Jeanette Marinese Blog

Jeanette Marinese is a high school English teacher who infused her classroom with technology as a means of making learning more accessible for her students. Some of the technology she used was a Smart Board and individual laptops. After viewing clips showing interviews and instruction completed by Jeanette, the students of HBSE 4005 were able to ask Jeanette questions through the use of a blog. Some of the answers and main points given by Jeanette included the fact that technology makes teachers more organized, it allows for more time to explore new directions in content, and computers in the classroom provide students with the opportunity to interact with people outside of their own school. As Jeanette stated, “I was no longer limited by the confines of our school.” Jeanette was able to share lesson plans, which led to collaborations with other teachers. Jeanette also spoke about the importance of collaboration with administrators, parents, assistants, and other teachers in initiating programs involving technology. Other perks of the technology were the allowance for students to take the laptops home…parents loved it! It also allowed students to make more connections and thus develop deeper understanding of curriculum through the use of multiple resources. When determining interventions to use with technology, Jeanette suggests teachers ask the following questions…Does the pedagogy behind the software/technology support the school/teacher’s pedagogy? Is it accessible? How can it be modified and does modification invalidate it?

Chapter 8

Back to the other textbook with this chapter, which I found a nice change. I thought the Concord School District sounded really impressive. When reading about creative funding practices in particular and the process of implementing UDL in general, I was reminded of a conversation we had on our group discussion board not very long ago about the ability for teachers to implement UDL if schools aren't willing to provide the necessary training or software. I was surprised that this chapter basically dismissed that possibility. While I agree that administrative support, especially in terms of professional developments, training, and funding are important, I don't think they are always a hundred percent necessary. The chapter focuses on the application for grants, however it only discusses this really as a school-wide initiative. I believe though that in a school where UDL isn't a focus of the administration, but is a focus for a particular teacher, then a teacher could apply for grants to get technology and training by and for him/herself. This teacher could at least implement UDL to a certain extent through these means. Obviously, this is not an ideal situation, however I also dont think it's ideal to tell teachers that without administrative support they can't use UDL.

The other Chapter 6

So I must say, I don't think this online textbook is as UDL as the other. I found this very difficult to be motivated by, the way the information was presented was very dry, I didn't find the examples very clear, and for those examples that were presented there was definitely a lack of visual examples. With that said, I thought the chapter did raise a few interesting points. As I read through the chapter's sections on learner, knowledge and assessment-centered, I was thinking about the things I would write on my blog about the impossibility of separating these situations, however I was glad to see that the chapter stressed the importance of the alignment of the learning environments at the chapter's conclusion. The one section I would like to speak more explicitly about is the assessment section. I think it is important to use formative assessments, and I know the reading and writing workshop uses a great deal of this and is a fantastic program. However, I think in general this is something that can be quite difficult especially for beginning teachers. To find the time to give all of the students in your class feedback and to teach students to give each other appropriate feedback, especially with students in the younger years, is not an easy task. I think it would be helpful for the chapter to give some specific examples of ways to accomplish this goal that they stress the importance of.
I also found the section on television particularly interesting. I think I have a tendency to look at television as being predominantly and overwhelmingly negative for children. So it was interesting to read about research that has displayed the very opposite of my notion. I think making this knowledge more public could have a possibly large and beneficial impact on children as parents may be encouraged to at least have their children watch educational television, if they are allowing them to watch a substantial amount of television per week.

