learning outcomes are often written according to grade level and suggest content to be delivered for specific grades.  Grading kids according to age, rather than skill set or developmental needs creates a mindset that when students are in Grade 4 they do……Grade 4 work.  When they are in Grade 10…they do Grade 10 work. 

Straight away there is a legitimate reason to teach to the Grade…and typically students who sit in the middle of the grade get their learning needs met sufficiently.

Why do do away with Grade levels (Letter grades too…but that is for another day).  Lets just tell kids they are going to go to school for 13 years, maybe 14 for kids who need a little longer.  And lets teach them according to what they need, rather than what Grade levels dictate.

The are ample strategies available and already in place that can make a multiage setting successful. Platooning, looping, team teaching, pod teaching.    I am not suggested we return to the one room school house of yesterday.  Instead develop our teaching and mindsets based on connecting with kids, avoiding stereotyping or labelling and teach to the individual, not the middle, not the Grade level, the individual child.

As I played around Twitter on (Thanks Anita) and check Diigo and Delicious and the Nings and read blogs I have come to realise that perhaps my head has really been buried in the sand.  There is so much out there.  I have spent time reading from a number of places and the ones I have really enjoyed are:

Sir Ken Robinson – would LOVE to see/listen him speak

The Committed Sardine page @ http://web.mac.com/iajukes/thecommittedsardine/Home.html

A place to go and talk with other committed teachers….http://edtechtalk.com/.  I had no idea of such a site.

Ira Socol’s blog at http://speedchange.blogspot.com/

There is so much information, so many teachers with whom I share a similiar educational philosophy.  This is so exciting to me….and to think that I might have completely missed the boat if not for the UDL project. 

Bring it on!

Couple of things that came to mind….UDL is important and while the pieces of technology associated with the delivery of UDL lessons is important, what is really important is the paradigm shift that happens when we teach from an UDL perspective.

It really is not rocket science, teach with a few kids in mind, ensuring they can access the curriculum and demonstrate their learning and all kids benefit.  I like it. 

What a whirlwind three days.  Our Quesnel team have enjoyed a fantastic three days of inservice, training, exploring, fun and food!   Our week began with an overview of UDL beliefs and a podcast from CAST. 

 Thanks to SMART Technologies we were able to participate in three webcasts regarding our SMART Boards.  It was great to have a very general introduction to using our SMART Boards.  Thanks to Alex for a private lesson on Monday.

 We also participated in a public session and learned the basics of Notebook software.

 After lunch the team enjoying a glimpse into Inspiration (thanks Mark) and Kurzweil (thanks Constance). 

 Tuesday began with a discussion about the principles of UDL and where we fit in.  The team were introduced to a variety of software programs purchased through the UDL project.    Favourites include Thinking Reader, SOLO, Camtasia.

 The group worked on a collaborative lesson plan for an English class.  It was a great experience, working together as a team and planning a lesson we could all teach.

During our short three days we also visited a number of interactive websites.  Check out the links listed on this blog to see some of them.

 Thanks Everyone.