UDL TEACHING

WORKFORCE EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT 495 C-2

BLAINE MILLER
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The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) methods on teaching to my knowledge are not

new to the technical teaching of students. When students gather information from different areas

with the same concept, growth will occur in the classroom. The UDL concept is one of many that

help students learn and master a profession if they are willing to incorporate the lessons learned

for the task that is required.

The teaching success and also failures in my classroom have altered my teaching

practices and concepts to hopefully provide a well-rounded classroom experience. We do

multiple written exercises from the theory book to engage students in the area of discussion.

From looking up vocabulary words and writing the definitions down on paper. Showing pictures

and diagrams of different styles of architectural structures to building different mock setups and

discussions of how and why they are built leads to a better understanding of the principles of

learning building construction occupations program. All this with instructive teaching practices

of either one-on-one or group activities students hopefully can learn what is being taught.

With the multiple means of engagement, students learn from repetition of projects.

Doing a single project multiple times and changing very little on the size or the way it is to be

built is an aspect that is done here. This shop like many in the career and technical area requires

students to perform duties that are related to the field but may vary accordingly by the project

that is happening at that time. With the complexities that are in the program and the different

ways things are done at different areas of the world makes it difficult to teach techniques that

should be used.

My first year teaching was difficult because I came from industry and had no idea on how

to teach a classroom of students that may or may not want to be there. I can teach the hands on

part and show them how things are to be built in this part of the country but learning bookwork,
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lesson plans, going to college for the first time in my life was challenging. Bring the knowledge I

have to the students is more difficult because I cannot do all of the work and I have to let them

fail before they learn why it cant be done the way they are trying to do it. With help from fellow

teachers, watching how other classes are ran, and my Penn State rep. I have come a long way

since then. I still need to improve a lot to be effective in all aspects and my classroom learning

changes daily according to what is being taught and how the students are learning. As we enable

the concepts that help the students we find what works best in the theory room as well as in the

shop.

With what has been taught with this class I believe that my classroom can benefit greatly

with the new ideas that have been shown. Along with what has worked before and what I now

know my goal is be able to have the students grow in knowledge and passion for a profession

that they can earn a nice wage and they are proud of.