As I am on the road to becoming an educator I am learning all types of things I never would have considered on my own. One of these concepts being how to be inclusive to those with disabilities. Reading the article on disabilities in schools made me realize how much of the population has some sort of a disability: ~24.7%.
I personally know of a teacher that teaches in SD63 who often gets students with behaviour challenges and disabilities. This year they have 5 students who need or have IEP’s. I am excited to begin my journey and start teaching in classrooms because I know that it is going to be a challenge to be inclusive, but the more challenging it is = the more rewarding it is when you succeed at what you do.
We have learned a bit about UDL in other classes so I am glad to see it being brought up again. Creating lesson plans with UDL in mind is a great idea because, as the article states, it’s a great way to avoid reworking later on.
The use of assistive technology is a great way to make use of UDL because it gives you options for students who may have difficulty communicating or understanding lessons. iPads, Windows, Kurzweil, Google, Boardmaker, Inspiration/Xmind, FM systems, Braille, and Zoom are all different types of assistive technology. One example that I use sometimes is the voice to text option on google docs when I am listening to video lectures because sometimes I have a hard time recalling what happened in class. I am also excited to learn more about tools such as Broadmaker to help students with success regardless of their abilities. Specifically, their shop which I will post here: https://goboardmaker.com/collections/all
During my field experience there was a kindergarten student who had moved from Russia and did not speak very good English. The EA used flashcards like this to help him understand what was going on:
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