Teacher Ms. Potter

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...

Let me introduce you to  Starfall.com As a para-educator, one of my jobs is to assist students with their testing. Many of these tests are done on computers and I have recently helped kindergarteners do their STAR testing. After the kids were done with all their tests (reading, writing and math) they were directed to the Starfall website until all their classmates were done. I was curious about this website as a I noticed that kids were very engaged and it seemed like a great resource for learning. I had the chance to explore and even play! It was fun to be a kindergartener once again, although I did not have these types of computer games as a child.  Starfall is great for young children. It is geared to kindergarten and it has games and activities for reading and mathematics. It is kid friendly and very easy to navigate. It is made to be used with both the mouse and touchscreen. Children can practice their ABCs, numbers, colors, sharpen their reading s...

Last week I began looking at some teachers' blogs that can help me in my journey as a teacher, and now as an education blogger! I will review three of them as a tool for future teacher Wendy Potter.  1. Cool Cat Teacher Blog Yes, the first thing that caught my eye was the word "Cat" because I love cats.   ☼ The address : http://www.coolcatteacher.com/ ☼ What it looks like :  ☼ Blogger :  Vicky Davis Her name is Vicki Davis , she is a classroom teacher with 14 years of experience teaching high school. She has 18 years of experience teaching teachers how to use technology in the classroom. She won ISTE's online learning award in 2006 for the Flat Classroom Project, and she led more than 30 global projects for students since then. Right now, they're collaboratively building apps in the MAD about Mattering Project. In 2014, She won the BAMMY Award for Best Talk Show Host in Education. ☼ What I liked about the blog :  I ...

It is a new era and a new time in education in which technology plays a big part in it. Some fear it and others welcome it. Those who welcome it are in the right path because education has evolved and teachers need to evolve too . Our students are not the same of 50 years ago. Our students communicate in new ways and in order to succeed in their learning achievement, we need to learn their language. What is Technology Integration? In the Edutopia video “An introduction to technology integration” Sal Kahn defines it as: “Using whatever resources you have, to the best of your abilities” . Sometimes we feel that because we are not on the top of our game with all the new technology that is out there, we cannot use it in the classroom, but we forget, as teachers, we are life-long learners and there is nothing more satisfying for students and teachers to have the opportunity to learn together.  Azul Terronez, in his TedX talk “What makes a good teacher great” tel...