J ENN ’ S A CTION P LAN A SSIGNMENT EDTE 581 July 2009

H OW WILL YOU USE WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED TO CONTINUE WITH YOUR OWN PERSONAL / PROFESSIONAL GROWTH ? This is just the beginning for me as this course was my second special education course. I have typically shied away from all computer courses, but I know that those are the courses that I need the most in this increasingly technological world we live in. With one computer course under my belt I feel braver and more confident to tackle another. In order to benefit my students I now look forward to putting what I have learned into practice because I see how these new skills can help.

W HEN BACK ON THE JOB WHAT WILL YOU INCORPORATE INTO YOUR DAY TO MAKE LEARNING ACCESSIBLE AND ENGAGING TO ALL ? I work as a TOC so I am in a variety of different classes. When I have a full time job I look forward to using many of the tools we have learned about. I think Boardmaker will be a great help for all students to create calendars, schedules, routines and activities Having a variety of accessible books for everyone to enjoy is important. Experimenting with computer programs that are new to me with the students such as Voki, ToonDoo, Animoto and Glogster will be fun!

W HAT DO YOU HOPE TO SHARE WITH YOUR SCHOOL ( STAFF / PARENTS / COLLEAGUES …)? Being a TOC, I don’t have my own classroom yet but I hope to share all the great tools and programs with teachers that I meet in various schools. I often sub in learning support so I am eager to try out my new skills and expand on what I have learned. My mom teaches grade 5 and I have sent her my Voki, Animoto and Wiki so she has asked me to teach her these skills. Just like the ripple effect Paul is always talking about, little by little we each share what we know.

H OW MIGHT WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED IMPACT YOUR DISTRICT ? W HAT MIGHT YOU DO TO SHARE WHAT YOU LEARNED BEYOND YOUR OWN CLASSROOM ? I plan to share what I have learned with other teachers that I meet and with my mom, who teaches grade 5. I hope I can help a teacher, who is struggling with a student, come up with some better ways to approach learning.

W HICH TOOLS HAVE POTENTIAL TO MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN YOUR WORLD ? W HY ? I loved all the programs/tools and I hope to experiment more with the ones that we didn’t get to spend a lot of time on. My favourites were: Creating a Wiki because it’s easier than a webpage and students can use this for so many projects Talking books – both making them in Powerpoint and learning about available ones on Tar Heal Reader for example Animoto because I like the music video style Voki because it can give a voice to a non verbal student ToonDoo because I can see a lot of kids who don’t like to write very much getting into making a comic Auto-summarize because it is easy to use and so many students would find it helpful and still be able to follow the curriculum Blogs because I think they are a cool way for kids to connect with other people in the world and share their ideas Boardmaker because there are so many ways to use this program and so many kids need visual cues

W HAT WAS THE BIGGEST ‘ A HA ’ MOMENT FOR YOU ? My biggest ‘aha’ moment was creating my first Animoto. It may seem like a small start but I have never considered myself to be good with computers. Being able to move my photos to my flash drive and then create my Animoto, complete with Latin music, made me feel proud. I sent it off to my family to see and that felt great! I also realized through this course that I am more capable than I had thought and that with time, patience and guidance I can learn about new programs that will benefit my students. Computers can be fun! Who knew?

T HANK YOU FOR WATCHING !