SPED 608 (Three for Technology)

I love comic books. I learned to read with The Amazing Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four. I learned six of the elements on the Period Table (Iron, Gold, Mercury, Platinum, Tin, and Gold) from The Metal Men (I used to know their symbols from the comic, too). I love the way that comics combine art and writing to create a greater whole. Comics are much more sophisticated than they used to be, but their stories can capture almost any level of education and reading skill (From K through 12). That makes them an excellent way to teach reading to almost anybody.

On Monday, Corey Hoogendoorn told me about Comic Life. It is a program that helps you create a comic book. I downloaded the program from plasq.com and a review from Non Stop Mac (www.nonstopmac.com/2006/01/comic_live_review.htm). While I haven't used the program (Yet!), it will be something that I use in my classroom next year. This is but one way that technology can be used in my classroom next year.

Looking at the needs of my classrooms at Riley Creek and Gold Beach, I see that technology, while available, was not adequately utilized. Our classroom had one computer (Not hooked upto internet and unable to run PowerPoint). We had several programs that the students could have used, but didn't. There are a variety of reasons for this, but I hope not to use these reasons again next year.

Next year, I have a student that I want to learn how to use PowerPoint and Finale. Finale is a program that lets the user write music. While I am not musically inclined, my student is. Her music teacher said that she has almost perfect pitch. She loves music and has quite the talent for it (At home, she has recorded music on old answering machines before she had better equipment). This student is quite computer savvy so learning PowerPoint will give her another avenue for her creativity.

We will be using Boardmaker to help another student learn to read. She loves Calvin and Hobbs so that will be one of our primary picture symbols as well. This student has trouble communicating with others so we'll use picture symbols to help her write stories, too.

My third student at Riley Creek loves Mario Brothers. I think that Comic Life will be an avenue to explore his creative writing abilities. Picture Symbols might be required, but I think that he can move beyond them quickly. We'll have to see.

At the high school level, I want to explore word processing with one of my students. In the past, she has had a variety of disruptive behaviors, but last year, she did very well. Next year, I hope to expand her horizons into the general education classroom and beyond. I hope that we will be able to stretch her activities in order to challenge her abilities. We just have to be careful and not go too fast and too far.

Of course, all of these plans require that my instructional assistants support the curriculum that I create. We need to work as a team. We need to communicate and support one another. I think we can do that, but I've been wrong before.

The problem with technology is that it's only as good as the people who use it. I hope that we get to use what we have to the most potential possible. I think that's possible. I hope that it turns out to be probable.