Digital Learning Reimbursement 2- Mobile Device Features

I will start this off by saying that this is not the most interesting video.  22 minute long tips and tricks videos get to be too long for me, personally.

However, at 18:15, I learned a trick that I did not know.  If you are taking a picture of something (be that a whiteboard that you will soon have to erase or a picture of a student's artwork), you don't have to necessarily push the circular button, but push the volume down button.

One thing that he says at about 20:00 is that you can't undock keyboard and then move it up or down, however, if you put your finger on the keyboard down thing (The button that you held down to undock the keyboard) where the 5 "groves" are and move it up or down, the keyboard does move up or down.

At 21:00, he talks about shortcuts for typing.  I think that is a really good thing if you know your unique writing quirks.  For example, if you always end an e-mail the same way "Thanks..." or "Thank you...", you could just put a quick shortcut like "Th..." or "TU..."

Another tip that was not in this video was the fact that if you use all five fingers, put them on the screen and bring them together, it brings you to the home screen.

One that he alluded to that I use all the time is using the four fingers to slide between apps.  He only shows that if you use four fingers and move them up on the iPad, the list of open apps will appear, but if you use the four fingers and swipe left to right, you can switch easily between two apps.  This is especially helpful if you are writing in Google Drive and need to quickly find out if the word you want to use is a word or not.

Digital Learning Reimbursement 1 - Getting Started

I currently use my iPad for paperwork purposes such as putting together IEPs and collect student data.  Due to the fact that I do not feel comfortable sharing my iPad with my students, it has not been used for many educational purposes.

However, I had figured out a way of using it in math class.  There is an app called "InkPad" which is basically a drawing pad.  Instead of using whiteboards, which is what I had done for the entire year, I would bring over my iPad and show them how to do it on that app.  You can draw the numbers with your fingers and everything.  I found that I very much appreciated it.

The next part that I would like to reflect on revolve around several quotes I read a while ago:

"Students today depend upon paper too much. They don't know how to write on slate without getting chalk dust all over themselves.  They can't clean a slate properly.  What will they do when they run out of paper?"      -Principals association 1815

"Students today depend upon store bought ink.  They don't know how to make their own."    - The rural American Teacher, 1929

"Ball point pens will be the ruin of education in our country."    - Federal Teacher, 1950

"Until technology is reliable and cheaper, teachers should stick to paper assignments and the classroom should not spill over onto computers."    - High School Journalism Class, 2008

"If we keep doing what we're doing, we're going to keep getting what we're getting."    - Stephen Covey

I understand and recognize that many people are hesitant to embrace technology.  However, if we keep doing what we're doing, then we keep getting what we have.  I don't know about you, but we need to change something up.

I am most flabbergasted by the 2008 quote.  That is a quote from 2008, not from 1998.  I could understand that argument if it were the year 1998 and computers were still frustratingly slow pieces of technology that not many understand, but in 2008, computers were faster.  There was Facebook, there was online blogs.  

We had gone past the point of Technology 1.0 (Which is defined as non-interactive reading of an online article) to Technology 2.0 (Which is defined as the time in which we became able to talk back to an article, to make comments on articles that we liked or didn't like and what we would say).

Are there flaws to technology?  Without a doubt there are flaws.  However, it is our job as educators to not only teach them literacy in reading, but online literacy as well.  To teach them not only social skills needed face to face, but social skills needed online.  To teach them  not only mathematics, but how mathematics makes these games they play or sites they use.  We must embrace technology for what it is: the greatest engagement tool out there.

Guided Math

A few days ago, I heard about guided math, I didn't know what it was, so I have decided to research it a little bit.

It is very important to research things that you do not know because you can learn something that you had never known you needed to know before.

Guided math is similar to guided reading.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with either (I, too, was in that category), the teacher sets up a bunch of stations that teach the same topic.  An example of this is the week on fractions.  Each station would enforce the idea of fractions.  For example, one station could have a bunch of cut-out pizzas, another could have jelly beans that need to be divided into four equal parts.

The idea is to help students become independent learners for that particular topic.  In the beginning and the end of the week is a whole-group lesson teaching about the idea that will be reinforced through the stations.

I can see a big upside to teaching math in this way, because I am weird and a big advocate for project-based learning, this is, I feel, the closest thing to project-based learning that our public schools can get to.  Independence in learning is imperative to the skill of lifelong learning.

And as I begin this new stage of life as a special education teacher, I remember my roots and beliefs, and start with a fresh start and a new outlook on teaching and education.

Name-Change

I am going to have to change the name of my blog now.  I am no longer a future special ed teacher, I am a current special education teacher.  But I don't know, I might just leave it the same, or I might have to leave it the same because I can't change the title.  But I will still use this account.

Judge: Florida Teacher Who Soaked Autistic Kid's Crayons in Hot Sauce Should Get Job Back - Yahoo!

