New Ideas

This fall has been productive. Thanks to a San Jose State University class, EDSE 241, many new abilities and procedures have been acquired. Borrowing a common adjective used to describe educational meetings and trainings,our SJSU instructor often remarks that her course is a "make and take" experience. Here are just five of the new ways my teaching has changed.

First and most importantly the curriculum is now being watered up instead of being watered down. State standards are being unpacked to the extent they can be taught to children with special needs. Practically every day a concept or curricular component is modified without diluting it to an unrecognizable point. At IEP meetings goals are written with this new perspective.

Second there is a blog (MrsDuvalRoom12.blogger.com) for my class. To date there have been three postings and two comments but with the holidays and the presidential election coming more will follow.

Third, iGoogle is being used to enable easy access to websites when not at home or in a place that allows internet access. In this electronic age it is an excellent idea to be able to have the means to go online. Having favorite website url addresses available makes using the internet away from home very efficient.

Fourth, teacher made assignments, which are both important and common place in special day classes, are being improved by the use of water marks and visual coding. The visual coding is helpful for the students. When they see a familiar picture in the header of an assignment, they feel comfortable. They recognize the part of the curriculum the work sheet is from.

And fifth, PowerPoint Shows have gained importance as a teaching tool. With the new features learned this fall, short PowerPoint Shows, between five and ten minutes in length, are becoming more powerful teaching tools.

This has been a fruitful fall.