I used to teach middle school math almost two years ago. I had some special needs students in my class and just some low level learners. I was new to teaching math and I feel I was good at teaching it, after taking this class I realize how much better I could have been.I have an entire new perspective of not only assistive technology for students with disabilities, but for all learners in general.
I now teach 2nd grade where luckily I can apply what I am now learning in new and innovative ways I never thought of before.
I listened to the webinar, Math Instruction for Students With Disabilities and downloaded the pdf format.
In this I learned not only how to think more outside of the box when it comes to math manipulatives, but also how to use a student's AT device in the process.
The pdf broke everything down so explicitly, I have a renewed sense of readiness to go in to my classroom tomorrow and teach math.
My favorite pieces of information from this webinar was to remember that "IEP goals are not the curriculum", "practice is not instruction", and that "concept knowledge is as essential to math as comprehension is to literacy".
The webinar then discussed ways to provide choices and a means to communicate as simple as eye gazing, touch, point, or selecting with sound. They also discussed the importance of incorporating a student's communication board or device and to use tactile/visual symbols.
They discussed and showed many ways to represent concepts in different ways using everyday objects!
Check out this webinar! You won't be disappointed and I'm so happy I chose this one to connect all of my posts thus far as this incorporated UDL principles, AT in the classroom and communication!
~ Michelle
Michelle, I also watched this webinar on math instruction for students with intellectual disabilities and absolutely loved it. Math is one of my favorite subjects so I was very interested to learn about assistive technology to support these students in the classroom. Assistive technology can help those with disabilities talk and write about math, understand math, perform a math task, engage in math, and learn in the best way. I agree with you that my favorite piece of information that I learned from the webinar was that IEP goals do not equal curriculum. Rather, goals are what to measure and curriculum is a guide for progression of learning.
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