Maureen's+Page

= Maureen's Page =

My name is Maureen Brittingham. I teach 11th and 12th grade students in Berlin, Maryland. I am an English major, however, I teach yearbook and two sections of communication arts. This is my 4th year of teaching, but my 17th year working in education. I was a guidance secretary, ran the computer lab and taught television production, and finally finished my BA in English Secondary Ed., Magna Cum Laude, in 2007. I have been married for 28 years and we have three children: Lynda, 26, who has a BS in Recreation and Leisure Managemement from Mount Olive College in Mount Olive, NC. Lynda is a recreation programmer for the town of Ocean City. John, 24, has a BS in Business and Information Systems from Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, PA. John works as a computer specialist for the state of Delaware, Board of Elections. Jamey is in her senior year at Radford University, in Radford, VA, and will graduate in May with a BS in Fashion Design and a minor in Art. She did an internship this summer in NYC for Michael Kors. It was a unique experience to be working on my college degree while my children were in grade school, high school and college. It was challenging working full-time as a wife, mother, and school employee, while being a part-time college student. In a way it was also cool that my kids and I had so much in common while we were all meeting the challenges and expectations of higher education. ** November 13, 2010: **
 * The Learning Profile Inventory that I found and would like to share as a resource is: **

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This survey would be used for high school students to evaluate what motivates them to learn or act. In her article, “Learning Profiles & Achievement,” Carol Ann Tomlinson describes a learning profile inventory as “an umbrella term, an organizer for several categories that may impact student learning,” which includes “four categories: gender, culture, learning style and intelligence preference” (School Administrator, 2009). I chose this survey because it looks at the motivation factor of students’ decisions which is definitely based on their gender and culture. Many of the other surveys looked at preferences, but this one looks at motivation which goes deeper into who the student is which is a direct result of his/her gender, culture, and experiences. **Nov. 17, 2010 ** http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/ This is a great resource with lots of specific tools available that can be implemented when using UDL. Great to chat with Colleen and Sue tonight on the Walden chat. **Nov. 28, 2010 ** **Here is the link to my UDL presentation:** [] When you go to the site, in the far right end of the screen you see "MORE" - here you can choose Auto Play or Full Screen. You should choose Full Screen. I would NOT suggest doing Auto Play since it moves too fast to read all the text. You can click the play button in the center of the screen. Also, you can point to the screen to move the screen if any of the text goes out of the viewing window. Also, all of the links are live, just click on them to take you to the sites. Also, when I actually present this to my peers, I will explain how the Field of Dreams quotes all work together. If we "build" curriculum and lessons that are accessible to all learners, "they will come" to the classroom inspired and ready to learn. Of course, you realize that a presentation should not be as text heavy as this is, but since I am not able to present it to you, there is a great deal of information written out that I would not read to my audience. I also will go through the uses of the linked websites and tools with the audience highlighting what is most important for practical use in the classroom. ** December 4, 2010 ** I like the resource listed on Colleen's page which is a beginning of the year survey. []  I think this survey would give me a lot of good information about my students and they questions touch on lots of different learning styles and profiles. I like that they could just go online and do it and I would quickly have data that could help direct my teaching at the start of the year. I would implement this in week #1 of the semester. Susie's page had a link to the UDL Toolkit which when exploring I found this free site that would work wonders in my comm arts class: []. This link to kidsvid has an online storyboard, script and other preproduction tools for organizing students who make videos. I love it and it would be a great replacement for the paper version I am currently using. It incorporates technology in using the site to input what the group wants to create, and it also prints a neat and organized document. Thanks Susie for the link from the toolkit. December 7, 2010 An additiona resource that I have found for differentiation is: [] This resource is for high school students. It is an opportunity for students to tell a story about themselves. As Dr. Tomlinson said, we have to acknowledge and welcome variance. This activity could go a long way in allowing studnets to share and understand each other which would make for a postive learning environement. Technology could be incoporated as a story could be chosen and a video created or a power point or digital story could be created.

**December 19, 2010** I have enjoyed the wiki social network and it has been a great way to collaborate with other teachers. Teachers need an outlet to share ideas with each other. I really like the last resource that Colleen shared on her page, []. I really think this would be a great survey to do at the beginning of the new semester which starts in February. Knowing students' learning styles is critical in offering them what they need as diverse learners. This is a great tech tool to use. Leann's page had a resource on studying geneology, []. I could use this tech tool for my diverse learners by offering it as a research option when we do personal documentaries. Students can study where their families originated from to give a background of the types of cultures they are linked to from history. This is a great tool to help diverse learners appreciate who they are and to feel respected for their culture (another important aspect of the affective domain in differentiation and UDL). Susie's page offered a great resource for teachers using technology, []. This resource will help save teachers time while offereing lesson plans and websites to keep the technology rolling into their classrooms. Making technology more available for teachers is key to having them implement it into their lessons and offer alternatives for students who need differentiated lessons.