Getting our MITS on Technology

I met with my general ed teachers again. What a wonderful team we have!! Their enthusiasm is contagious. I had the Ultra Lab from http://www.writerlearning.com/ sent to their school so they could have ownership of the technology. We spent a half hour playing with the writers yesterday. You would have thought it was Christmas the way they smiled when we tore into the boxes. They kept commenting on how excited the students would be to use them! Imagine that...students wanting to use special ed technology in class...I've had so many students with special needs not want to use an Alphasmart or some other type of device because they didn't want to look different than their peers. Now that we are letting all students in the class use the Writers the students with special needs are going to stand out as being different. I realize that I'm in a unique position of having money to be able to back up what I'm preaching but I'm not going to apologize for it! We are going to ride this wave while we have it!! Some of the options that the Writer has built in are: Writing prompts (40+ story starters that support students with ideas for what to right about), Score (after typing text, press the score button and get a grade level score for your text) and Adjective builder (press Alt-A to choose from categories of adjectives to add to your text). The teachers are already thinking of ways they can use them with the projects they will working on in January. The students and staff are going to have a great time writing with the Writers!

AT teams vs Tech Teams

In November I tried to implement Assistive Technology Teams in our local schools by offering incentives including stipends and free training. I was discouraged by the lack of participation regarding the AT Teams. I have decided to change gears and try to create Technology Teams in the locals that consist of someone from special ed and someone from general ed. Today Patti D. from our AESA called to ask if I would be willing to present some technology sessions for the county. She is part of our Learning Resource Unit and is in charge of setting up Professional Development for teachers. They are focusing on P.D. for High School teachers I'm assuming due to the new High School redesign, and it is a perfect fit for me. The 2 sessions I'm scheduling with her are: UDL and Web 2.0. I'll have links to handout from these sessions as soon as I have them ready...

MITS Retreat

Over Thanksgiving break we had a retreat for the 5 of us who are working on the MITS contract. Yes, I said during Thanksgiving break...we met Sunday November 26 and Monday the 27th. Jeff, the director of MITS set up the retreat at Kettunen Center in Tustin Michigan http://www.kettunencenter.org/. Nice place for a retreat; it was located on a lake and we had the whole place to ourselves. We have quite a diverse group which means that we will be well rounded. Here is my take on the dynamics of our group:

Leader offers everyone a large glass of water (MITS contract)

Some people in our group said “Yay, we can use this water right away. We will use it with projects we are already doing plus start up some new projects. Let’s brainstorm about what we can do with it. We can’t wait to see what others are doing with their glass of water.

Some people in our group said: “Why is the glass on the table? Who put it there? Are you sure it’s water? It looks half full but is it? We know we’re thirsty but is it worth it, will it quench our thirst or just spill out and not be of any use? We’re going to keep using our hose to quench our first before we try this glass. We would like to hear what others are doing with it.

Some people in our group said: “We heard there’s a glass. We can’t see the glass, but we were told to do something with it. We have some ideas of what to do with it, but would like to hear what others are doing.

We spent the 2 days with our noses burried in our laptops discussing, analyzing, sharing, brainstorming, swearing and laughing. It's difficult to come back to the reality of a busy school setting and still accomplish everything that needs to be done. But we did start our own Wiki that will house a lot of resources for teachers who will be implementing UDL in their classroom. Please visit it often at: http://techintegration.pbwiki.com

Ultra Lab Ordered

Good news-Bad news...the Ultra lab (http://www.writerlearning.com/ultra_lab.html 30 Writers on a cart with a printer and laptop) is ready to be shipped! They won't ship until after the holidays...I was hoping to give Vince and Carol an early christmas present with the lab but looks like they will have to wait until Janurary. I'm going to offer to give them a Writer to play with over their break. Not that I want people to work during their holidays, but some of us geeks do find it enjoyable playing with a new toy...

General Ed Teachers are Great

The meeting with the gen ed teachers went very well. As I walked into our meeting room I saw a gentleman sitting at a table with a laptop...I was hoping he was one of the teachers I'd be working with...and he was! Yay for me! His name is Vince and I'm excited about showing him some ways he can use technology to help his 5th grade students that are struggling. The other teacher is Carol. She confessed that she doesn't know a lot about technology but can see it's potential with her 4th graders and is just as excited about integrating technology as I had hoped. Vince was able to pull up his students' reading performance data on his laptop to show me that over 25% of his class is not reading at grade level. Carol's class has all male students and she also has more than 25% of her class that is struggling in all areas. The Special Ed supervisor wanted to try the UDL approach with these classes not only because the teachers would be great to work with but because their Middle School MEAP (Michigan's Educational Assessment Program) scores were so poor. We are hoping that by adding technology into their curriuculum we can meet the needs of more students and that will be reflected in their performance in class and on the MEAPs.

