Architects of Education

Every teacher is like an architect. While architects build houses, office buildings, parks, etc., teachers build knowledge. However, both teachers and architects need to take many things into consideration when they are designing their “projects.” 

A teacher has to ask themselves many questions before they begin to design their lessons, and here are just a few: 

• How do my students learn best? 

• What is the objective of the lesson? 

• How can I differentiate in order to make sure the lesson is meaningful and accessible to all of the students in the classroom? 

• What tools do I have available to me to help make the learning experience more valuable?

In my previous job I worked as a Special Education teacher in a middle school. My job was essentially to create lesson plans that met the learning standards of the district, while also making sure that the material was accessible to all of the students in my classroom. Throughout this time I became very familiar with tools that Google has embedded into Chrome that help students read, understand, and navigate text in a meaningful way. My students often used text-to-speech, translating, and voice-to-text  extensions on Chrome to make their learning experience valuable. 

Image Source: Google Play

One of my favorite students of all time struggled with written expression. He was able to read without any issues, but when it came time to responding to prompts, writing essays, or even Googling a question he could not seem to put the letters in the correct order. However, that did not stop him. He would always use the Read&Write for Google tool so that he could speak into the computer in order to get his message across. Additionally, he would use the voice to text tool on Google searches just so that he was able to see the correct spelling of the word he wanted to use in his writing. 

Due to my background as a special education teacher, I feel like I have gained so much insight as to how I can accommodate students in order for them to really understand the material that we are focusing on at a given time. I try to provide students with multiple explanations of the same material in order to appeal to all different types of learners. For example, sometimes we draw pictures, graphs,  and diagrams of what we are learning so that they can see how changing a variable or number really makes an impact on the figure. Other times, we sing songs to help them remember a formula that we are using to solve problems. Additionally, something else that I do regularly is assign students videos for them to watch independently, and then ask questions. This is generally their homework assignment, but what I love about it is the student is in full control of the video. They can put on closed-captioning if that helps them understand the material better. They can replay the video as many times as they want, change the speed, ask me private questions rather than having to ask in front of the whole class, etc. I think setting up my classroom in this manner is also my strength. 

That being said, I still have a lot of room for growth. The area that I would like to improve the most is incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into my classroom as an accessibility tool. I strongly believe that in the next few years AI is going to be a huge part of education, and I would like to figure out how I can plan lessons in such a way that the students are utilizing AI to enhance their learning, understanding, and knowledge. 

Image Source: Ashley Shaw

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