Do you see what I see?

Ever wonder what the world looks like with a learning disability.  Here's your chance!  Try to decipher the following examples.  Leave comments of your interpretation below.

Dyslexia: 

Dysgraphia:

Dyscalculia:

Which number is easier to see?  Would a dyscalculia student say the same?

iBaby

With a new technology era in front of us, with a landscape of ever changing data and tools children are being exposed to technology often from the day they were born.  I remember sitting in the waiting room of the hospital getting text messages from my brother and his wife- count down, doctor said it's time to push, and an hour later, before we were even allowed to see her, we had a mass picture message sent to our phones.  My niece, who is now nearly two, will sit on my lap and flip through my iphone, giggling, toggling around- even taking picture of herself and laughing.

Dispite our best intentions, many professional suggest that computers are not developmentally appropriate for children until about 3 years of age.  The rational for this limit is closely tied to Piaget's theory of childhood development.  Under the guide of his work, Piaget suggests that children at the age of three are learning and absorbing on a active bases.  They are exploring symbols, language, pictures and numbers are are mobile and active learners.  Reinforces by the work of Howard Gardner, age three is when students are learning in a variety of ways, not simply the direct teacher student model.  For these reasons it makes developmental sense to include technology when working with students 3 and older.  Technology offers many new and exciting ways to engage students in learning from an early age- hopefully making students intrinsic and life long learners!  Now what parent wouldn't want that!!

Some early ways of integrating technology are listed below:

Early Childhood ipad apps

Brain Pop!

MET for Kids

Click for more information on development abilities:

Early Childhood

Mistakes Welcome Here

One of the most rewarding lessons to teach children is the lesson that mistakes are okay! In fact some of the most significant discoveries have been created from mistakes- the discovery of America, Penicillin, even the cave of Lascaux in France. This less constrained way of thinking allows students the freedom to activity participate in their learning, without fear or ridicule and to engage in new and intresting dialog, and experiment and interact with their own learning.

English As a Second Language or ESL programs have steadily begun to promote this concept in hopes of giving students a way of developing, practicing on honing students skills so they gain comfort and confidence in their use of English.  Technology has been a huge help in promoting a fear free style learning.  Schools have been using programs like board maker and writing with symbols as a means of engaging students in learning in a visual and exciting way.

The ideology established by ESL programs is not just restricted to teaching English.  The concept of a fear free and engaging method of teaching is a huge component of any good art program.  As an art teacher one of the critical foundations of teaching art is teaching students how to take risks with their work and ideas.  In order to do this, teachers must engage students in activities that encourage and recommend "mistakes" or play as a means of discoving and learning the content.

Below are several really cool suggestions of mistake welcome art activities.  Click on the titles for more details.

Peach Pit Painting

Magic Milk Painting

No Paintbrushes Allowed

Marble Paper

Pushed to the Limit

With ever increasing demands on teachers, from preps, to large class sizes, grading and limited support, teachers are forced to prioritize teaching goals. With education under such pressure it's clear that often something is going to break.  One of the most stressful and difficult aspects of teaching is accomdadating the needs of all students and all abilities.  That means modifying a wide range of lesson plans that will push the students who need extra help and stimulate the students that are speeding through their lessons.

Students with behavioral disorders are often the first students to put on the back burner.  With behavior issues and seemingly limited involvment, teachers tend to critize students with beavoral disorders in stead of correcting and adapting lessons to meet their needs.

New information has come out to encourage and train teachers to create a successful and well bahvioed classroom for students with behavioral disorders.

These tips include:

• Creating an online classroom with clear instructions for students to use outside the classroom.  This will allow the teacher to better differentiate and customize students education.
• Join an online communicate specializing if students with behavior disorders to gain knowledge and ideas.
• Use a range of visuals images such as graphs, charts, animations and colored diagrams.
• Create a quiet and calm for the student to learn without the pressures of adult and student interaction.
• Use computer software to train students on impulse control and social cues.
• Use computer software to monitor computer activity and redirect students.
• Create a system of praise when student behaviors well and a non threatening system of correction if students is poorly behaved.
• Create a points or bonus chart for good behavior.
• Have a journal with assignments students can use during down time to prevent boredom and bad behavior due to lack of assignments.
• Monitor class room volume with devices like "the clapper"
• Allow students to use iPods to keep them focused.
• Use educational animation videos, such as those found on brain-pop to engage students.
• Use web based activities to engage students and refocus them during the lesson.

