Adventures in EdTech

During my time in my course on Learning Theories & Instructional Design, I have been designing a proposal to use technology to support differentiation within the writing process. I have been supported by a Learning Support Coach (LSC) at my school as my mentor, and I have proposed finding, creating, and storing a series of video supports that instruct upon different aspects of the writing process. The purpose of this video catalog would be to serve as either re-teaching support, scaffolding or enrichment support for students within the writing process. Typical design for writing instruction on process pieces in my district is based on Lucy Calkins, and involves mini-lessons, and then workshop time, where conferencing and pointing out things to ‘notice’ from other students’ writing is the main source of support. However, as behavior disruptions have risen and student academic stamina has fallen coming out of the pandemic, I have noticed more and more time is spent having to re-teach...

The picture below is one I feel like I was shown during my very first PD presentation as a teacher (or if not, at least some point early on in that year). I think it is a well-known image (or at least a well-known style of picture) to demonstrate the difference between equality and equity, and that what we may actually be striving for within our classrooms is equity, and not equality (not to discount equality entirely, just for the sake of the picture). I think this image speaks to the idea of accessibility, and how it is given space and employed without our classrooms as well, because tools and strategies focused on accessibility seek to create equity. I also feel the picture is apropos because there are multiple persons in the picture who are using some sort of tool to create equity, rather than just being used for the one who ‘visibly’ requires it. This is something I have been seeking to be mindful of more and more as I have gone forward in my career. Image Source Accessibility is ...