Chapter 6

The "why". I thought it was great that they acknowledged the importance of the why of learning a concept or strategy, when the chapter discussed the strategic and affective networks. Just last night, in a different class, we were discussing our personal experiences with learning math, and many students in the group I was working with spoke of their dislike of math as being related to the fact that they felt they were just learning how to do steps (especially in math classes like calculus) but never felt they understood the "why." Why should we learn this? How will I be able to use this in my life? I think it's important to address these questions, especially in the later years of education, as this will really affect students' motivation.
I decided that rather than just summarize the chapter and it's interesting points, as everyone will have read the chapter and doesn't really need me to do that, I'd instead bring up some questions and issues the chapter brought to mind for me. In the beginning of the chapter, they gave examples such as the Civil War and architecture and even later on they spoke about UDL for economic models. However, it seems that every time the textbook gives an explicit model of using the principles of UDL in a classroom situation it always focuses on elementary school and therefore elementary concepts. I think this is a problem for numerous reasons. First of all, I personally find the principles of UDL a lot more difficult to picture in a high school or middle school situation, so could use an example of it being implemented. Additionally, I think that the textbooks avoidance of using these types of examples, would make a potential middle school or high school teacher possibly believe that while UDL is useful in elementary school it is not a curriculum framework that I can or should use in my classroom. Does anyone else feel this way?
I believe that part of this feeling of inequality stems from my own experiences. I think back to elementary school, and I remember the use of computers in the classroom, and especially beng a teacher now, I haven't seen any elementary level classrooms without at least one computer. However, even though I went to school in a wealthy district, I don't remember any computers in classrooms during high school or middle school. Maybe this has changed now, but if high school and middle school classrooms still lack computers and, at least in this chapter, the use of UDL is focused so intently on technology, then how could high school or middle school teachers really implement these principles? The only option I can think of is to have different technologies available on a class website of some sort, but even this isn't very UDL. First of all it would still mean class time lacks the components of UDL that are only available on the computer and would therefore likely be very text and lecture based and it would also only work if every students had a computer at home, which is not an assumption we can make. So, I pose some questions...Is it possible to really use UDL in higher grades? And if so, how? And if not, then how can we make it possible?

Chapter 4

I'll be honest, when I started reading Chapter 4, I initially went into it thinking it was going to be the same old thing, as it is needless to say to anyone in our program, that we've been assigned a lot of reading and heard a whole lot in a number of classes just recently about UDL, including it's background and implementation. But I was pleasantly surprised by Chapter 4 and what it had to offer. I think this is due, in no small way, to the fact that this textbook is in fact more UDL than any other version of similar information that I have been exposed to, making it both more motivating and more embedded with a variety of enhancements.
The first place that I found myself feeling a renewed sense of interest was in the description of the Origins of UDL in reference to the architectural movement of Universal Design. I don't claim to know tons about architecture in a technical sense, but I do appreciate and enjoy the impressive structure and aesthetics of many architectural works from Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia and Park Guell in Barcelona to the Coliseum in Rome and even the Brooklyn Bridge right here in New York. To be able to create something, such as the Louvre, that parallels so many incredible works in its striking structure and aesthetics, and to do it in a way that is also universally accessible is so impressive to me. It's definitely inspiring...if someone can accomplish that on such a wide scale, certainly it has to be possible to do the same, albeit in a different situation, on a smaller scale in a classroom.
So after finidng myself inspired, I read on and was interested enough to click on the link and go check out Wiggle Works. Although I've used Scholastic guided reading books in two different grade levels in classrooms, I have never heard of Wiggle Works or they're guided reading program, which particularly interested me because of my experiences. I noticed the program incorporated many of the same books as Scholastic's traditional guided reading program, as well as the cards for teacher's that direct your guided reading groups (they're a great resource for anyone interested). To also have a computer-assisted program though that further solidifies what students learned in guided reading group, particularly for those who really need more practice before using skills independently, would have been an amazing resource, especially in my first grade class where a lot of students are typically still developing readers and could definitely have hugely benefited from this assistance.
The final part of this article that struck me, and hopefully helped my upcoming UDL project for another class, was the section connecting UDL and the role of neuroscience. Until now, when I contemplated UDL approaches and particularly those connected with the first principle, I always thought simply of the sensory alternatives to vary the options available for access to information, and therefore as I began to plan this upcoming project I had considered e-books, print versions, and videos. However, when the ideas of enhancement, both in terms of background knowledge and highlighting, were discussed I realized how much differential presentation really can entail and realized how limited my view for my project had been. I could have built in hints, examples, and reiterations of the directions to be clicked on if students are struggling. I could teach students how to highlight important parts to mark for themselves to come back to, or I could have highlighting already completed for students that need that extra focus. Reading this made me realize that while I am starting to understand and recognize the usefulness and flexibility of UDL, I still need to keep my eyes and, more importantly, my mind open to how much more there really is.

