Models and teaches legal and ethical practice related to technology use.

Up until this past year everyone was required to take an annual refresher course in Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) guidelines. Although not required, I take it at the beginning of each school year to refamiliarize myself with the issues surrounding use of district technology and the ethical policies that extend beyond district lines. With so much information available on the Internet, it is no wonder so much emphasis is placed on plagiarism - so much so that a web site exists as an online resource: http://www.plagiarism.org . Students need to be cautioned in regard to inappropriate use of school computers and encouraged to follow adopt safe and ethical practices when using district technology resources.

Educators as well as students need to practice good note-taking and paraphrasing skills, cite others' work in accordance with prescribed guidelines, and adhere to copyright laws and procedures. I know from personal experience how laborious this can be at times. It is so simple to visit a Web site, see an interesting article or picture, and perform "save as" or cut and paste operations. We all need to get in the habit of making meticulous note of where and when we retrieved things from cyberspace and properly credit those who created the original work.

Artifacts: Curbing Plagiarism | NISD Technology Plan

Applies technology resources to enable and empower learners with diverse background, characteristics, and abilities.

Prior to becoming an Inclusion teacher, I taught two years of Behavior Management Center (BMC) and eight years as lead Content Mastery Center (CMC). The last five years of CMC, I taught one class of Local Curriculum (LC) Math daily while a middle school math LC task force member. Early on emphasis was on development of 4MAT wheel lesson plans using a K-6 text and drawing upon real life applications. As the LC program took shape and became adopted by NISD as an alternative to mainstream classroom math for students with specific learning disabilities, more thought was given to online resources. Released Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) and the modified State Developed Alternative Assessment (SDAA) tests, as well as Texas Mathematical Diagnostic System (TMDS) tests were used to determine student placement and progress. Online tutorial resources were recognized as viable options to repetitive seat work for some students. As an Inclusion teacher, I draw upon these and similar Internet tools to augment classroom instructional placement decision-making.

Students with special needs require instructional practices other addition to routine classroom exercises. Some need lots of visual support, others may become more engaged with music and sound effects, and others may need games and manipulatives to reinforce a given lesson. I advocate for the student in the classroom and provide considerable side-saddle and over the shoulder instructional support. Whenever practical, I may pull select students out of class once individual seat work sessions begin in order to provide alternative approaches to the way a given concept has been introduced. I have developed several PowerPoint presentations for student review and encourage students who continue to struggle to visit with me before or after school to revisit these problem areas. As a result of PAVE involvement, I developed a WebQuest (featured elsewhere in this Portfolio) to reinforce several mathematical concepts which prove to be troublesome to middle school students with and without diverse special needs.

Artifacts: Instructional Models & Strategies | Theories, Concepts, & Strategies | Fraction Ppt. | PerCent Ppt. | Ratios Ppt. | Measurement Ppt. | Geometric Shapes Ppt.

Identifies and uses technology resources that affirm diversity.

One of the central themes to the PAVE/Integrating Technology in the Classroom program has been diversity. Teachers are different. Students are different. Any number of things can influence the way a given lesson is taught - and learned. Environmental factors, family matters, weather, available resources; they all impact the way we teach and the way we learn. There is no one right way to instruct any given concept. Teachers need to assess their "audience" and adjust for differences and variances from one hour to the next. Occasionally, we run into a student who is bright and very vocal but can not seem to be able to put two cohesive sentences together on paper. On-line tutorials or readily accessible software programs with interactive imagery, animation, or color may spark more enthusiasm in that child than a blank piece of paper and a pencil whose eraser was chewed off during class yesterday.

One interesting way to engage students in just about any type of learning is by interjecting unexpected humor into the lesson. As I considered that last sentence, I could not resist sneaking a bit of humor into this portfolio page as well. Costa and Kallick's (2000) Habits of Mind encourages flexible thinking, taking responsible risks, and finding humor in what we do. Internet resources abound that provide both educational content, engaging interactive games and manipulatives, and things to tickle the funny bone. Sometimes it is the unexpected that sticks with us the most - click on the last artifact below for something fun and unexpected.

Artifacts: Habits of Mind Lesson Plan | Alternative Solutions | Student Response | Have Fun

Promotes safe and healthy use of technology resources.

Northside Independent School District has an aggressive program for ensuring students, faculty, and community stakeholders safe access to Internet resources while maintaining vigilance over their material resources to limit the adverse affects of computer viruses. Filtering software and controlling the use of non-NISD diskettes are one aspect of protecting educational tools. Each school year, students are required to sign, along with their parents, an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Additionally, they are cautioned by their teachers about inappropriate access and abuse of computer lab resources prior to visiting the lab. Assigned seating further discourages off-task exploration and deliberate misuse of school technology. Still students are very familiar with online chat rooms and "virtual friendships" as attested by the MySpace artifact below in which a student relates in a language arts essay that this has become a social norm.

It is generally better to provide students with a list for directed searching rather than have them probe the Internet willy-nilly. Increased use and ever expanding advances of technology have resulted in the need for educators to teach and for students to learn a whole new set of literacy skills. Textual, numerical, and visual literacies are becoming enmeshed as technological media provides multi sensory input in response to keyboard commands. The result is information literacy requiring users of current technology to become savvy in recognizing, prioritizing, and organizing data. Students can not accept online resources as valid or reliable on first inspection. Care must be taken to determine reliability of informational sources, relevancy of material, and whether support might exist for accuracy and currency. While online projects may provide valuable skill development for students' future learning needs, teacher made resources and lists of acceptable or preferred Web sites may be more appropriate for younger students and for those with identified learning or emotional disabilities.

Artifacts: Math Manipulatives | Student-Centered Projects | Percent PowerPoint | MySpace (Student Essay)

Facilitates equitable access to technology resources for all students.

As an Inclusion teacher in a Title One school, I can not assume that every child has access to computer technology at home. Nor can I assume that those who have computers at home have the current issue of popular software. As often as I can, I encourage students to visit the library to use computer there for increasing their familiarity with online resources. Additionally, I invite students to meet with me before or after school to check Internet sources that may shed light on conceptual struggles they are experiencing. I encourage the teachers I work with to make more use of technology labs. Since my focus, this year, is primarily 6th grade math, computer lab access is limited by curriculum demands that have not yet realized the importance or value of technology as a math curriculum resource. Still I advocate as much as possible for increased use in order to promote the availability and versatility of online resources and to encourage students to become more familiar with computers as a tool rather than toy.

As the Faculty Representative for the Parent-Teacher Association, I have been communicating our campus Computer Instructional Technologist and the PTA President concerning starting up computer classes for community parents. Many of our students do not have home computers or are new to computer use and need hands-on instruction. This has been adopted as an item in our School Improvement Plan and will provide "pay back hours" for PAVE degree candidates. Our hope is that as parents become more comfortable with and knowledgeable about computer resources, they will be able to provide more appropriate technology training to students at home.

Artifacts: Universal Learning Design | Technology Integration