The Digital Divide

As most teachers know, there are numerous laws and measures take by the state and national government to provide all students with an equal education.  These law help ensure that the needs of all students are meet and students are given the opportunity to success regardless of ability or disability.  Let's take a moment to review the two most important educational laws:

American's With Disabilities Act
Public Law 101-336 [42 USC 12101]
The ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, state and local government, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation, and telecommunications.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 
guaranteed that eligible children and youth with disabilities would have a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) available to them, designed to meet their unique educational needs. 

*The following information is quoted from this link. Technology Laws

For this blog, I'd like to focus on a lesser known law that has a HUGE impact on education today.  As was unknown to me, until about an hour ago, that there is clear legislation that dictates that technology resources must be equally administered to all students regardless of ability.

Technology Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities   

Not only does the law dictate that students have the right to access this technology, the law also provides that funds will be given to schools for assistive technology that meets the following criteria:

The technology will

• be in demonstration centers, information centers, equipment loan facilities, referral services, and other consumer-oriented programs;
• protection and advocacy services to help people with disabilities and their families, as they attempt to access the services for which they are eligible;
• Federal/state programs to provide low interest loans and other alternative financing options to help people with disabilities purchase needed assistive technology.

 The following link offers great insight into this law and how to gain funding.
 Assisitive Technology Laws


In addition to the Technology related Assistance act and additional law provides that teachers be given the appropriate resources and skills to use assistive technology.

Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act Amendments of 1998

Schools are required to integrate academic, vocational and technical training, increase the use of technology, provide professional development opportunities to staff, develop and implement evaluations of program quality, expand and modernize quality programs, and link secondary and post-secondary vocational education.

The goal of these laws is to ensure that in a growing digital age, all students are given fair and equal opportunities.  With such drastic technology changes happening on almost a daily basis, it is easy to see how students with disabilities could easily be forgotten.  It essential that as teachers we are aware of legislation in place to prevent this from happened.  Its also critical that we as teachers become advocates for students that lack "voice" in our education system.

Sources:
http://www.fctd.info/resources/techlaws.php
http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/ATBasics/Foundation/Laws/atlegislation.php

It's a Visual Word

It goes without saying that art is a visual subject.  Often attributed for meeting the needs of visual learners, the idea of creating lesson plans for students that have visual imparments can seem very challenging.  The key to tacking the fear of creating lessons for students with visual imparments is to understand that art offers much more then visual stimulation.

I often believe that the best way to help students with disabilities is to learn how to compensate with their abilities. For instance, students with extrememly limited vision will likely have more atune senses of touch.  Think about focusing on the tactile learning skills, like sculpting, clay moddeling or paper mache.  Allowing students to touch and feel works of art, giving them an oppertunitiy to explore how the peices connect or join can be a huge benefit.

Let's walk through a basic lesson on sculpture for students of all abilities.

1. At the start of class explain that the students will be working with sculptures.
2. Have small student made clay sculptures at students desk.
3. Ask ALL students to close their eyes and explore the sculpture just using touch. 
4. Have students open their eyes and describe how the sculpture feels.  
5. Take notes on the conversation using a smart board.
1. The notes can be saved and hand writing can be turned into text.  
2. This will allow you to save the notes for later and make them more readable and able to be enlarged.
6. Give students clay and ask them to close their eyes and practice molding the sculpture just using touch.
7. End class with a discussion about how just using touch helped and hindered the process, allow students to explore the difficulties and create connections with the activity and the students in the class.

Visual and Virtual

This weeks blog dealings with an amazing assistive technology for art teachers known as virual envirnments.  One of the many challenges in education is differenciate instruction to meet all the abilities within ones classroom.  One group of students that can sometimes be forgot is those that are considered gifted and talented.  Creating virtual envirnments within a classroom can allow for students to differenciate the content for themselves, allowing for learners to take more time in areas of difficulty or others to spend more time in a particular area.

