Reflection for 10/4
Week 1:
I was surprised to find out at our first class that the course would be focusing on Universal Design and not Understanding By Design. The phrasing is similar – so, I assume somewhere along the way, I accidentally added a “B” to my notion of this course.
I was also surprised to discover that UD and UBD are really not all that far apart. It seems like the philosophy of UD fits the theory of UBD. One of the aims of UBD is to allow all learners to access and understand their educational experiences, and UD is the ability of individuals to meet those needs through technology. I guess it is a good fit. I am hoping to learn in this course how to best fuse these two acronyms. 
Maybe UBDUD?
Another thought from the first class: I am really excited to learn about available new technologies that I can use with my students. As I mentioned in my previous post, my kids love computers! I would love to find ways to integrate technology into lessons and have my students involved and attentive. I would also like to find ways to better teach my materials through the use of technology. I have tried Web Quests with some success and other models of technologically-based lessons. I would like to be able to be current in my social studies materials (the web seems like the most affordable and easiest way to do this). I would also like to be more savvy in instructional technologies that may assist students with special needs.
I am anxious to start this class and really excited about the chance to work with my colleagues to develop a unit that will be applicable, interesting, standards-based, and differentiated. I love taking courses with the teachers at my grade level. It gives us a reason to rethink what we teach and how we teach it. It also gives us time to collaborate and really come up with some lessons that will ‘wow’ the kids and bring about the desired learning.
Looking forward to next week….
Reflection | Comment (1)One Response to “Reflection for 10/4”
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Everything sounds good to me. Like your first post, I greatly enjoyed reading this reflection. You are a talented and dedicated educator – very insightful and committed to continuous improvement. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with and learn from you in the coming weeks.
Regarding UbD – UD…We’ll spend some time comparing and contrasting these during tomorrow’s class. I’ll just insert here that my philosophy and framework of universal design is independent of other individuals and organizations. Perhaps you got a sense of this from this week’s readings (”What is universal design?”). I essentially took the UbD process (with some liberties) and integrated UD principles, methods, and strategies. UD is truly about access for all students and is applicable across any framework that an educator uses to create curriculum and deliver instruction. I chose to use the UbD framework because I work in Maine and most school districts have adopted that framework for their professional development. My strategy was to minimize the impression that UD is another add-on to what teachers are already being required to do…rather, it’s the same curriculum development process, only better!
More later!
Cynthia