Tenacious Technology

 Kevin Smith Quote: "You have to manifest reality by telling people the shit you want to do..." 

in reference to his blog about what he wanted to create with his idea...

So I need to keep in mind what I need/want and then persistently work with that idea.

Our biggest assets are our own brains. However, I felt last year that I was falling behind all the time by not having more computer (specifically iPad) skills when it came to helping students. In the first class I was in all the students had iPads at their disposal provided by the school. They used them mainly for YouTube and music videos. This was not what I expected from my experience working as a sub in grammar schools where they used their technology devices almost exclusively for math and language lessons, utilizing fun educational game apps. Those weren't special education students though. 

Maybe they need the paper 'hardcopy' of kid's work to track their progress. But that doesn't make any sense, bc if they could learn faster with an app, and enjoy it more, therefore be more motivated to want to do it, then that should be used. And if you needed a hardcopy of something you could do it once a week for a progress check. Although, it could be as simple as wanting them to practice using a pencil as much as possible. One of the most important things that we were told when working with kids in special ed, is to remember to teach for the outside circle. That means not just for we teachers, or their family, who already understand them the best, but for the 'real world' as much as possible. The thing is, it's as important to learn to use a pencil as it is to navigate a computer terminal.

Which brings me back to the beginning, which is that I feel I was sorely untrained in the technological aspect of classroom teaching. I don't have an iPad at home, so had to learn as I went, which was laborious and frustrating. I don't have a mp3 player or iPod. and had the same problem helping one student use his. There was some specific adaptive tech like software for speaking to type using a headset, which would have been helpful if we had that with training on how to help students learn to use them.

Also, we could have used the option of a joystick in place of the mouse for those with limited physical ability and dexterity and muscle control; which weren't even available but should have been. If there is tech available to assist Special Education in any way, it should be available with training on how to use it and how to instruct with it. I know it can be expensive, but with every kid having an iPad (we didn't need all those iPads really) and every general ed student assigned a Chromebook, it does not seem impossible to set up the classrooms more effectively.

At the very least, they could have let me and anyone else who wanted to) borrow an iPad on weekends and vacation breaks to improve my skills and abilities to help teach students without struggling during class time to do something fairly basic, or find the resource or information I needed to help.

I kind of got distracted here writing about frustrations, but I just want to reiterate that I need to keep manifesting my dreams and goals because it is working. I just need to relax and work harder at it. Sound like opposite ideas, but I feel that they are very connected. God Bless, God Speed.