blackboard & special education: a teacher's approach by craig alexander & karen...
TRANSCRIPT
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
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.
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
