Drink the Coffee. Teach the Things.

Act I: Reflecting on Reflection.  Sometimes I feel like I am double majoring in education and in reflection. I can reflect on literally anything at anytime. I reflect on not only what I do, say, or think, but also what others do, say, or think, as well. As a pre-service teacher, I see great value in proper reflection, as it is a major tool used to improve teaching practices. Meaningful reflection requires a balance of positive and negative comments, and analysis of how to improve or what to differently. In this blog post, I will be reflecting on the good parts of my UDL lesson and the not so good parts. My lesson was on Thursday from 9-10 (even though it ended up being 9:15-10:00...), which is whole group reading time. I taught a lesson on shades of meaning, which pulled from their prior knowledge of synonyms, and fit nicely into their word meaning and context clue unit that they began earlier in the week. Act II: The Good.  I recently observed a few parent-teacher confere

I know I've done another blog post that explains what Universal Design for Learning is, and how it can be implemented, but during the past few weeks of class, it has become apparent to me that UDL is so so so helpful in supporting students (duh! but also it is just SO RELEVANT!). I feel that we have been forced to cover a lot in a quick amount of time due to classes being cancelled, and life happening. So,  I would like to backtrack to the past few disabilities we have covered, and describe some strategies that can be built into a learning environment, a class routine, or a lesson so that every student becomes equal, and has access to the same materials, curriculum, and supports. This will help me process the information we covered in class. Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Book definition: "... a variety of related disorders that affect a child's social development and ability to communicate and that include unusual behavioral manifestations..." (p. 143) Tier I/UD