What an amazing day! I attended the CUEBC Conference today. The keynote speaker was Will Richardson. He chided educators for preparing children for today rather than for tomorrow. He encouraged educators to provide students with opportunities for children to become engaged in the vast array of reading and writing activities available in the form of wikis, blogs, face book, etc… Sumarizing the ideas he presented would be too much thinking for me at this time (11:48 PM) but it was more than inspiring. Following the Keynote Speaker I attended three workshops…  Microsoft Photo Story 3 to make individual and class presentations. Great … Continue reading CUEBC Conference

Wow, what a week! It was energizing and exhausting all at once!  Tuesday we began by talking about ourselves and how much experience we have with Universal Design for Learning. While the term “Universal Design for Learning” is quite new to our team we have been investigating how to better support the needs of all of our students for many years. We have spent a great deal of energy retrofitting lessons to accommodate students in the margins. We have frequently been frustrated when our lessons have failed to meet the needs of an ever increasingly diverse student population.   For … Continue reading UDL Launch Week

Hard to post right now as I can’t get through all of the paperwork involved in student services. I met with many people this week and had many opportunities to talk about the project. The hearing and sight itinerant teachers were very interested in the project and how it relates to the students they are supporting. I am also reading through Psycho-educational testing reports and the recommendations will be so much easier to build into our lessons given the equipment, the software, and the in-service in building Universally Designed lessons.  Another web site one of the teachers found is so … Continue reading Busy, busy, busy…

This was a very exciting week. We got the Smartboard going!! The teachers and the kids have had so much fun experimenting with it. So many great ideas are bubbling up. We currently have one Smartboard and four projectors and so teachers are sharing the Smartboard. We think it will spend a day in each room. Already the teachers are looking for $$ to purchase more Smartboards so they don’t have to share as they are quickly seeing and imagining the potential benefits to student engagement and learning. Some student comments during their first Smartboard experiences… This could actually make learning … Continue reading Progress

Like the beginning of anything there are glitches and stumbles as we begin. We got our new SmartBoard set up but need to get time to coordinate it with a projector and play with it. We are waiting on LCD projectors. We are working to get programs installed on the five student laptops and for wireless internet. Our project kick-off will be early October so hopefully all will be ready by then. At this point I am just working to spread the word to increase UDL awareness at our school. The implementation project involves three of our classroom teachers and myself … Continue reading Stops and Starts

Welcome to Thinking UDL. This is the first post in a blog that will record my experiences as part of a team learning about and implementing UDL (Universal Design for Learning) in our Grade 4 and 5 classrooms. We are very excited to be a part of this project as we know that this will help us to better address the diverse needs of our students. Please check back and post with your comments, ideas, and suggestions. Thanks for stopping by.