Class tonight was a whirl again. The first presentation was on social skills and autism. It had lots of helpful information and as a teacher of students with autism, I especially liked learning about the social stories. Social stories allowed my students and I to survive the year. One student in particular, really responded to the social stories, but it took a chunk of my time to write the story connected to what I wanted to see in the class and to find the visuals to illustrate the stories. The Conversation Social Stories sounds excellent. Greetings, asking questions are skills that in my experience many autistic students have difficulty with. I find it very interesting to learn about the virtual world and autism. My student loved Pokémon and luckily there were a group of students his age who loved these cards too. He was able to interact with students because of these cards. One of the biggest needs he had was reading social cues and getting emotions from faces. The Faces I make, Webber Photo cards and Strip designers would help with body language. I was relieved to hear that many schools have the similar issues with technology that I have experienced. Teacher knowledge and comfort is a real concern I think. There seems to be differences between supports offered to studentsin different schools and different boards. I wonder if this is because some schools have students with higher needs or that different boards provide different services? We then presented our PowerPoint on Apps to support students with Learning Disabilities and I thought the presentation went well. I was more comfortable presenting the topic than I thought I would be. Sherry (I think – the name started with a s) made a very good point about students’ comfort with technology being connected to teacher’s comfort with technology. This was a very important point especially connected to the fact that 58% of the teachers we surveyed felt that they did not have sufficient training around technology to support student achievement. This is disturbing and even more so when connected to the info we have on 21 century learners and the explosion and I mean this in a positive way, in technology available for use in educational settings. For the remainder of the night we worked independently gathering information on the 4 assistive technology assessment models. I liked this activity as it allowed me to find the information and then use it in a PowerPoint to create knowledge. This task suited my learning needs more than simply viewing a prepared slideshow. I am glad that only a few will be presented next week.I'm thinking that I may have to volunteer for the program planning team next year as I might have some ideas to offer :)
Wanda, your memory served you well. It was me (Sherry) who stated that teachers' comfort with technology influences students' use of it. It was an idea that arose in the research we did for our presentation.
ReplyDeleteHoly Blogging Batman! I always enjoy listening to your ideas and opinions in class. I find you have a lot of information to offer and you are not afraid to speak your voice. I think we are on the same page alot of the time. Great blogging Wanda.
ReplyDeleteSherry, I glad that I remembered the correct name. I was really surprised by small number of teachers who are confident about using AT in their classrooms. I am wondering witht he cut backs and the focus in most schools on accredition goals when and where we will get PD around AT.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kenny, I too find that we have simialr experiences and ideas. I feel like I am getting to know you a little with the 3 classses with have had together.