Meeting with 3 Gen Ed teachers

Tomorrow is my first meeting with 3 general education teachers who are going to begin implementing UDL strategies into their classes. Some of the things we will be deciding tomorrow are: Will they start right away (probably not), will they slowly begin implementing this school year (maybe) or will they receive training this school year and use the summer to help refine goals, add new ways to present their curriculum and new ways for the students to show what they've learned along with adding more motivating, out of the box activities that go along with their curriculum-basically waiting until next school year to begin implementing(maybe). I'm willing to work with any of the 3 alternatives. To help make this transition the easiest on me, we will be implementing Sue Hardin's 'Begin with Me!' project. http://www.beginwithme.misd.net/ She has created a very comprehensive approach to increase writing skills in students that allows technology to be integrated into the curriculum for all students. I've just ordered The Writer Ultra Lab http://www.writerlearning.com/ultra_lab.html which includes 30 Writers (similar to Alphasmarts but I prefer the Writer's built in features) some software, resources and best of all a laptop and printer all on a mobile cart. The gen ed classrooms will be sharing the cart. I already have Kidspiration and Inspiration, spell checkers, Universal Reader as well as headphones/mic so it looks like my toolkits are ready. I wonder if the teachers are as nervous about meeting me as I am of meeting them. I'll let you know how the meeting went next time...

Local AT Teams

So I'm trying to set up Assistive Technology teams in 6 local school districts. Currently I'm the only AT person in Allegan, and although we are rural and don't have the numbers larger schools have, I still can't be in two places at one time. I have been able to buy great Christmas presents with my mileage reimbursement checks I receive from all the traveling I do in our county. Here is my pitch to the Special Ed Supervisors to try to get Local AT Teams established:

"Blah blah...One of the projects I would first like to get started is to develop local Assistive Technology teams. I’m leaving it up to you to decide who your ‘team’ would be, or if you would even like to participate. Your team should consist of at least 2 people who are interested in using technology to help students participate fully in their education. It would be ideal to have one ancillary and one teacher from one of your buildings, but who ever is willing to do it is fine. I have set aside a total of $5,000 for stipends for team members, so depending on how many people are participating, they will receive somewhere between $350-$500 for being part of the A.T. Team this year. Here are the requirements for the team members:

Attend monthly meetings (some face-to-face, some via other forms) First meeting will be in November!

Complete an online class: A.T. in the Local School Districts (monthly meetings will revolve around class)

Write a grant-Breaking Down Barriers to Assistive Technology- http://www.readingmadeez.com/Grantform.php (they are guaranteed to receive the grant)

Provide their local district information regarding Assistive Technology (this may be in the form of newsletters/memo, talking with teachers and ancillary staff at meetings, etc...)

Complete a pre and post survey of their knowledge of A.T.

A.T. team members will receive:
A stipend, upon completing the pre and post survey at the end of the school year

Mileage reimbursement for attending monthly meetings

Free online course on Assistive Technology

Assistive Technology software for all students in their buildings (grant mentioned above)

Access to Allegan’s Assistive Technology lab and Lending Library

The first A.T. monthly meeting will either be on Tuesday November 21 or Tuesday November 28 (after school at the Development Center) depending on preference of teams. Please send me your team members’ names and email addresses via email to: gunderwood@alleganaesa.org as soon as you have them. If you are not going to have a local A. T. team please let me know that as well. "

So how many takers do I have so far...ZERO. I'm assuming that as soon as I remind the supervisors that I need a response, I will be able to get at least 2 or 3 to commit. But I wouldn't be honest if I didn't let you know how disappointed I was...I'm wondering if maybe we are too small to have local AT teams...if maybe I should be working in a bigger school district...But I've shaken off the bad feelings and am determined to get at least 2 teams established this school year. I KNOW that it is what's best for our county. The teachers and the students need the support. On the good side, the participants will get larger stipends because I won't have to share the money with as many participants as I thought. And if I still don't get any takers...I wonder how much it costs to clone myself...do you think the $5000 stipend would cover it??

Next time I'll write about UDL and how I hope to get started implementing it in our locals...YIKES! But I have a plan...