Before Tracy Humphries talked to us we watched a video and read an article on a student with a special learning designation named Damon Kirsbom using an Ipad to help him communicate. Damon explained that he is a non-reliable speaker meaning his thoughts and the words he says don’t always connect. Damon used laminated letter cards at first to spell words out before advancing to typing on an iPad and is now “thrilled with his level of communication”. I think a really interesting part of this article was when Damon explained that his autism does not mean he has trouble understanding the world but that he has trouble communicating.
Tracy Humphries introduced herself and her work before we went into break-out rooms to answer the question: How would you approach classroom support? to which my group answered…
- By considering all children (having lessons with Universal Design for Learning UDL)
- By having an open mind
- With EA support if necessary
- By connecting with families and supports and really listening to parents
During her presentation, she highlighted the importance of having a good relationship with students that have learning designations and their families. This is also a point that was highlighted by my mentor teacher. While I was doing a project on engaging reluctant learners I asked my mentor teacher what my main takeaway should be and she responded “relationship, relationship, relationship”.
Tracy also talked about the use of Trello for students with learning designations so I decided to look a bit more into Trello. I looked in a blog called ‘tech notes’ on TCEA.org which explained the educational use of Trello in a video I have embedded below.
From this video, I learned Trello is a collaborative online space you can use for personal and collaborative organization. Trello has a lot of functions like labels, checklists, and annotations presented in a visual way that could be very useful to students, and in specific students with learning designations.
Another big takeaway from Tracy’s presentation was making sure to have field trips that are UDL so everyone can participate!
Featured Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash