Jennifer+Ruff

=Final Project= Mrs. Ruff's Class Wiki I created a wiki page for my upcoming school year. I have included information for both parents and students and I plan to upload student work once the school year begins. Available on my page are: resources for students/parents, my contact information, and a place for parents to sign up for volunteer opportunities.

=Glog= media type="custom" key="19398408"

Voki - ** Nice job on this despite the problems with classroom technology. **
media type="custom" key="19382978"

=Technology Cartoon= Ha, ha - there very well may be an app for that soon!

=Virtual Field Trip Assignment=

Virtual field trips are an excellent way to get students involved without having to leave the classroom. They are certainly interactive and engaging and would provide students with a more well-rounded view of a topic they are studying. I found the virtual field trip on whaling informative and a neat way to experience the information, particularly the Portrait of Ports. The topics were broken down neatly and it was easy to access the information. Because it was broken down by topics it would be easy for a teacher to guide their students through the website. As I said, I made the field trip because I had read a book on whaling and thought the field trip would be a good way to introduce students to the importance of the whaling industry to US history as well as provide a great background for studying the novel Moby Dick. I think virtual field trips are especially effective with the upper elementary grades, middle school, and high school. This year I taught third grade and a virtual field trip would have been great to use with our expedition on child labor, seeing as there are very few "real" field trips to go on to experience the subject first-hand. Knowing that I will be teaching first grade next year, I think it would be effective to complete a virtual field trip as a whole class. Unless the websites were very basic, it would be difficult, especially in the beginning of first grade with very few readers, to navigate the students through the field trip without being by their side throughout the whole experience. I know students would enjoy it just as much, though, as a whole class and I'm looking forward to trying it next year. We will be doing an expedition on transportation and a virtual field trip would be great for students to experience transportation, such as airplanes, that is not as easily accessible by an actual field trip.

=**CAST Assignment**=

UDL is a great method of teaching that puts every student on an equal playing field: students do not learn in a “right” or “wrong” way; every student is a unique learner and teachers must adapt to each individual’s needs. It was interesting, yet confirming to find out that I am more of a traditional learner; I am a visual/verbal learner. Growing up, it was always easy for me to learn and do well in school because teachers were already catering to my needs as a learner. The survey provided a good study tip: I should try color-coding my notes and flash cards. I had never considered that and I will try that in the future. I also want to try color-coding my notes for my students in class (i.e. highlight important key words with a color rather than just bolding or italicizing). Several other students mentioned the suggestion of color-coding - we must have a number of similar learners in this class!. I found the CAST website to be very informative. I am very familiar with differentiation but I really liked that the information was broken down to make it easy to read and easy to implement. I am excited to get the chance to delve more into the sample lessons they provided. I always find sample lessons the best way to understand a teaching method. “Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age” was equally as informative. The charter school that I currently teach at, Monarch Academy, is highly involved in brain-based research as the backbone for our teaching. I definitely want to share what I learned in this e-book with my colleagues and administration because I think it will give us even more insight and add to our knowledge of brain-based education. The best tool on the CAST website definitely is the UDL Book Builder. When I move down to first grade next year I think that this will be a very effective tool for helping my students improve their basic reading skills. At this grade level, teachers heavily focus on phonics and fluency; this is a great tool for building both of these skills. I could even challenge my more advanced students by having them help me create some of the books on the Book Builder for my struggling students. I hope you'll get the opportunity to author your own online book. I particularly found the second activity that I participated in eye-opening. One of the last questions asked you to note something about yourself that might make you look at the drawing a certain way. At first when I read this question, I was confused as to how I might know //why// I chose to look at something. Then I realized that my initial comments during the activity were all about the women in the drawing even though there was a man and children in the drawing. Clearly, I was identifying with the women, who looked to be about my age, and observing them first. I can see how students might take to a certain book, video, or song if they can identify with it and see themselves in the character or person that is being portrayed. Great example, Jenn! We relate without know why we are. Although I found the CAST website itself to be helpful, I found the UDL toolkit to be the most effective resource. It is a great resource, isn't it? I loved all of the links and ideas on the literacy section of the website and I actually plan to share some of these resources with the parents in my classroom for my final newsletter of the year. Many of my parents would love to have these audio books and literacy practice websites to work with their children over the summer on literacy and math skills. I definitely plan to use these tools next year in my literacy centers, as well. I want to spend more time on the CAST website exploring the best ways to differentiate assessment. I find this difficult in the classroom, particularly when it comes to grading fairly, and I would like to read more about how they approach differentiated assessment.