Judge: Florida Teacher Who Soaked Autistic Kid's Crayons in Hot Sauce Should Get Job Back - Yahoo!:

I am not going to lie, my first reaction to this story was, "What is the big deal?"  Comparing a woman who forces her child to drink hot sauce versus a teacher who is trying to help a student with autism stop eating crayons by putting them in hot sauce is overdoing it a bit.

However, upon deeper ponderation (not an actual word, according to spellcheck, which is also not a word.), I realized that the special education teacher messed up in one area.  We, as teachers, are required to be behavior managers, help manage behavior of students.

The first thing we need to do is figure out what is the function of that behavior.  I cannot say for guaranteed truth that the function of the behavior of putting a crayon in your mouth is to gain sensory, but that is what my hypothesis is (and that is all that a functional behavior assessment asks, the best hypothesis).  So, the child with autism wanted sensory feeling of putting a crayon in his mouth.

Here is where my path would diverge from the teacher's path.  The teacher just wanted to stop that behavior.  While that is a good idea, it is only part of the best practice.  In order for us to be the best behavior managers that we can be, we need to replace the negative behavior that we are trying to get rid of with a positive one that still serves the same function.

Now, looking at the fact that he likes to put things in his mouth suggests to me that he has was gaining an oral sensory thing.  What other things can go in the mouth that are socially acceptable and won't hurt the student?  For one, we could give him a sucker.  But suckers have calories, so I would have to talk to his parents to see if that is an option in their minds.  Another option might have been giving him sucking candy, there are low-calorie sucking candy.  With all of these ideas, I would want to talk to the parents before I do an intervention.

So, moral of this story, great behavior management is not about only stopping one behavior, it is about replacing that one behavior that we think is socially unacceptable with a behavior that is socially acceptable and gives the student the same thing as socially unacceptable behavior.

Man refuses to leave jail; cited for trespassing and sent back to prison | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News

Man refuses to leave jail; cited for trespassing and sent back to prison | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News:

I want to comment on this and talk about a concept that doesn't makes much sense to me with regards to punishment.

According to this article, a man was arrested after being cited for trespassing because he refused to leave jail.  Let's think about this idea, the man doesn't want to leave jail, so he stays, and he is arrested and sent to jail.  That's the jist.

Jail, in our society, in most societies, is supposed to be negative.  Jail is supposed to be a punishment for everyone.  The reality is, though, that jail may be the only roof over someone's head.  One of our most important needs according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs is shelter/warmth.

I don't know anything about this man, but he clearly did not see jail as a punishment.  He saw it as a positive reinforcement.

I have made the comment in the past, but I really want to say this: Not all students think the same way, not all students have the same things that are punishing to them (that make their behavior stop) or positively reinforcing to them (that make their behavior happen more).

Now we will move into the educational aspect of this topic.  I saw, during my student teaching placement, the behavior of students being suspended for skipping school.  Let's think about this, student skips school for the reason that they probably don't want to go to school.  The school, as a "punishment" to the student suspends that student.  What occurs when you suspend a student?  The student doesn't have to go to school.  So, by skipping school, we are giving them more days to skip school (aka suspension).

Is this behavior on our part of suspending students who skip school really punishing the behavior?  Or are we reinforcing the behavior of skipping by suspending a student?

Here is what I propose, let's figure out a proper consequence, one that promotes a good behavior that does the same function.  Instead of suspending students for skipping, let's give them a Friday off for good behavior if they come to school for two weeks in a row.

I feel like that may be met with consternated "No, that's not right.  That's not fair to other students."  I agree that it isn't fair to other students with the typical definition of fair, which is equal to the definition of equal.  Our society has given the name fair a definition of, roughly, "All students get the same thing."  Fairness, in reality, is equity, every student and person gets what they need, not what everyone else gets.

One of my professors from college, when anyone would bring up that it didn't seem fair would bring up an excellent point.  "I wear glasses, is that unfair?  Because you don't wear glasses."  To which the college student would usually respond, "Well, no, because you need them."  "Exactly, fairness is about need, not about equality."

Ponderous Ramblings

So, until now, my blog has been called future special ed teacher.  Now, I have graduated from college and have submitted my paperwork for getting my teaching license.  I don't really know what to do, should I change the title of the blog or leave it the same?  Technically, I am not a special ed teacher yet because I 1) don't have a job and 2) don't have a license.  I think I'll leave it the same for a while.

So, I have had 3 interviews for jobs in the last 3 months and I don't have a job yet.  It's already June and I don't have a job.  I'm not entirely sure about this, but I am freaking out because I don't have a job yet.  I just wish that I knew where I would be having a job next year so I can best know the student population to know how to best help them.  But I don't have a job.  I can't stop myself from thinking: What if I don't get a job?