Teacher Ms. Potter

Ever since I was little the word "test" or "exam" would send the chills through my body. I never felt they were testing to see how much I had learned but instead how much I did not know or had studied. I always wanted to succeed and many times I did, but other times I would not do so well. I think the problem was the way I was being tested and I think that is still the way many teachers still test today: at the end of the learning process when there is nothing else to be done about it except fail. We need to think the way assessment is done and ask ourselves what we are testing, how we are doing it and what the students are getting out of it.  The Department of Education has a great page called:    Measuring for Learning  which is all about assessment   and it discusses how it has improved over the years and best yet, where it is going. It begins talking about how measurement is part of every teacher's job because we need to constantly check

Picture source: Pixabay Google has become the new way to do things! No more having to save a document on your flash drive and risk losing it, no more saving your work every five minutes in case your computer shuts off, gone are the days of emailing documents back and forth in order to collaborate, and best of all, having all Microsoft programs available at all times anywhere you go! Google Docs provide us with the flexibility to work on a project little by little from any device! I used to dream of having this type of opportunity! I remember many times saying to myself, after a long cry due to losing a paper I had spent hours writing, "why can't they just make it so that documents save themselves?" I finally developed the skill to automatically save my documents as I worked, and now I do not have to do that anymore! Mr. Google does it for me. It is a dream come true!  Besides all the wonderful things that Google Drive has provided, there are so many other

When I think of digital literacy, I think of being able to use and understand technology in order to communicate and gain knowledge. After some research I have found that it means to use technology to the best of the abilities in an effective manner by understanding it, interpreting it, reproducing it, evaluating it and applying it. The University Library of The University of Illinois defines digital literacy as: * The ability to use digital technology, communication tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use and create information. * The ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers. * A person’s ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment * Literacy includes the ability to read and interpret media, to reproduce data and images through digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments. Here is a fun short video that breaks d

Can technology help our students become more successful in the classroom? Can we adapt our teaching to cater to all of our students including those with disabilities and benefit all the students in general? Can we really have an adequate and effective inclusive classroom where everyone is getting the most out of it and no one is being left out? These are some of the questions that come up when thinking about teaching to a diverse group of students and especially those who have disabilities. Many people still answer "NO" to most of the questions, but there is actually a way to answer "YES" to these questions and it is called: UDL which stands for Universal Design for Learning .  UDL is a way to identify potential barriers in the learning environment so that they can be reduced or eliminated helping all students succeed, including those of diverse backgrounds, ELL and students with disabilities. Students are different in so many ways! They have different experien