blackboard & special education: a teacher's approach by craig alexander & karen...

Blackboard & Special Education:

A Teacher's ApproachBy

Craig Alexander & Karen Williams

Session Focus• Educate

– Small suburb school on the east side of Cleveland.

• Innovate– Technology is an educational tool

– Apple & Windows

– Partnership with SCOCA

• Everywhere– Our students, parent and teachers

– Our technology director, supervisor and integration specialists

– Our Administrative team

Educate Beachwood City Schools

• East side suburb of Cleveland, OH• 1700 students in 5 school buildings• Cleveland Magazine’s #1 School District

– 3 out of the past 5 years– 66 different school districts including Cleveland and surrounding areas

Beachwood Middle School

• Ohio Hall-of-Fame Middle School (1991)

• Two BLUE RIBBON Awards (1993 and 2000)

• Harvard Business School Award (1999)

• National School of Distinction Award for Technology Excellence (2004)

Educate• 97.9% Beachwood High School graduates go on to

college• 20% to "selective" colleges

– Harvard– Stanford– Duke– Yale

• The Advanced Placement program – Beachwood High School offers 13 AP courses.

• 73 percent of the scores were in high range

Educate

• Our mission statement is “To Develop Intellectual Entrepreneurs with a Social

Conscience” Creative, flexible knowledge seeking members who will take

risks to see the bigger picture

Young men and women who will become the global leaders of tomorrow

• Our MottoQuickTime™ and a

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Educate

• The National School Board Association rated Beachwood City Schools in the top 3% nationwide in the use of educational technology in the classroom.

• Beachwood decided technology is not enrichment but an educational tool!

Educate

• How to bring other people with us

• Professional Learning Communities at Work by Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker– Explorers, Pilgrims and Settlers

Educate

• FACTS– Children in special education represent

approximately 11% of the student population in the United States

– Three out of four students with disabilities will receive at least part of their education in the general education classroom

– Twice as many males as females students

Educate

• IDEA (Individuals with Disability Education Act) 1975

• IDEIA (added the word Improvement) 2004 (Heward, 2006)

Educate

• Educating children with special needs is a difficult challengeLearning Disabilities (LD)

Exceptional Learning Styles (ELS)

Basic Skills

Educate

Disability # of students % of total

Specific learning disabilities 2,839,694 46.4

Other health impairments 511,869 8.4

Autism 166,424 2.7

Children and youth served under IDEA ages 6 to 21

US Department of Education

6,118,437 total

Department of Education disability breakdown ages 6 to 21

Specific learning disabilities Speech or language impairments Mental retardation

Other health impairments Emotional disturbance Autism

Multiple disabilities Developmental delay1 Hearing impairments

Orthopedic impairments Visual impairments Traumatic brain injury

Deaf-blindness

Educate

• Special Education is a purposeful intervention designed to prevent, eliminate and/or overcome the obstacles that might keep an individual with disabilities from learning and from full and active participation in school society

Educate

• What methods do we use to educate these kids?

Educate

– lost folders– lost assignments– lost homework

Organization

Innovate

• Organization is at Hand: PDAs in the Inclusive Classroom by Anne M. Bauer & Mary E. Ulrich

Innovate

• Apple “Profile in Success School”– Only 1 to 1 laptop program in Ohio

Innovate

• Beachwood Middle School– Seventh & Eighth grade– Karen

• 20 kids

• 12 different teachers

Innovate

Innovate

Innovate

• Beachwood High School– 54 students use our resource room setting– Four teachers– Four grade & outside of district placements– Roughly 57 different teachers

Innovate

Innovate

Innovate

• Aspire went out of business two weeks before school started

Innovate

Along came Blackboard Learning System to save the

day!

Innovate

• How does Blackboard fit into our situation?

• South Central Ohio Computer Association– Interactive Distance Learning Partner (IDVL)– 56 districts in 12 different counties in the state of

Ohio

Innovate

• Grades

• Course information

• Always there

• Students in the 21st century

Innovate

• Using course calendar – Starts at midnight– Lists teacher name– Makes the students responsible– Parents can check homework

Everywhere

• Impact– Administration– Teachers– Instructional Aides– Students– Parents

Everywhere

Everywhere

Everywhere

Everywhere

Everywhere

• Quotes– Student opinions about on-line learning– Middle School

• Ricky & Sarah

– High School• Different styles

– Colleges & University• Williams, Ohio State, Michigan, University of

Massachusetts

Everywhere

• What does it take to innovate?– Patience– Time– Cooperative environment

Everywhere

• Independence

• Self advocacy skills

• Parent-teacher communication

• Student responsibility

• Student accountability

Everywhere

Thank You!

Craig Alexandercha@bw.beachwood.k12.oh.us

Karen Williamsksw@bw.beachwood.k12.oh.us