First off, I'm doing this for my kids.Last year, I graduated from college with a job teaching language arts to middle school students in both the resource and in-class support settings. Throughout my entire first year of teaching, I have struggled to find the balance between providing students with their necessary modifications and preserving their self-esteem. Standing out in a crowd is always difficult, but being the target of everyone's eyes in middle school is a nightmare. I heard stories about students rejecting their modifications that they needed for success (particularly in ICS classes) just to assimilate into the general education population. And that's when I began redirecting my approach. I had been a fan of technology my whole life. Granted, I've never been up-to-date on the latest phones (mostly because I never wanted to pay the high price for them) but being current on the trends and newest programs was always interesting to me. So, when my district moved towards introducing GAFE, I was fully on board. No one in my school was certified, so I decided to take the two exams to become a Level Two Google Certified Educator. In receiving all that training and information, I began fascinated with how easy it was to modify assignments for my students using GAFE. Integrating differentiation techniques and apps and extensions to meet the needs of my students suddenly made receiving modifications a lot less stressful for them. They were just like anyone else, seated behind a computer screen. And with that growing confidence, their success began to soar. After presenting at several conferences for my differentiation techniques and technology use in my classroom, I decided I wanted to reach out to more people. I wanted to share my ideas with the world- both the good and not so good. Plus, I had told my 7th grade ELA Resource class that I would do this. This marking period they've been hard at work with their 20-time projects. Even though they're excited and passionate about what they're working on, they decided it "wasn't fair" that I wasn't doing something I wanted. (And telling them that teaching is what I wanted didn't go over very well). So, here I am. I'll be posting about all the technology I'm using and how I'm using it. Maybe you'll find something that inspires you or helps one of your own students. Hope you enjoy reading and get something out of this. (And to my seventh graders, I hope this meets your standards as an appropriate 20-time project. Even though your projects far exceed my own). Sincerely, K. Nieves
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Katie Nieves@Ms_Katie Nieves Archives
December 2017
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