July 11th Wednesday

I do like the idea of UDL. I think it may be hard to implement all UDL methods for certain lessons and that it would take alot of practice to become a fluent teacher in UDL practices. Also, some school districts do not have the financial resources to provide teachers with a variety of resource materials such as levels of books, digital books, audio books, other technology, etc. So often times, the teacher must dig into their own pocket for money or scrounge around for other teacher leftovers. This is the frustrating thing about starting out as a new teacher. New teachers, in my school, are given so little resources. I've had to collect, purchase, or find items for my classroom over the last year and I still do not have all the items/resources I need to be prepared for Fall. If UDL is the way to go, then districts need to supply the training, materials, and evaluations to all teachers.

One concern I do have of UDL is if we give students choices all the time, some students may continue to opt-out of specific tasks. If students continue to opt-out of specific tasks, like oral presenting, they may never learn that skill. Colleen, in class, said a good point about giving students choices in moderation. This provision should be more clear in the UDL description. Students must be made to do all tasks at some point, and at other times they can be given a choice. This is crucial because some students may not be able to self-monitor what tasks they have done and what tasks need to still be done. Which leads me to my next point, Students can be given a chart of what needs to be completed and they can do the tasks in any order or for any assignment. In other words, students can be taught to self-monitor by using this chart and check off when they have completed each presentation, each group work project, each paper, each collage, and each model. That way the student will know what they have done, what still needs to be done, and expectations are clear.

One final note, the set game was very fun. At first, it seemed very complicated but once we practiced a few times, we were finding sets fairly fast. I may even go out and buy this game to play with my buddies on a rainy day (: