Blog Post #3

Blog Critique 

The student I was assigned to comment on did not post their blog on time, so I chose to comment on Ashley Showels' blog. Her post was amazing! It was so organized and well thought out and I truly enjoyed reading it. It is obvious to me that she took the time and put a lot of effort into making her post. I did not notice any grammatical or punctuation mistakes.  I told her by commenting on her second blog assignment.
 Great job, Ashley!

Peer Editing

When peer editing a blog, there are three things that should be remembered to be an efficient editor. First, compliment the writer on their blog. Find something that you like or agree with and let them know. Second, make suggestions to help improve their blog, like possible word choices and details that may make it better. Always be specific when making suggestions. Lastly, if needed, make corrections on grammar, sentence structure and punctuation. Always remember to stay positive when peer editing. Like the golden rule, critique how you would want to be critiqued. Being hateful, mean or forceful is never the approach one should take when making corrections or suggestions. It is very discouraging and can be embarrassing if one is tearing apart another's work.

The video about the top ten peer review mistakes was adorable!I learned that there is no need to be overly picky, pushy or rude. The point of editing your peer's work is to help improve their writing skills so they can perform better. It's also best to be positive and encouraging when making suggestions and corrections. Being specific is key when making corrections because generalizing will not help peer's be more successful. When peer editing, it's best you use an "inside voice" instead of loudly

Assistive Technologies

The Mountbatten is an amazing tool! It allows blind students to have immediate feed back both audibly and tactically  As they braille on the machine, it tells them what is being typed out as well are writing it in braille. The machine saves data and can send information to computers where it can be translated into written language and then passed off to students for peer editing. I think the Mountbatten would be a great tool to have in my future classroom, especially if I were to have a blind student in my class. It would help them feel more involved with the activities going on in the class and make them feel included instead of giving them a different assignment.

As a future educator, I'm sure that at some point in my career I will cross paths with a student that is visually or hearing impaired. As pointed out in Teaching Math to the Blind, blind students are very limited to scientific careers because of not being able to have a stable foundation in math. With that being said, I'm sure not every blind child is incapable of math. I would say it is just more difficult for them because they are not able to see how problems are set up, and braille does not set up math problems properly. The grid shown in the video was absolutely fascinating to me. The blocks had visual and braille numbers on them, so a teacher could watch and help, if needed, and as the student would place the block on the grid, the computer would read the number aloud and tell the student which column it was in, so the student could set the problem up in column formation and proceed with steps to complete the problem. How brilliant is that?! The professor in the video said that the grid could help a student through at least basic Algebra, but even still, it's making innovations that blind students have not had before now and opening doors for them and ideas for new technologies to take them further. I would love to get my hands on a device like that for my future classroom.

iPad usage for the blind was an interesting video. I didn't know Apple had set up in iPads to help the blind. The iPad spoke aloud and as the person dragged their finger across the screen, it would read out what they were touching. My favorite part on the presentation was when the man opened up the books on his iPad and it began reading them aloud to him. I loved the idea of having these technologies available for future students who are impaired. My only concern would be if the devices reading everything aloud would be disruptive to the other students in the classroom.

                                                                         Google Images

Vicki Davis

"I believe every child can learn, but where children have trouble is when they only have paper and only have pencils and only certian children will succeed." - Vicki Davis

I think Vicki Davis is brilliant in her methods of teaching. I love how she gives her students the opportunity to help teach the material and exposes her students to the world of technology and the educational world. She is opening their minds to a whole new world of opportunity.