Fall Training Update
From September through November of this year, UDL Project leader, Mallory Burton, will visit each of the 7 UDL teams on-site to provide 2-day training on UDL principles and technology. Highlights of each on-site visit are listed below.
October 27-28, 2008: Vancouver School District
Although David Livingstone School was built in 1913, its teachers are among the most progressive in the province. They participated in an early SMARTBoard initiative, and they have already been using SMARTBoards for the past 6 years. Through their use of the SMARTBoard, the team has already developed expertise in the UDL principles of multiple means of representation and engagement. They joined the project to increase their repertoire of strategies for multiple means of expression, particularly in the area of student writing.
The team consists of 3 classroom teachers, an integration support teacher, a resource teacher, a teacher-librarian, and the school principal. This team collaborates by team teaching and by designing units, with the resource teachers and librarian supporting classroom theme development. During the UDL training, teachers in the project have been using the Class Profiling Tool on the CAST website to analyze the recognition, strategic, and affective strengths of three students.
This team elected to participate in a group to discuss the same three students. It was apparent from their discussion that all of the teachers had detailed knowledge of these students and that every student is every teacher’s responsibility in this highly collaborative school. Why is Rebecca wearing the crown? For identifying “ability to meet the needs of diverse learners” as the most import criterion in a rubric for teacher implementation of UDL
October 14-15, 2008: Prince George School District
The Prince George team is composed of 5 intermediate teachers and a librarian/tech specialist. Principal Brian Chappell and Vice Principal Kathy Richardson were also able to attend portions of the training. The SET-BC office is located in the same school. The team is familiar with SET-BC services, and several of the teachers in the project have SET-BC students in their classrooms. Although this team is new to the terminology of UDL, it is clear that, as experienced teachers, they have discovered and implemented many of its principles already. The rubric they created at the end of day 1 to evaluate UDL implementation was especially detailed. The Prince George team has already begun networking with the year 1 UDL team from Quesnel. The Quesnel team will be joining them for a remote broadcast of David Rose’s UDL presentation on October 24th, and more activities are planned for the afternoon.
October 9-10, 2008: Kelowna School District
To say that the Kelowna team is wild with enthusiasm for UDL might just be an understatement. The day before the training, the Kelowna team emailed to say they planned to invite district administrators and the press to their launch! The Bankhead Elementary School team did have a bit of a head start with UDL last year when the district supplied a computer, projector, SMARTBoard, and software for one team member despite the fact that Kelowna had not been accepted into the UDL project . This year the entire team is able to participate, and it is obvious that they have already embraced a UDL mindset. Their team has grown to include 4 classroom teachers, a learning assistance teacher, and two district integration support teachers. Principal Dennis Tetreau, District Administrator Peter Malloy, and SET-BC consultant Kathy Ryan were also able to attend portions of the UDL overview. The Kelowna group had very diverse experience with Kurzweil and with technology. However, team members were willing to share their newly-acquired expertise through peer-tutoring.
September 23-24, 2008: Abbotsford School District
Fall training began with a 2-day visit to Abbotsford School District. The team at W.A. Fraser Middle School has grown to include a social development specialist, a grade 8 teacher, 3 pairs of team-teaching grade 6 teachers, and a tech specialist. The training took place at the district’s impressive STaRT Technology Centre which the team will also use for their online meetings. There are definitely some digital natives on board this team, with several members running both their personal laptops and lab computers during the training and showing a decided preference for screens as opposed to paper handouts. Although Kurzweil 3000 was a new technology for the team, they breezed through the training and immediately saw ways to implement the software in their teaching and for student use. Thanks to SET-BC consultants Linda Calliou and Dave Rathwell for lending a hand with the Kurzweil training. The district is implementing a large number of SMARTBoards this year, and one team member commented on the importance of having the UDL framework in place in order to guide their use of the SMARTBoard technology. W.A. Fraser Middle School is currently undergoing seismic upgrading, but when the dust settles, this team will definitely be ready to address the needs of diverse learners.
