1. Unite for Literacy
During our fourth and final class we were introduced to a fantastic reading sight by our instructor. I was quite surprised that I had not heard of this site before. I will definitely share it with my colleagues and use it next year with my students. Unite for Literacy is a website with free digital picture books for students from different cultures, backgrounds and languages. This free site provides access to 130 books that are categorized into groups. Some of the categories are: animals, technology, health and family. All books are narrated with the touch of a button or you can have children read the books on their own. As a teacher, I could use this site to do a virtual guided reading group with my students. I could also use it to help extend knowledge and vocabulary on specific topics. The goal of this site is to create life long learners who gain a love of reading in the home at an early age. The creators of this site believe that most homes do not have enough relevant picture books for children to make reading a habit . There solution is to provide a virtual library that is open at anytime and anywhere! What a great idea!
During our fourth and final class we were introduced to a fantastic reading sight by our instructor. I was quite surprised that I had not heard of this site before. I will definitely share it with my colleagues and use it next year with my students. Unite for Literacy is a website with free digital picture books for students from different cultures, backgrounds and languages. This free site provides access to 130 books that are categorized into groups. Some of the categories are: animals, technology, health and family. All books are narrated with the touch of a button or you can have children read the books on their own. As a teacher, I could use this site to do a virtual guided reading group with my students. I could also use it to help extend knowledge and vocabulary on specific topics. The goal of this site is to create life long learners who gain a love of reading in the home at an early age. The creators of this site believe that most homes do not have enough relevant picture books for children to make reading a habit . There solution is to provide a virtual library that is open at anytime and anywhere! What a great idea!
2. Katie Novak Website
We learned about this site during our last class. It was developed by Katie Novak and Allison Sancinito. This is a wonderful site to guide teachers and families through online learning. In recent months, we have all had to deal with very uncertain times and as teachers, out of nowhere, we had to modify and adapt our teaching to fit the virtual classroom. This was a very daunting and overwhelming task for most teachers. This site is a perfect guide for teachers and families during these times because it provides actual daily lessons for up to 30 days of learning. The format of the lessons is very user friendly. When you click on each day it will bring you to an attached Google Document that outlines what you can do for the entire day from morning until evening. You can print off these documents or follow them online. Each day provides lots of options and choices that are very homebased and accessible for all learners. There are a large variety of topics covered so families can choose what interests them and their children. The UDL principles of learning are closely followed throughout each lesson. This site also offers lots of opportunities for professional development and an abundance of resources. I strongly recommend this site to all educators!
3.
Throughout my teaching career I have attended many Professional Learning Days. Most times, these PL days have a set schedule and the focus area has been chosen for me. Most times, I have little say as to what I will be learning about. I regret to say, that I have walked away many times wondering how I can actually use what I have learned in my classroom.
During our fourth class we learned all about the edWeb site.
The edWeb site is a Professional Online Learning Community.
Some of its benefits are:
* It is free.
* It offers many educational webinars/videos - live or on demand.
* It gives educators the chance to collaborate with other educators.
* Educators can earn CE certificates.
Most of all this site offers so much freedom and choice to educators. It is a fantastic site because educators can choose a time that suits their own schedule, they can choose what they are interested in learning about and they can do everything in the comfort of their own home. This site allows educators to personalize their own learning and professional growth.
During our last class we watched a Webinar done by Kara Magee - Arick called "Supporting Learning from Home for Students with Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities". It was wonderful to watch parents working with their children at home with different degrees of support from the teacher.
The Three types of support a teacher can give a parent of an autistic child or a child dealing with any type of developmental disability are:
1. Support Caregivers - Helping Parents
2. Instructorless Learning - Home Packages
3. Synchronous Remote Learning - Support, IEP's
It was certainly a perfect example of how important the parent and teacher relationship is to student learning.
I look forward to watching more Webinars on the edWeb site. It's a wonderful resource for all educators!
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