Connected Educator's Month

October 31st is the final day of Connected Educators month.  Since hearing David Warlick speak about creating your own personal learning network (PLN) at last year's MANACE SAGE, I have been on a journey to become a more connected educator.  Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano's graphic explains it all. You can view it on her post about connected educators, leaders, and schools.

What I like about #1 is that it is attainable.  Spending 15 minutes out of your evening to learn a new teaching strategy or what a quick YouTube video on a school that is incorporating UDL in their classrooms is reasonable and doable.  It is the kind of professional development that may be more worthwhile because it is self-directed and self-determined, and only lasts as long as you have energy for at the end of a long day of teaching.  When you create a PLN using social media, you access the information that is relevant to your own personal learning needs. 

In my journey to become a more connected educator, I feel like I have stalled a little in stage four.  That is only because I feel like I have little to add to the conversation when I am following such strong educational leaders such as Dean Sharesky, George Couros, and Richard Byrne.  They have contributed a vast amount of knowledge that has allowed me to add a few new tools to my tool belt and has shaped my own personal pedagogy in significant ways.  Part of being an educator is never settling, always learning and growing, just as we would want our students to do. Creating a PLN is one way of making this happen every day.  Just today, while passing out treats to costumed kiddos, I browsed Twitter and found a great post on scaffolding student learning.  I'll share that treat here. 

A UDL classroom in Oakland, California

I just finished watching a video as a part of a course I am taking.  I thought this video was worth sharing.  If you are familiar with Jennifer Katz's work, you will see her three-block model in action here.

Universal Design for Learning

Unless you are planning to get this resource as an e-book, today's post doesn't really have to do with technology.  It does, however, have everything to do with inclusion. I am working on one of my last courses to get my special education post-baccalaureate and the course that I am taking currently is one of the most practical.  As a part of the course work, I've just started reading Jennifer Katz's Teaching to Diversity: The Three Block Model of Universal Design for Learning. The author, a familiar name in the ISD, goes into great length to provide some practical strategies for creating an academically and socially inclusive classroom.  Katz discusses everything from literacy and numeracy instruction, thematic teaching blocks that weave social studies and science outcomes, as well as her well-known Respecting Diversity program that taps on the Multiple Intelligences theory.  Rich with anecdotal snapshots of students Katz has worked with, it is a thought and emotion-provoking read.  At a reasonable $30 price tag, you will see how the best of the last 20 years of pedagogical practice can all be woven together to create a supportive and inclusive teaching environment.
Note: the image below is an interactive ThingLink. Please click on the silhouette centered in the book image for a direct link to a University of Manitoba blog post about Jennifer Katz. You can check out her blog here.

Katz, Jennifer. Teaching to Diversity: The Three-block Model of Universal Design for Learning. Winnipeg: Portage & Main, 2012.