Professional Development and the Advantages of UD

As a teacher in the beginnings of her career I often find myself questioning how I can improve my instructional methods and how I can find the time to learn more about my student population.

Certainly, the school where I teach provides me with numerous professional development opportunities, but rarely are they self-selected or varied on topic. As Elmore explains, there are few structures where teachers are able to engage in adaptive learning and "polish new ideas and practices." His idea enhances my desire to create a wiki page for the teachers in my school to assemble and share their ideas/practices to assist our language disabled population. Along with the wiki page, Universal Design would also encourage our student population to challenge themselves and increase their ability to use technological resources.

I have always been concerned by the idea of my students using the Internet and technology when many of them struggle with decoding and comprehension. After reading about the various ways content can presented, or adjusted through computer based UDL I am looking forward to investigating the the programs that would specifically suite my student population.