Form Pilot Activity

The form pilot activity wasn't terribly hard and is definitely a good resource. While it's definitely originally created for filling out forms or applications, I also feel like it could be a great classroom tool for having students complete quizzes or worksheets on a computer. Once the teacher has created the template, it would be simple for students to use after minimal instructions are provided. And because of the way it is set up students wouldn't even need to be capable of using a mouse. As for the additional "brownie point" challenge, I found this quite difficult at first and almost even gave up on it after getting rather frustrated but I did finally manage to work through it in the end, and I think it is a worthwhile tool to have especially if it was going to be used in a classroom where the bold type may be easier for a student. The only other part of the project that I found frustrating was actually handing it in, hence why I haven't so far even though I am already blogging about it. I saved it as a form pilot document and the digital dropbox won't accept it. Any thoughts on how I can get digital dropbox to send the assignment?

Alternate Formats Reflection

So I am done with the Alternate Formats Activity and definitely pretty excited about it as I found it definitely rather frustrating. There is definitely a lot of frustration that builds for me out of the uncertainty of working with a program I am not knowledgeable about. To start with I had a lot of difficulty finding the most recent version for the Mac and even after I found an update and downloaded it I couldn't find the features that I was supposed to have...leading me to believe that I had not actually downloaded the newest version. Regardless, thanks to some good friends who don't have Macs (PC users aren't all bad) I was able to add a bubble note anyway. I was actually pleasantly surprised on the other hand about uploading the PDF biology file into Kurzweil, as it was easier than I expected...that is if one is willing to accept the orange worm turning pink, which I was. I read the help section and apparently color not being displayed quite right is a fairly common issue with the Mac version when uploading other file formats. Overall the project wasn't as much work as I expected, just one of those rare days though that makes me think maybe life would be easier with a PC.

Universal Design is Done

Before...




After...
So here's my UDL Project....well a link anyway. After a lot of effort trying to figure out how to post my power point presentation so you could all see it, I decided to go with the best possible option I could find. Not ideal, so here are some necessary steps if you want to see it...

Visit the website below, which will take you to pocket knowledge and my file "Pollution and Recycling". Pocket knowledge may require you to sign in first so if you don't already have an account you may have to create one, it's free! Also when you open the file you will need to go to Slide Show and then click on View Show to see the presentation. If you have any questions or problems, feel free to email me.

http://pocketknowledge.tc.columbia.edu/home.php/viewfile/35732

Universal Design on the way to after...

