2-26-2016 EDEL 1010 Intro to Ed: Blog Post #4

My service learning so far has been in a Special Education Resource Room so I have not seen as much of the big picture yet. In two weeks I will be starting to work in a regular education class and so will hopefully be able to relate to more of the Engaged Learning ideas that were discussed in this Module. Nonetheless, a lot of Engaged Learning takes place in the Resource Room where I observe! Some of the things I observed this past week: 1. Games that teach: reading groups sometimes play BINGO with word cards from their current reading booklet. Pretzels are used to mark the words called out. Kids love Bingo of any kind! After the game, they eat their pretzels and they enjoy that too. (One would have to be careful if you had a student with wheat intolerance.) 2. Students are given choices: even though the teacher may know what two activities they "must" cover that day, they usually ask the students which activity they choose to do first. 3 Sometime "technology" doesn't have to mean fancy computers: these teachers use a lot of laminating so students can do any worksheet as a "white board" and easily erase their work, so the worksheets can be used over and over. Magnetic strips on the back of letters, used with cookie pans make another great individual "work board" for students to work on putting together vowels, consonants, and blends. Still, smartboards, computers, and dot cameras are important tools for teachers too. 4. I am getting familiar (again) with how much students need to move--of course some more than others! Especially with students on the Autism Spectrum, sometimes they need movement; sometimes they need just a 5 minute break to bring their frustration back down to a level they can manage.