5 Strategies

For this assignment I interviewed my sister.  She has been with the Niagara Catholic District School Board for over 26 years as an Educational Assistant. Many of the students at her school are there to follow behaviour modification programs and she works with some very unique students who progress and like my grandson Nate, returns to their community school after

they achieve their goals.  

          She is challenged by a particular student who has just arrived at her school.  He wants to fit in but, prefers to work alone.  As a strategy, my sister allowed him to work on a tablet away from others, so he is able to focus.  Quite often students can get distracted with the excitement of a program and forget others need to concentrate.  The tablet allows the student the freedom to find their own space and work within their comfort level.

Sometimes the appeal of competition works during class computer time with sites that can easily accommodate the competitive spirit.  Everyone in the class can log on to Free Rice to see who can accumulate the most rice in their bowl.  In classes with mixed and varied levels of learning, teams can be created and everyone on the team contributes their amount.

         My sister states that, in general there is not a lot of blended learning and that computer time is designated for each classroom once per cycle.  It is interesting noting how even at this particular school, computers and blended classrooms are not the norm.  In a small window of time allotted for exploring the internet, students have the opportunity to choose where they would like to go.  Often times many students are disappointed to find so many blocked sites while exploring yet, the freedom to choose is what makes the student so anxious to discover …...can we apply that strategy to fractions?

My sister has always worked with special needs students and finds a way to connect with each of her charges in class.  She also volunteers at a place called Equineability where individuals with exceptionalities are accepted into a program that teaches them to ride and take care of a horse.   She believes technology can enhance learning and even make it fun but, with special students you really need the human touch.