So this got me thinking, how can I use this in my own classroom?  Read on to see me walk a future art unit through the process of virtual creation

So here are the steps:

1)  Creating a Virtual Thematic Unit

     
I'd love to create a unit dealing with understand how a kiln works.  I teach 4 cermics classes and    often have students finishing work at differnet times.  While it's not critical that students understand kilns too indepth I believe it's a great thing to understand and want to offer an oppertunity for students to gain more knowledge on this topic if they finish projects early.

2) Create Hyperlinks to Lessons.

This stage encourages you to find links and lessons that deal with your thematic unit.  Below are some awesome links about understanding the kiln.

Skutt: Don't Be Afraid of the Kiln
Current Cones
The Basic Stuff

3) Use Assistive Technology.

For this unit I would also find pod casts, you tube movies, and artist interviews to add to the overall lesson. I would also make note of any and all disibilities that I need to make adjustments for.

4) Discover Virtual Museum Tours.

This step allows you to explore alternative ways of visiting or touring museums that relate to your theme.  Below are some great Ceramic museum websites.

Ceramic Research Museum
International Ceramics Museum
Public Library
Ashmolean Museum

5) Find Online Learning Games.

While this is an awesome way to engage students, I am causion about choosing games due to the potencial advertizments displayed on the games sites.   Here is a pretty cool and ad free link.

American Girl Ceramic Studio

Art and Autism

Autism is one of the most wide stretching, yet mystifying disorders of our time.  With little cultural or ethical markers, Autism effects on average, 1 in 110 children a year, with a stronger percentage being placed on males.  With such a vast population of children on the spectrum the odds are that all teachers will work with at least 2 or 3 students on the autism spectrum in their career.

While the depth of the disorder is still fuzzy there are many tools a teacher can use to create a more education, secure and informative art classroom for ones students.

Low Tech Art Tools:

• White boards can be used create calendars and schedules so students have a clear sense of time and order.
• Flash cards can be used to teach art vocabulary, and specific cards can be purchased with stronger contrast.
• Create Visual ads can be used to represents tasks, instructions and schedule.
  
• Provide choices for students to make decisions about their learning, for instance, you are done, do you want to free draw, look at an art book or take a gallery walk to look at other peoples art.

High Tech Level Tools:

1. Use i pads to explore different works of art through museum applications.
2. Create a video that goes over the art room polices and procedures to establish a routine.
3. Create a way to share and discuss projects online to encourage students communication and socialization with students.
4. Create note cards on quizzlet that allow for size, font, and color adjustments.

Art and Autism have many great possibilities, check out a few of the amazing things arts with autism are doing on a daily basis!

Drawing Autism

The Art of Autism

Other Helpful links:

http://www.disaboom.com/assistive-technology-general/assistive-technology-for-autism
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110301/news/703019898/
http://www.autismteachingtools.com/page/bbbbfg/bbbbwp

First Hand Experence

Number one rule: sometime you just need to laugh at yourself.

It is often said that it is difficult to remove ones self from ones teaching, that in essence, we teach who we are.  For me, understanding and accommodating learning disabilities this has always been a critical aspect of my teaching, for the very simple fact that I grew up with one.  I was diagnosed with Dyslexia in 1st grade, during a time when 504 plans and IEP's weren't all the rage.  While I was lucky enough to have a family that advocated for me and my learning disabilities, many students are without such luck.

If you've ever wondered what it was like to have a learning disability, PBS put on an exceptional video and website on different learning disabilities, called Misunderstood Minds.  Use the link below to gain from first hand experiences as to the struggles students like myself, experience on a daily basis.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/resources.html#writingweb

With help and resources I learned, like many other students, how to use my abilities to work around my disabilities, how to compensate for my inadequacies and learn how I learn.  While my years in elementary seem to be eons ago, I am thrilled and excited to see the potential assistive technology offers for a new generation of students that learn just like me.

