Heidi

My name is Heidi Hill

Born and raised in Vermont

Have my Bachelor's Degree in Health Education from Plymouth State College

I am here because I have finally decided to pursue my teaching license after working as an Instructional Assistant on and off for the past 5 years.

I have two wonderful boys ages 6 and 2 1/2 who teach ME everyday! I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, sports ( especially field hockey) gardening and food!!

My passions I have when it comes to teaching is my love for kids and helping them develop their potential. I am very excited I have the opportunity this year to work towards obtaining my teaching license.

At the end of this class I definitely want to feel more comfortable with laptops and the wikispace so I have the basic understanding to carry with me and develop more on my own. Also, to get a good grasp on differentiated instruction and how to use it effectively.

So Heidi, is this happening? One of the things you could do for your final project is describing what you were able to do before this course and what you can do now! CR

Where do I begin? My understanding of Differentiated Instruction really clicked in when I read about Tomlinson's three metaphors for the role of the teacher in a differentiated classroom. The model that I connected with was "Teacher as a Coach", as I myself have coached field hockey for 8 years. I honestly really get that you need to understand students readiness (prior knowledge/experiences), what their interests are and learning profiles. There is definitely no "one-size fits all" in a differentiated classroom.

Differentiation continues to occur in content, process/activities and product. This is the really exciting part where the tools in technology have really opened another pathway for students to explore audio/video recording, working with images on Flickr, posting their work and ideas on a blog for all the world to see. Technology provides a great opportunity for kids to feel empowered and take "ownership" of their work. It is important to keep in mind as I remember the readings' from Zull...."Testing our ideas through action is how we find out if we are on the right track. But there is another reason that action is a key part of learning. Action makes the learning cycle a cycle. Physical movement is needed to link our abstract mental notions with new concrete experience"(204). As we learn to become effective teachers we need to make sure the learner is in control of learning and we guide them through the process. It seems the tools in technology are constantly changing and advancing which is a challenge to keep up to date. But after taking this course I see how much of a positive impact it has and it's a great way to engage your students.

At the end of these two weeks I have a variety of different concepts in my head and I'm trying to figure out ways I will attempt to apply them in the classroom. For example, the work we did in our collaborating groups on re-designing the Plant Parts Lesson and the Cubing was so insightful and really made us think "out-side the box". Talk about differentiation!! The best part about it is that I was excited about what I was learning and eager to see what we would be doing the next day. As far as using the technology, I can now download images and videos on my own. I still struggle with adding links but I think it's a step I'm missing that is performed differently on a PC rather than an Apple. I also understand what a wiki space is,as well as its purpose and have created my own wiki for my project(as you will see) with downloads of images and a video. I couldn't do any of this before I took your class and didn't even know what wikis, blogs or podcasting was. Although I have a ways to go, you have laid down the foundation of that learning and sparked an interest in myself to pursue further investigation with these tools so I may implement the use of technology effectively one day in my own classroom.

Thank you for this positive experience. -Heidi