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As a teacher and a mom I am always looking for ways to practically balance my work life and home life. I have just become the mom of a second boy so I am always very tired. In the future I want to find a way to encourage the curiosity and creativity I see in my children, in my students. My students seem to be getting more and more apathetic. I want to become better at igniting the spark of learning in my kids, something I see naturally occurring in my young sons. At home I look forward to finding that balance so that I can use my family time to recharge.

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I noticed the teacher using an anchor chart to introduce the shapes she wanted the students to incorporate. She had class discussions about the importance and significance of the shapes and bright colors. She had the students evaluate other students art examples for the use of the specific shapes and color. Finally, she had the students create a rough picture before they began painting.
I think she could have had the students use whiteboards to practice the shapes together. Another effective way to assess the students would be to evaluate each other. She could listen for the language they use in critiquing/commenting on their classmates artwork.

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My classroom is very diverse. UDL is something our school talks about regularly because our student population is heavy with language learners and low socio-economic families. Being able to reach all learners is a daily challenges.
I am constantly being reminded that I need to diversify my approach to the curriculum by the student's engagement and successes and challenges.
I always try to have an anchor chart for the students to reference and they have multiple tools and resources for their use in math. I allow the students to take quizzes and assessments in groups or with partners.
I believe the hardest part of UDL is engagement. At some point we will have to tackle a subject or topic that does not appeal to all of the students. My biggest challenge is to get "buy-in" from my students. This is usually when I have to rely heavily on how I present the information to them. I'll try to find a video or a game to get them to engage. Another avenue I regularly try is to help with engagement is allowing the students to show their understanding in personal ways. Depending on the topic a student could create a comic strip, a poster or a google slide show to show understanding. I also always try to ask students to explain their thinking.
It is difficult to help students create understanding across all subjects, however, it is the core challenge of teaching. The greatest successes come when we all get there and we can feel the accomplishment and satisfaction of overcoming a barrier.

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I am soooooooo looking forward to next year - really diving in deep to this art project. A general ed teacher and I are collaborating like crazy on next year.  We're planning to lead the school district in using the visual Performing Arts to strengthen our school's overall performance. So I guess I'm looking forward to this great opportunity to collaborate with my peers and bring something to our school district that we don't currently have. As far as what I'm looking forward to in my own life, ... Summer! Duh!

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I watched the video entitled animal sounds learning about Pitch. The teacher used choral response, raising hands to answer questions, and one pencil to paper Quick check of the students understanding. Aside from the paper to pencil quick check, all of her formative assessment looked to be basically teacher observation. I liked that she added the paper to pencil activity where the kids draw a line to represent the pitch of the bird calls, because without that she would have nothing to look back on to really know her students level of understanding except her memory of her students actions. If I were to give suggestions of something else she could do to use formative assessment, I would suggest she do more of the paper to pencil but with other sounds besides bird calls. I do love, however, how Hands-On the lessons are. Maybe she could also have more opportunities for the kids to partner up or be in small groups and practice. Maybe she could have bags with different sounds in them the kids have pitch lines that they have to match to the sounds.

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As a special ed teacher I have been doing udl or an old version of it forever, but what I need to improve on is helping my General Ed teachers at my school site embrace udl. I need to be more of a resource for them, and try to find time to be available when they're lesson planning so that I can help them incorporate udl Concepts into their lessons.

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One thing I am looking forward to as a teacher this year is creating cribbage boards with my students.  Once testing is finally over, and in 5th grade it is SO much, my students design and make their own cribbage boards.  It's always fun to see the designs they come up with!  One thing I"m looking forward to outside of school is spending time with my 3 daughters (15, 17, 19) at the lake paddle boarding this summer!

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I watched the lesson on pitch utilizing animal sounds.  The teacher used formative assessments by having the students write the pitch of the owls and also by having them create their own pitch and having the students recite the pitch. She had the class work as a whole to perform the pitch the students designed.  The teacher could have had the students practice different prepared sound patterns with partners and then either match them to sounds from animals or have the students perform them all together.

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As a teacher I am looking forward to trying out some of the amazing sounding art lessons I have been reading about in my group. I am slowing trying bits of my lesson out with my class and have already begun seeing the excitement of my students. During every art lesson there is always laughter - not so much during our basic academic time. During the summer I'm looking forward to doing some planning for next year. But most of all hoping to do some remodeling and possibly getting to see my granddaughters.

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I watched the video on integrating art and writing.  The teacher used an anchor chart to introduce the new material and had class response for naming at least one of the shapes. I think she should have gone over all the names of the shapes and practiced drawing them all together even though she did an example on the board. She could have walked through the steps of how to make each basic shapes. I know that my students definitely need this step to feel comfortable.I also liked the she student work samples from another class. This was an excellent way to give them ideas of how to incorporate the shapes. Although the video did not show them evaluating the drawing to see how the shapes were incorporated I believe I did hear the teacher say they would being doing that if not it would be a great peer evaluation to ensure all student were able to 'see' the shapes within the drawings. They had rubric and checklist for finished work but what about before they completed so they could get feedback on rough draft so adaptations could be made if they wanted. I also like the students telling their stories and sharing their drawings with the peers at the end. She used a student story to develop the play maybe have the students select the story would be a way to involve the students a little more.

