Courses:

EDUC 2900 The Exceptional Individual
This course is the only special education course that most initial
certification-seeking students take and as such bears the unique
challenge of imparting to pre-service teachers the belief that they are
capable of being part of a team of individuals who can provide
instruction to any child, regardless of his or her abilities. I want to
focus on increasing the ability of pre-service teachers to analyze the
relationships between classroom practices and student learning.
Additionally, there is a need to ensure consistency of content across
multiple sections of this course. I plan on addressing both of these
issues by teaching the principles of Universal Design of Instruction and
modeling them in a way that encourages pre-service teachers to engage in
these practices.

SPED 5312 Curriculum and Methods for Teaching Students with Severe
Developmental Disabilities

Thiis the second course in a series of three intensive courses
that leads to certification in severe developmental disabilities.
Students in this program come from a wide range of educational settings
and locations. Many report a feeling of isolation as they may be the
only teacher in a particular setting or in a particular district serving
students with severe developmental disabilities. This course meets for
eight weeks and then is followed by an eight-week one-credit practicum
in which the content of the course is applied. Often, the collaboration
that has been fostered during the initial eight weeks falters when there
is no longer a regular meeting time. In order to promote collaboration
and the development of a professional community in SPED 5312, I would
like to investigate a number of technological options for continuing our
class discussions between meetings and beyond the 8-week period.
Options I would like to explore include the use of discussion threads,
group projects that are coordinated outside of class time online, chat
session, within course email and the use of video teleconferencing.