Field Experience

Michelle Clancy, Reading specialist in Burlington, Mass school district for the last 14 years.  She is in the process of creating a blog and has not done so yet.  For my undergraduate degree, I was able to job shadow her and thought she would be a great candidate for this interview.   She was gracious enough to meet me face to face to answer my questions. 

• What would you suggest as the best assistive technologies for students with learning disabilities?
• As a reading specialist, Michelle utilizes a lot of audio books using IBooks but also because there are some students that have dyslexia she also uses Learning Ally to help work with those students. (Clancy, 2014)
• What are some of your testing guidelines before implementing a type of technology into the classroom?
• Before bringing in a new form of technology into the classroom Michelle likes to do some research about the tool.  What the benefits are, what the challenges have been, how expensive it is, what other teachers have said about it as well as other students that may have used the tool.  She says its mostly trial and error working with the student to find out what works best for the child. (Clancy, 2014)
   
• At what age or grade do you feel technology should be introduced?  Why?
  As soon as possible.  We discussed how readily available technology is to students, parents and teachers and how the benefits to using technology have helped to gain confidence.  When a student is facing a challenge to begin with utilizing a tool that helps to make their life a little easier helps to encourage their all-around learning process. (Clancy, 2014)
   
• Do you find that students are more engaged because of technology or is there less “original” thoughts and ideas?
• For the students that Michelle sees on a daily basis, she has found that it has very much increased originality.  By providing a “voice” to those students that have been silent because they did not know how to overcome their frustration has been “inspirational” and motivates her to come to work each day. (Clancy, 2014)
• I love the idea of global interaction, have you utilized this tool and if so, what kind of advice do you have for implementation in the classroom?
• Although she agreed that it is a fantastic concept she has not been able to personally encounter it as of yet.  She is planning to work with her team to see if it will be a possibility this school year.  (Clancy, 2014)

 

 

The conversation that we had was very beneficial to me.  As an avid reader, I empathized with students that have the desire to read but also face struggles in doing so.  It was great to hear that there are tools available in technology to assist not only the educator but the student and parent as well.   (Clancy, 2014)

 

After our conversation I was curious as to what other tools or resources are out there to help students that face learning challenges in reading.  I found this particular quote to be interesting “Teaching and learning with technology can be both challenging and engaging for instructors and students. While technologies make it easier for instructors to create learning opportunities, provide prompt feedback, and improve student engagement with content materials, they also pose challenges. Following are some practical guidelines for using technology in teaching. They may help you manage technology-supported teaching more effectively, avoiding some of the common pitfalls.” (The Regents of the University of Michigan, 2014)

 

 

References

Clancy, M. (2014, 08 09). Reading Specialist. (J. Schuman, Interviewer)

The Regents of the University of Michigan. (2014, 08 10). Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. Retrieved from Practical Guidelines for Using Technology Tools in Classroom Teaching: http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p4_3