Posts

Universal Design for Learning

  Universal Design for Learning Part 1: Summary of Using Universal Design for Learning Standards-Based Lessons This week, the topic of this blog will delve into the idea of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and its connections to our educational systems. To summarize universal design, we will look at the work of Kavita Rao and Grace Meo. Rao and Meo (2016) explain that Universal Design for Learning can be used to design lessons to address learner variability. In their scholarly article, Using Universal Design for Learning Standards-Based Lessons, they give a breakdown of how teachers can use UDL to develop lesson plans in a four-step process. Below, I will break down the four steps. Step 1: Goals Creating goals for standards-based lessons is an important part of Universal Design for Learning, and Rao and Meo (2016) surmise that these goals must be clear statements. If the statement is not clearly defined, then there may be barriers for students in a classroom. While creating thes...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 4: Generative AI for Educational Purposes

Activity 1: One of the goals for our blog this week was to change settings in our blog to make it more accessible. The two that I chose were changes in the blog headings and changes in the font. For the blog headings, I was able to change the headings through the headings tab to make each blog easier to read and more organized. This gave me a good feel for how to space out a blog if I were to continue to write one in the future. I also made sure to change the font for each blog to ensure easier-to-read text on the eyes. Small text, such as Times,  was harder to read than the current text I am using, Verdana.  As for my first blog, I used a screen reader and timed how long it took to read through my blog. In total, the blog was four minutes and twenty-four seconds. I believe that for an academic blog, I wouldn't change the length or the tone of my writing.  Activity 2: Part 1: Generative AI Lesson Plan In Magic School AI, I asked it to make a lesson for a 6th-grade health...
1 comment
Read more

Week 3: Processes of Learning

Image
Processes of Learning In this week's blog, I will be summarizing the work of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (2018) on processes that support learning. Rather than a lengthy post, I have created an easy-to-read, front-and-back infographic to share the information I've learned with you. Along with the summary, I will also be connecting this chapter to the work of Mark Gura and Victor Rivero. Finally, the infographic wraps up with a discussion on how these concepts all connect to ISTE standards.  References Gura, M. (2020). Fostering Student Creativity. EdTech Digest the State of the Arts, Creativity, and Technology 2020: A Guide for Educators and Parents. p. 7. Gura (2020).pdf Rivero, V. (2020). A Whole New Class of Art. EdTech Digest the State of the Arts, Creativity and Technology 2020: A Guide for Educators and Parents. p. 12-20 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). How people learn II: Learners, contexts, and cultures...
2 comments
Read more

Authentic Intellectual Work

Part 1: Authentic Intellectual Work/Authentic Instruction & Assessment.       As a young educator, I believe Authentic Intellectual Work is where the future of education should stand. As someone who is not too distant from participating in secondary education, learning is still at a surface level, where one must learn facts and regurgitate them onto paper. Authentic Intellectual work is broken down into three components by Fred Newman et. al. (2007) as the “construction of knowledge, through disciplined inquiry, to produce discourse, products, and performance that have value beyond demonstrating success in school.”(p. 82) According to Newman et. al. (p. VII, 2007), this practice of academic rigor can 1) maximize expectations, 2) increase student interest, and 3) help students address complex world issues, among other benefits. Authentic Intellectual Work differs greatly from the traditional approach, as this practice is anything but surface-level thinking. A...
3 comments
Read more

Intro, digital citizenship, and digital footprint OH MY

Part 1: Introduction Hello everyone! My name is Cameron Aungst. I am a middle-level health and physical education teacher in the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I have always had a passion for physical activity, sports, and leadership. When it came time to decide my career path, teaching health and physical education felt like an amazing opportunity. As a professional, my primary goal is to teach my students that physical activity should be enjoyable, rather than a job or chore to do. As a professional, I would also love to bring forward more fitness activity clubs for my students, as our school does not have many at the moment. Another goal that I have is to become the head coach of our varsity baseball team, as currently I am the head coach of our junior varsity team. Part 2: ISTE Standard While reviewing the ISTE standards for students, one standard immediately caught my eye. As a health teacher in my district, I have recently been tasked with adding digital citizenship to our...
Post a Comment
Read more