Learning how to use technology is the key to providing students with an exceptional education plan designed to work with their abilities and help adapt learning to fit into our students' frame of reference.  Sometimes, as we talked about in the first post, there are easy ways to incorporate readily available technology into one's teaching.  The goal is simply learning how to use the technology at hand.  The following article goes into more in depth technology strategies.

http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/assistive-technology/702-assistive-technology-for-kids-with-learning-disabilities-an-overview.gs?page=1

Like most other dyslexics proof reading as ALWAYS been one of my biggest issues.  The following article goes over some great technology tools that are specifically designed to help students become more effective proof readers.

http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/assistive-technology/962-proofreading-software-programs.gs?page=1

So the question becomes: how does this relate to the work we do in an art classroom?

While it's often suggested students that do not conform to traditional styles of learning excel in the art room, I'd conversely argue that the nature of art and creative thinking is based in a particular application of concept.  Chemical reactions, when written on the board in chemistry class come alive in the art room, when one mixes a developer with photo negatives causing the silver emulsion to develop in a range of grey tones.  Or the mathematical proportion and ratios in an algebra class are applied to mixing ceramic stain.  Art allows students to learn and apply their learning to real world uses, making it ideal for students with learning disabilities.  The national Learning Disability organization echos this thinking in the below article.

http://www.ncld.org/in-the-home/parenting-issues/play-enrichment-aamp-holidays/learning-disabilities-and-the-arts

Leonardo di Vinci was believed to be dyslexic.

The integration of technology into the art room only seeks to enhance students success.  The following article addresses the concerns art teachers face when working with students with disabilities, from getting involved in IEP meets, mainstreaming students into the art room and well as how to use technology to enhance learning.  The article both it's rather eloquently focusing on: Teaching Artistically Abled Students with Exceptional.

http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=337

Simple Solutions to a Complex Problem

Technology and the Achievement Gap

The achievement gap is a disparity in academic success between majority and minority students.

The reasons for this gap are bountiful, but the solutions and remedies to these issues are also numerous, especially with the introduction of technology. Evidence suggests that the difference in academic success between minority and majority students is not a lack of ability but rather a difference in the quality of education among students.  While this statement is not suggestion that teachers are solely responsible for the achievement gap, it is clear that teachers have the power to level the playing field and use resources to allow all students to be taught in an advanced and engaging learning environment.

This post seeks to establish ways teachers can challenge and engage students using technology. 

As an art teacher, this means, make art lessons, relevant to each students and constructed in a manner that allows students to engage in critically thinking about themselves and their own lives and feel confident in their own knowledge and skin.  Creating forums, such as wikis or blogs can encourage students to engage in creative dialog.  Another resource could include using websites, videos and artist that explore a diverse culture range of artists, materials or styles.  Such examples will be explored more in depth and will seek to create strides in reducing the achievement gap.

The biggest success rate for reducing the achievement gap, according to current research, is the concept of de-tracking students. Meaning students will no longer be categorized into high and low achievement groups but all given challenging and appropriate course work that pushes them to succeed.  In order to create a successful diverse learning environment one should consider how to implement the following teaching strategies within the classroom.  While the examples listed are primarily art related the strategies are applicable for all subjects and age levels.

Strategies:

The key to reducing this job is multifaceted but the foundation is laid when classrooms adhere to the following concepts:

1.     Creating a personal relationship with students where they feel challenged, valued and nurtured while learning.

a.      Create online forums for students to ask questions, express ideas and concepts and respond with open-ended questions.  Use rubrics and graphic organizers to give students feedback that challenges their thinking and shows you have high expectations for them.

2.     Introduce aspects where students can share, relate or reflect on their cultural heritage and use this reflection to better learn and teach their classmates.

a.      Use museum websites to explore a wide variety of artwork.  Create web quests that encourage students to research how art is valued or perceived in their own cultural and how that is similar and different to the art they see on a daily basis.

3.     Draw connections between all members of a student’s community, including parents, family, religious and other community members.

a.      Use a website to share what your classes are making and studying, or create an online art show, that features each student's best work.  Create a newsletter or brochure that shares what is happening in your art room.