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I feel that I have some form of UDL in all of my classroom curriculum. I  have Special Day Class which is a UDL in its own right in a way. I have trouble engaging all my students, all of the time, but I keep working at it! I  need to keep thinking of more of a variety of ways to encourage my students to take a risk and to learn from their mistakes. They so want to please that failure is an obstacle to trying new things. They are very comfortable with routine. This does not always lead to creativity. I have been practicing how to draw using basic shapes with my students and this has been helping with their risk taking. I  also do try to help when my students are in the general ed. setting to apply UDL practices so they can participate to the fullest. When the general ed. teacher lets me know ahead of time I can come up with a plan (or modification) to help. I am at a small school so when I have a student in general ed. I know the majority of the other students in the class as well as some of the struggles/strengths the students tend to have. So I suggest that this could also help them if they want to use it for others. It usually is a success for my students and the teacher tends to be pleasantly surprised at how much my student was able to contribute to the class and sometimes how much more the other students bought in to the assignment. Everyone is happy.

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As a teacher I am looking forward to creating more art opportunities in my classroom. Since my mom was a fine arts teacher in Chico Unified, she always inspires me to create art projects in my classroom. In my life outside of school, I am looking forward to continuing to spend time sewing this summer and creating my own art opportunities.

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Wow! I watched the video titled Creating an Installation and was completely enthralled in the whole video! I highly recommend taking a look at this video. The teacher was obviously very educated in creating a safe and informational environment for her students. She used many formative assessments throughout the video including self critiquing, partner work, and a sort of check in with students as they created this culminating project. I liked that she had all of the students work with a connecting color and shape as each group created their own project. They chose to work with the color blue (for many great reasons) and the shape of a rectangle. This made their installation have some "rhythm and unity". I loved at the end that she had four grades for students which included creativity, communication, analysis, and technique.

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I plan on continuing to use UDL practices in my classroom by using many different ways to include students in all areas of my teaching. I think art lends itself to differentiation by providing many mediums for students to create projects. I love that UDL uses the analogy of buildings creating walkways that are used for everyone, such as ramps, as opposed to building stairs and ramps. Everyone can use a ramp, where as not everyone can use the stairs. I need to keep this in mind with my teaching.

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As a teacher, I am looking forward to continue promoting arts integration at my school and for my district with the new tools I am collecting with this training.  I am really glad that 2 other teachers on my campus are benefiting from this training, as well as a few other teachers from other schools.  I am looking forward to a team effort for arts advocacy in Plumas County.
In my personal life, I am looking forward to relief from chronic pain after my back surgery mid-June. During my summer of recovery, I am looking forward to doing more of my own art and organizing family photos. Eventually, I am looking forward to being able to hike my beloved Sierras again.

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Creating an Installation, Grades 6-8, Helene Lemnah

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Creating an Installation, Grades 6-8, Helene Lemnah

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I agree with Emily:  This video is worth watching.  I want to do an installation project with my fifth graders before the end of the year, and I got some great ideas.
What struck me the most about this teacher's formative assessments is how well she prepares her students to respond to their own work by building background knowledge:  a power point with samples of installation art by professional artists, a discussion of the importance of what is communicated through such art, a list of what they could communicate about their multi-day field trip through their installation, a narrowing of targeted artistic elements:  common key color, common shape to create rhythm and unity.  While students were encouraged to be creative and think outside the box, they had a clear foundation of what was expected and how to discuss it intelligently.  Since they worked in groups, it seems like most of the formative assessment was their discussion, trouble shooting, and reminding each other of the key elements they were supposed to include.  Her final assessment is very thorough and includes creative work, analysis, communication and technique.  Students do quite a lengthy written response/reflection piece at the end.
I can see how with an elaborate project like this group installation, students could have kept a running journal of their artistic process, keeping the parameters in mind, or could have answered specific questions along the way to self-assess. I would add peer/group assessment as the groups are working on their project. This teacher has her act together!  he inspires me to be a lot more specific with domain specific terms and conversations.

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One of the adjustment I started using is to let my low readers let me assess them verbally. I need to start giving them multiple options to respond to what they learned: a slide show, a skit, a comic strip. I need to slow my lesson down to allow for such adaptations. I find that sometimes I use the more traditional methods of assessment to move along a bit faster. I am intrigued by the video featuring the teaching artist Kim Desjardins in Vermont, especially when it comes to letting students use their own models to express what they learned. More and more, I find my students to lack independence and motivation. They tend to want to be spoon fed. It seems very advanced to let students come up with their own model without much coaching from the teacher. That is what I will work on next.

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As a teacher I am looking forward to finding more ways to incorporate more art in my ELA, Science, and Math lessons. One thing I am looking forward outside of school is going on vacation with my daughter this summer.

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The purpose of UDL is to be able to reach all learners. I have had a lot of experience with this because I teach a lot of EL learners.  When teaching EL's it is important to have a lot of visuals and real life examples of things you're talking about.  I like to use different learning modalities in my lessons to reach all learners because not everyone learns the same. I also like to color coordinate my lessons so they know what that particular color means when they see it on a chart.

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Dance (Grades K-2) - “Exploring Dance: Movement, Space, and Poetry”-Brooke McAvoy

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Dance (Grades K-2) - “Exploring Dance: Movement, Space, and Poetry”-Brooke McAvoy

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I noticed that the teacher used informal observation and written assessments as well. All learners were engaged because the assessments were fun, like creating a dance to a poem. He had clear instructions and went over key vocabulary before the assessment. He used a lot of auditory and visual examples and made his lesson very engaging.