Get Your iPod Touch Groove On - Assistive Technology in the Classroom

Get you i pod touch groove on1

View more presentations from Kim Wedman.

What a great professional development day we had last week! I was fortunate to get the opportunity to work with two lovely Speech Pathologists to present about the use of iPod touches in the classroom to meet the needs of specific students. We had a very diverse group both in areas of teaching expertise and in technology experience.
As presenters our goal was to make the presentation as engaging and interactive as possible while meeting the needs of each person in attendance. Just as our students require differentiation so do the talented people that work with them.
The feedback given was terrific. Meaningful and purposeful questions were asked throughout and at the end. Many in attendance were asking for more regarding how they could help their students in more ways to become as successful as they possibly could.
Thank you to all who attended and how lucky I feel to work in such dedicated professionals that are trying to meet the needs of all students in the best way that they can!

Differentiated Instruction vs Differentiated Coaching

Recently I was at a conference where we looked at the similarities and differences between differentiated instruction and differentiated coaching. I found this to be an interesting conversation as I have felt that coaching must be differentiated for every client we work with to be successful. As we got deeper into the conversation it became quite apparent that the similarities were ample but the differences were harder to find. We sifted through the similarities - focus on strengths/needs of the client, individual planning for each client, client is the centre, engage client through learning style, provide choice for the client, support and facilitate learning to allow for inquiry and insight for the client but we continued to struggle finding the differences.
Then the light shone down on us...with differentiated instruction the teacher has an essential understanding that students will be working toward. They provide a learning environment for students to explore learning. With differentiated coaching, the client-coachee has the purpose or outcome for which they would like to have coaching support. The coach "drives the bus" to facilitate and assist the coachee in reflection to move forward in their plan of action and grow in their learning.
What is your view of differentiated coaching?