So I apologize for the lack of explanation and detail attached to my directions. I was hoping to be able to acquire a picture to go with it and then explain the two, but as of recently no one has been to my parent's house, where the rest of the project presently is, so I will get that posted as soon as possible. So the directions are actually directions for a center I created for my third grade students last year. Therefore, I was hoping to also post a picture of the center itself (and will do so as soon as possible). The center and consequently the tasks were focused on pollution, garbage and recycling. At the center there was a variety of non-fiction books and magazine articles about these topics for students to read and look through in order for students to find information pertaining to the different areas and work through the tasks.
From a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) perspective there are certainly many things that could be changed about these tasks that could improve the likelihood of success for a variety of students. To start with, as I just described the center, there could be a wider variety of media at the center from which to acquire information. For example, there could be a laptop or computer with a list of various websites (or even with websites bookmarked) with information about recycling, garbage, or pollution. There could also be books on tape (teacher-created or bought). As well as newspaper clippings or fictional books on the topic.
Although the center did contain rubrics to guide students in meeting the criteria for each task there are other accomodations that could be made in order to aid students in better understanding expectations. This could include having samples of what exemplary finished products might look like or having directions available in an audio format.
Finally, expectations for student outcomes could be varied to make the center more accessible to a variety of students. Presently, students were expected to move through the tasks on each card in order. One easy accomodation would be to allow students to choose only a couple of tasks, therefore disregarding order, for each section, possibly from a wider range of options, so students can choose tasks that align with their skills and interests. Another possibility, which could be easier to accomplish given the presence of a computer (as discused earlier in reference to other informational media) would be to allow students a greater variety of media options in presenting their information, such as typing or drawing on the computer rather than by hand. In the center's present state there were folders with a few different types of papers for students to choose between depending on what they felt was most appropriate for the task at hand. These are just some potential changes to the present tasks and directions to move them, and the center as a whole, into a UDL-friendly envronment.

Universal Design Challenge (Before)

Dr. Keller's Interview

First of all, I think the availability of the interview in such a wide variety of mediums was very appropriate considering the content of the interview, and personally much appreciated as it meant I could combine listening to it with training (I'm training for the Avon Breast Cancer Walk-a marathon and a half, so training is unfortunately rather time-consuming, so thank you for making it available as a podcast.
I thought that Dr. Keller had some really interesting perspectives both on technology and on special education. I found his connection between the different paradigms relating to special education and the terminology used for technology particularly interesting. As I have had little experience with technology I assumed that there was a difference between assistive technology and adaptive technology and didn't realize they were interchangeable terms. However, after Dr. Keller acknowledged this fact and explained his preference I found myself really relating to what he said and able to see how these different terms are indicative of the paradigm that he connected them to. As he said assistive implies the person requires assistance from others, that the person is broken and needs to be fixed, this definitely follows the medical model assuming that there is some inherent problem to be fixed or corrected in the way a person's body works. Whereas adaptive technology makes me think of technology that simply changes the environment so that this person's unique needs and strengths can be used more advantageously in a new surrounding that suits them. This focus on changing the environment feels to me like the way that special education reform should be moving, it is truly representative of the type of equality that is supposed to be our country's foundation.
Along the lines of adapting the environment rather than assisting the person was Dr. Keller's comment about the creative use of materials. The compensatory use of materials is something teachers often don't consider, myself included, and can be of enormous benefit to everyone. Rather than waiting for the money for the perfect piece of equipment, which as we know can take a long time if government funds are required, or for the perfect equipment to be created we can look around ourselves and find something that will work just as well, as Dr. Keller did with his in-flight audio recorder. However, I do acknowledge that this isn't always the easiest thing to do. In fact often I think the easiest solution is sometimes the most difficult to see, even when it is right in front of your nose, as I'm sure was the case with the pencil for the astronauts scenario.
From there, Dr. Keller went into his story about Washington Square Park. I think that story would be a wonderful story for not only teachers, but students with disabilities to hear. As I have never been a student with a disability I know that I can't even begin to imagine the struggles that my students will have not only in learning, working, and everyday tasks, but in coming to terms with who they are including their strengths and weaknesses, as we all do, but with the addition of their disability and how that affects their life and how others perceive them. I think for students to be able to hear from someone who really has accomplished so much in his life about how hard it was for him, they will be able to understand that those types of feelings are normal and expected.
Dr. Keller's next story involving the color identifier brought a question to my mind that I don't know if there really is an exact answer to. Dr. Keller talked about the independence and control he felt at being able to choose to learn that information, the colors of his surroundings. However, Dr. Keller did used to have sight and therefore has an association with what he perceives brown or gray or blue as, but what about a person who has never had sight or has always been colorblind, would this person really benefit from a color identifier? Would there be any association for them of what brown or gray or blue means?
Finally, the last thing I wanted to discuss was when Dr. Keller brought up the curb cuts for people in wheelchairs and the negative impact these have for some others with disabilities. I hadn't ever thought before about how one person's access to an environment is actually a potential block of access for another. It made me sad when he said there's no perfect solution because I suppose I had never thought about that truth before, that there isn't any way to really meet everyone's needs regardless of how long we work at it or how thorough we try to be.