4.     Create respectful and engaging ways to engage in learning, such as using visual arts as a tool to bring teaching to life.

a.      Create a presentation for non-art teachers on how they can integrate and use art in their own classrooms.  Prezi, is a great presentation site that allows for collaboration, sharing and discussion.

When working with ESL students along with the above strategies, one should also key the following points in mind:

5.     Teach students simultaneously in English and their native language to challenge students academically while still providing them the skills to write, read and communicated in English.

a.      Use art pod casts that relate to the topic your students are studying and are in the student’s native language.  Create a web-quest that features international art websites that have several translations, such as the Prado in Spain, or the Uffizi in Italy.

6.     Teach the cultural and social effects of language and how to transition between those situations.  Show students how to use English on a daily basis in a way that is relevant to their lives. This is also important to teach practical aspects of language instead of abstract constructs.  For instance, teach students the foundation of language needed to function academically and socially before teaching abstract and grammatical aspects of a language.

a.      Explore cinema and screenplay writing, and have students write and star in their own movies.  Give students opportunities switching from formal and informal situations in the movie.

7.     Engage in learning that is beneficial to the group.  Pair students to work together on projects, encourage peer tutoring and create a classroom community that respects and values all backgrounds and cultures.  This allows students to gain pride, build social capital, and freely engage in critical thinking and dialogue.

a.      Use presentational collaboration programs like Prezi or Google docs. To allow students to engage in-group work on art projects. 

b.      Create a unit about typography where students work together to make a graphic design project that uses both English and the student’s native language.

 Resources:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107003/chapters/Diverse-Teaching-Strategies-for-Diverse-Learners.aspx 

Back to the Basics and Build Up

In the fast paced 21^st century environment technology and resources are constantly changing to meet the needs of a vast and diverse population of people.  While these changes are happening at a lighting pace, educational resources and systems are not moving fast enough to catch up. Stuck in policy, funding and resources the modern education system often finds it’s self behind the times.  Despite the disparity, there are many of ways schools and teachers can use current readily accessible technology resources to help create a more inclusive and adaptive classroom.  These simple and widely available technologies including, the Internet, Microsoft word, and other free school software such as inspiration, can be used to modify teaching and learning.  The key to using this technology is just simply giving teachers the knowledge to use these technologies to their benefit.

Technology’s biggest attribute is its ability to differentiate instruction.   In an article written by

 Lisa Wahl and Julie Duffield, entitled “Using Flexible Technology” differentiated instruction is defined as the following:

“Tomlinson defines differentiating instruction as giving students multiple options for taking in information, for making sense of ideas, and for expressing what they learn. In other words, a differentiated classroom provides different avenues for students to acquire content, process ideas, and demonstrate their understanding.”

The simple truth is school districts need to take advantage of simple pre-existing technology such as word processors and graphic software’s that improve upon pen and paper tools that are currently being used.  Schools can bring an outside specialist in to train teachers, use school Technology Directors to host workshops, or simple use web resources and sites such as Technology Tips for Diversified Instruction.

Four of the simple tools readily available include:

1.     Talking text- used to challenge students at a high reading level, or to advance students on lower reading levels.

2.     Web Resources- electronic libraries, customized worksheets and lesson plans that are altered from existing documents on the web and adapted for groups or individual students.

3.     Graphic Organizers- organize thoughts and are able to create differentiated handouts to students of all abilities.

4.     Word Processors- can be used as an editing tool to engage students in their writing.  Can also adjust grammar settings to show specific mistakes or not show specific mistakes.  This is a way of customizing students lessons and challenge or modify lessons for all abilities.

For Art education, this means that some of the high level thinking skills, such as writing and discussing art, looking critically at historic and contemporary artists, writing personal artist statements, and developing conceptual ideas can all be done using simple technology that caters to the needs of a diverse range of students.

Resources:

WestEd TechPlan Toolkit at http://rtecexchange.edgateway.net/cs/rtecp/view/rtec_str/9.

 Flexible Technology http://www.wested.org/cs/we/view/rs/763