eJournal 5

I am fairly certain I have never had to list all of the instructional strategies I use in any given day.  This leads me to question if it is normal to plan for so many in a 2.5 hour class.  I find that most of my strategies overlap, so the list seems less excessive.  However, I still tilt my head at the length of the list.  So, here it is:

Intro:
Comparing similarities and differences (differentiation in general ed and special ed)
Connect to prior knowledge/learning (IDEA)

Hook:
Giving students examples (my classroom videos)
Use of media/videos (my classroom videos)

To best explain these needs in our classrooms:
Addressing student learning styles
Considering Multiple Intelligence
Differentiating Instruction

The rest of the time:
Active Participation
Checking for understanding
Cooperative Learning
Demonstration
Direct Instruction
Feedback to student
Formative Assessment
Guided Practice
Lecture/presentations
Nonlinguistic representations
Note taking by students
Use of technology
Use of visuals
Whole group instruction

Ending:
Summary/Closure

I am worried that since I have never presented to adults for this length of time (I have given a behavior presentation each year, for the past 4 years, during professional development to my school for about an hour.) I am overestimating the amount of information I can cover.  I do know that in any given 2.5 hour time, with 11 students (each with different goals and objectives) I probably use at least this many strategies, but don't know how that will relate to an adult presentation.

1) motivation: how will you engage and motivate your learners to learn?

I plan to use personal stories, videos of my classroom (yes, I will have parent permission), data showing the jumps in academics I have seen in testing, and videos of my students over time (I record students performing objectives prior to each ARD for their parents and have many students over years.).

2) prerequisite and subskills: what is that they will learn and in what order?

What differentiation looks like from an goals/objectives standpoint, in small groups, in large groups, and individually.

3) practice and feedback: how will you know that they have learned it? and how will you let learners know whether they’ve learned?

I will ask questions and receive feedback in real time (although only by percentage), I will have an open, real-time question/answer board that I can answer during breaks and small group time.  I will monitor small group work and answer individual questions.  I will provide take away materials to support the use of the instruction.

eJournal 4

I write a great deal of goals and objectives for my students, but I have never written goals and objectives for adult learners, or for a presentation that lasts for only a few hours.  I am not sure I am 100% happy with these yet, but here they are:

Following active participation during presentation, 80% of learners will be able to describe and define differentiated instruction in life skills classrooms and demonstrate that knowledge by:

• providing the three important variables (what the student knows, what the student needs to know, and how the student learns best).    
• identifying the characteristics of the three basic learning styles by determining the learning styles of the people in their group.

Following active participation during presentation, 80% of learners will be able to demonstrate steps necessary to successfully plan differentiated instruction in life skills classrooms by:

• accessing free assessment products online that could be used for summative assessment  OR identifying the summative assessment tool they currently use.
• demonstrating an understanding of the connection between summative assessment and goals/objectives by successfully creating at least one objective from a (provided) completed assessment.
• demonstrating an understanding of needs of students based on learning styles by correctly identifying the best types of activities for each learning style.

                                                                                     
Following active participation during presentation, 80% of learners will be able to demonstrate steps necessary to successfully differentiated instruction in life skills classrooms by:

• creating a whole group differentiated lesson using a provided lesson plan and provided student profiles.
• creating a small group differentiated lesson using a provided lesson plan and provided student profiles.

eJournal 3

I thought after days of researching (and many, many articles printed) that I had learned nothing at all.  I will say I have learned a great deal, but nothing about the demographics of teachers in Texas who teach students who spend >60% of the day in special education (PEIMS 44).  With a number of different class names (Life Skills, Life Class, Functional Academics, Adapted Learning Environment, Moving Toward Independence are just a few I know of), it is difficult to search for this class type.  I had the best luck when using the PEIMS value of 44.  I have learned, at this point in time, the Federal Government has allowed states to determine the student:teacher ratio.  I have learned there are many terms for the statistic I am looking for - class size, caseload, workload and pupil-teacher ratio.  I have learned that Texas has decided to leave this ratio up to districts.  I have learned Region Service Centers across Texas have attempted to help determine a maximum value for special education classes, based on a number of values, including the PEIMS values of the students.  I have learned this is a recommendation, and not a binding value.  I have learned the fact that the state allows districts to determine the class size of students with a high percentage of time spent in special ed, districts do not have to report the value.  So, basically, other than what I have seen, I am unable to truly determine class sizes are getting larger.

Additionally, because all special education teachers are created equal (at least in terms of demographics in Texas), I am not able to gather accurate demographic data concerning age, number of years of experience, number of years in special education, or gender.  I am not 100% sure where to go from here.  If you have ideas, I will run with them.    

ETEC 578 eJournal 2

A simple Google search leads to many articles and papers which talk about increased student:teacher ratio which has occurred over the last several years.  These papers refer to the increase in general, bilingual and special education.  I have searched extensively for student to teacher ratios in special education, but in reality, even if I could locate the information, it would not be specific enough.  I would like to know the student:teacher ratio of only low-incidence population classrooms.  I know, from talking to other teachers who teach these students, that our populations have grown.  Even 5 years ago, it was rare to hear about classes with 10 students in them and now many are.  My current class has 11 students.  We appear, at meetings to be a tired bunch.

Since the instruction I would like to design would be for specialty training situations, specifically the Life Skills Boot Camp for Region 10  I feel the teachers who sign up to attend the training, during the summer, would be more open to ideas than groups of these teachers at the district level.  I also understand that as a group, we have a lot on our plates.  I think the extent of material being transferred to other settings is my major concern.  The reason that I want to design this instruction is to better the education quality of the students, so if I fail to design the instruction so that it is not transferred back to the classroom, the design is flawed.  I have considered this and feel my instruction will need to include examples of how to find materials to add to the student helping books, via internet searches, an extensive list of sources of specific materials that can be added, and a number of printed (take it and copy it to your heart's content) pages of common, useful pages that students might need.  I feel my best chance of convincing other teachers to try this method in their classroom is basically to turn it into a make and take.  

Other ideas I have considered for this design that I feel would be effective is video of students using their books, video of parents talking about the pride they feel at their child's independence, and data showing growth over a year when students have used this method.  I understand that my delivery will have to be passionate, but honestly, I think I have that part covered.  :)  

I hope these were the types of things you were looking for as far as learning context for today.