As for the Points to Remember document, to be perfectly honest I didn't find either one particularly clear. I definitely found the word version easier, but the print was still small and close together. The PDF format was very difficult for me to read as there was little sense of directionality and presented itself more as an image then text. As was discussed in Chapter 3, everyone has different issues or strengths in perception and I suppose that my strength coincides with our society's norm, print. I find things easier to follow that are in a sequential order and I am lucky enough to be a good reader, a definite advantage in our print-focused society. On the other hand, the PDF format appeared to me to be more of an image with less of a sequence, allowing students to read it in the order they choose. This could definitely be beneficial for students that have issues in sequencing.

What is Problem Solving?

I think both the introduction and the article give great insight into the expectations of this class, and I think as presumably all of us are or will be teachers it's definitely an appropriate goal. I agree with Martinez's assertions about the importance of problem solving and I feel as educators in order to find the best way to teach our students problem solving we just may need to go through the process of learning to problem solve ourselves. That's not to say we don't all already problem solve as Martinez stated, but there is definitely a difference between our natural problem solving skills and this explicit teaching of problem solving.
While I agree with Martinez that problem solving does need to be a greater focus in schools, I know from my own experience that not all schools focus simply on "the cognitive resource of knowledge" and many do also teach problem solving. This past year I worked with a group of third grade teachers, most of whom had been teaching for quite a while, who introduced me to a diagram of problem solving steps. At the bottom of the stairs was step one-reading the question and finding out what information is known, then on step two-reading the question again and distinguishing what information you are trying to figure out, next on step three-choose a strategy to solve the problem, and finally on step four-use your strategy to find the solution and check your answer. While this was an effective tool to teach students the process of problem solving and I felt it was completely adequate during the year, after reading this article I can clearly see some of it's limitations (that's not to say however that I don't think it's at least a 'step' in the right direction). First of all these problem-solving steps were limited to use in the mathematics area, which didn't help students to understand the process of problem-solving as a generalized idea that could be applied in all areas where uncertainty was encountered. Additionally, while students were encouraged to use different strategies to solve problems the types of strategies used and discussed were far more often specific heuristics and not general heuristics, which could be applied to a far greater array of situations. On the positive side, when problem solving, students were required to show all work and at the end present not just their response, but to talk the class through their problem-solving process so others could learn from their strategies and see that sometimes mistakes eventually led to the right answers and sometimes even though incorrect solutions were made due to computational errors, correct strategies were used. In both of these situations students received partial credit, hopefully learning that not only correct answers are valued.
What struck me most about Martinez's article however was that in all of my years of being educated and educating others I've never before heard or seen the term heuristics or had the process of problem-solving explicitly explained to me in that way. I think students could benefit immensely by seeing problem solving represented in this way using age-appropriate terms. I think if using more simplistic terms I had explicitly taught my third graders means-ends analysis or successive approximations they would have understood their own processes in problem-solving much better and therefore been able to engage in metacognitive skills and had more success in problem-solving.
I seem to be developing a pattern of pessimism at the end however and have to question one small comment in the article. Martinez discusses the detrimental effect of anxiety on problem-solving. I agree with his assertion that "Anxiety is a spoiler in the problem-solving process." However, I don't necessarily agree with his comment that "Those who cannot bear situations in which it is impossible to see the way clearly to the end are emotionally ill-prepared to solve problems." I think children can be taught to work through their anxiety and problem-solve despite this. However if we do choose to believe that Martinez's comments are true then what happens to the children who do have anxiety disorders or other disabilities and are therefore incapable of seeing the way clearly to the end without uncertainty clouding the way? Is he implying that these students are inherently incapable of developing problem-solving skills?

