TPaCK
Context
I believe that a student has to be able to see their own growth. In order to do this, they must see their baseline data. For instance, meet Jerry (pseudo name). Jerry had 11 physical outbursts and 24 verbal outbursts in November of 2010. Jerry has problems socializing with his peers, participating in group activities, engaging in lessons in the classroom, and with reading, writing and math skills. Jerry was pulled into a self-contained EI classroom for 3 months, starting in January, and has reduced his outbursts to 1 physical and 9 verbal in April. Although Jerry has been able to reduce his number of outbursts, he still isn’t socializing with his peers properly or participating or engaging as much as he should in the classroom. It takes a lot of coaxing in order to get Jerry to participate with his peers or in the classroom. He is still shy when it comes to taking risks and playing or interacting with friends/peers. As Jerry’s teacher, I keep daily, weekly, and monthly data on how he is doing on his goals. A new way to track Jerry’s progress will be to have him make line graphs of his behavior. In doing this, he will be seeing his growth and see how far he has come. Jerry and I will also work on how he can work through his difficulty with interacting appropriately with peers. One reason I believe that Jerry doesn’t play with his friends on the playground, raise his hand in class, or often-even attempt assignments, is because he believes he will fail. Many students (especially students in special education) have failed many times in and out of school. Jerry was not labeled and able to seek special education help until October, 2010 (his third grade year). This leads him to fall much further behind, and fail much more often. Now that Jerry is able to receive extra help, from teachers and aides who understand his disabilities, he is able to work through his difficulties more easily. Jerry has been failing for many years without guidance. Jerry wasn’t able to have someone beside him, holding his hand, and letting him know how to pick himself back up. Now that Jerry is receiving the help he needs and deserves, I believe that failing can be a lesson, not a punishment. I want to put Jerry into safe environments where he can learn that failing is okay. I want him to build up his understanding of himself, and learn that when he fails he needs to jump back up and try again. In order to do this, I believe technology needs to be involved. |
Content
I have five students, all with severe emotional impairments, and some also with learning disabilities. I have a push-in/pull-out model in place in my classroom. This is where my two paraprofessionals and I will either go into the classrooms with the students all or part of the day or pull the students into our classrooms for some or all of the day, depending on what they need. I have had students who come to my room only for the Friday rewards that I have in place, and I have had students who have needed to be in my classroom all day everyday for three months. But always, we try to get the student back into the general education setting as soon as they are ready.
In my classroom, we are constantly teaching the students risk-taking skills. When the students start to take risks and learn that it’s okay to fail, then I often see that they are ready to go back into their general education classrooms. I am hoping that iPhones will quicken this learning process. I hope that iPhones will teach my students skills that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to teach them. Without an iPhone, I wouldn’t be able to teach my students geocaching nor would they be able to ask for help from me when I’m across the school. In many cases, my students feel more comfortable asking me for help than their general education teacher. At first, this is perfectly fine, and the fact that the student has someone they are comfortable with is a success. Then we work on getting them to ask others for help when they are ready. The iPhones will help us in this quest.
Technology
Technology is a resource that can be used to create new environments for students. I want to create many different situations and environments for my students that are fun, safe, and easy to learn from. I believe that through the use of iPhones, my classroom can achieve these goals. iPhones serve many diverse functions including games, music, typing, searching the Internet, collecting information… These are all applications that my students can use in order to learn risk-taking skills.
One large reason why I believe iPhones would be useful in my classroom is because of geocaching. This is a specific task that I want my students to learn risk-taking skills. I have been trying to stress risk-taking to my students for the past few years. I would love to get iPhones for my classroom in order to have my students be able to find real geocaches around our school (go on walking field trips around town), set up my own geocaches for the students to practice taking risks and finding prizes, and also setting up small geocache scavenger hunts where they need to find one answer to a question in order to answer the next. This could be used with math, language arts, science, social studies, or behavior.
Technology is a resource that can be used to create new environments for students. I want to create many different situations and environments for my students that are fun, safe, and easy to learn from. I believe that through the use of iPhones, my classroom can achieve these goals. iPhones serve many diverse functions including games, music, typing, searching the Internet, collecting information… These are all applications that my students can use in order to learn risk-taking skills.
One large reason why I believe iPhones would be useful in my classroom is because of geocaching. This is a specific task that I want my students to learn risk-taking skills. I have been trying to stress risk-taking to my students for the past few years. I would love to get iPhones for my classroom in order to have my students be able to find real geocaches around our school (go on walking field trips around town), set up my own geocaches for the students to practice taking risks and finding prizes, and also setting up small geocache scavenger hunts where they need to find one answer to a question in order to answer the next. This could be used with math, language arts, science, social studies, or behavior.
Pedegogy
iPhones would also empower my students. Carrying an iPhone around to the general education classes would allow the students to do their math work when they need a calculator, which they would otherwise not attempt. It would allow the student to have a student-specific dictionary/spelling book so that when they are writing, the words that they need to work on could be looked up easily and quickly. iPhones would allow my students to have music at their fingertips that they could listen to whenever they were feeling stressed. An iPhone would allow my students to send me an email when they were in class in order to tell me how they were feeling during a certain time of day. If they needed me to come and sit with them, for emotional or academic help, I could get that email easily and quickly. Students with emotional impairments have learned that if they fail enough times at something, they are going to get yelled at. I think this has happened to them before they have gotten the proper amount of help, and gotten into special education. Before they have been labeled with an impairment, the teacher usually believes (not to the fault of the teacher or the student) that the student isn’t trying and is just acting out. Unfortunately, the student has then learned that when they do try, they will fail and get scolded. I think this is where we need to break the cycle. We need to teach children that if they try, often times they will fail, but that it is okay to fail. We need to teach them that it is when we fail that we learn. After we fail many times, do we finally succeed and get rewarded. | ~Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas." He then created a number of businesses that led him to bankruptcy before he started the great and almighty Disney Corporation that it is today. -http://des.emory.edu/mfp/efficacynotgiveup.html |
Total PACKage
Without iPhones, I would be able to teach some risk-taking skills. However, it wouldn’t be getting the same message across. With iPhones, I am telling the students that I trust them enough to use something that none of the other students have. I am telling them that I trust them with an expensive and highly wanted device. The students will be able to see how technology plays a role in our lives and how important it is. They will be able to see all of the applications and uses that an iPhone has to offer. Without iPhones in my classroom, I would not be able to hear from a student how they are doing in their classroom, when they are across the school.