Chapter 2

I found Chapter 2 really interesting, although it makes me feel as though I am not actually an expert in any area.
In the discussion of experts differential configuration of memory through "chunking" I found myself thinking of an example from my own experiences, actually playing cards. In the past few years I have learned to and played quite a bit of cribbage. In the textbook, when the author discusses chess masters ability to avoid thinking through every possible strategy and instead only thinking through superior strategies it reminded me of playing cribbage with friends of mine who have been playing for years. While I think about every possible combination when discarding cards to the crib (hopefully someone plays cribbage and therefore this makes sense to them), my friends who are "expert" cribbage players can quickly discard because they look at the chunks or sets of cards and are able to just think quickly through the best strategies. I think it's fascinating to see the process of the quicker retrieval of recalling chunks of information in place.
As I read through the chapter, despite the comments of the Third International Math and Science Survey, I found myself recognizing a lot of these desired aspects of expertise in the Everyday Mathematics program which I have used in the last two years teaching in Brooklyn. Everyday Math, for those who are not familiar, is a different kind of math program because rather than do one unit on time and then a separate unit on money, Everyday math uses a variety of different mediums to work through an overall chapter concept. In this way, Everyday math focuses not on just the surface idea or means to solve a problem, but on the "big idea", the overall concept. Additionally, Everyday math applies to the idea of conditionalized knowledge as students are expected to know key words to help them problem solve, and not just memorize how to solve certain types of questions that appear in one unit of the book. Throughout the book similar types of questions are presented for students to apply to different big ideas so as to avoid surface memorization and encourage making connections between a variety of bigger concepts.
The textbook's explanation of why experts aren't always the best teachers was a bit of a comfort, and in my experiences in some of my undergraduate courses I have definitely seen this explanation played out by some professors (no offense to our present professors). I also think an essential idea for teachers to take away from this is the importance of metacognitive skills, both for ourselves and our students. I feel the only true way to teach metacognitive skills is by example, students need to know their teacher doesn't know everything either and that we as teachers, just as they as students, are always working towards learning more information and better ways to accomplish tasks.
Along these lines, I would love to take the information from this chapter and apply it in a classroom by having my students become "virtuosos" constantly adapting and looking at the bigger ideas. However, there is a pessimistic part of me that thinks that truly making our students experts in any area is an impossibility in today's schools. While as a teacher I could certainly choose a topic that I felt merited the amount of time that my students would need to develop expertise, inherently this will mean that other areas would have to be neglected. While this may be fine with me because I know in the long run the students' understanding of the greater concept will allow them to more easily pick up this other information, I know that the administration (at least at the school I worked at) would not allow me that freedom. There are standards and curriculum content that must be met, so when in the reality of our educational system do we have time to make our students experts?

Introduction to Me

Welcome to my blog! This is the first time I've ever created a blog so hopefully this is the right idea. I'm originally from Long Island although I have lived in a variety of places, such as Australia, Brooklyn, and England and I'm now living in Manhattan. I completed my undergraduate studies at Bucknell University where I majored in Elementary Education. I'm a certified Elementary and Early Childhood teacher. Since graduating I substitute taught for a year in Australia then spent a year working at an early intervention autism program and doing home hours with some of the children with autism who attended the school. The past two years I have taught in a public school in Brooklyn. My first year I taught a first grade class and my second year I taught a third grade arts gifted class. Teaching a gifted class was a great experience, but my personal preference is still for the younger years. I am presently working towards my masters in Intellectual Disabilities and Autism and my personal focus is autism in early elementary years, as well as early intervention. As for what experience I bring to this class in terms of technology, my knowledge is limited. I have worked with computers and a little with smart boards in the regular education setting, and in the special education setting I have worked with students using electronic token boards and some mobility technology. I look forward to learning more about technology uses in the classroom.