Five & Six

Chapter Five: How you can Implement Assistive Technology and Differentiated Instruction to Assist Students in Your Classroom

First of all, what is an assistive technology device? In a nutshell, it is any item, device, or piece of equipment, or product, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional abilities of individuals with disabilities. There are a range of products and applications that can be used in the classroom to assist the student's academic learning experience. For example, students who are blind can utilize audio recordings of lectures to substitute actual lectures, as well as braille textbooks to assist in studying.

In this day and age, where technology is constantly growing and improving, I wouldn't be surprised to see that there are many assistive technology devices being developed to cater to individuals with disabilities. After all, United States is a country that promotes equality and equal opportunities.


INTASC Standard 6



Chapter Six: What Educational Reforms are Promoting Greater Parent Empowerment

Its tragic how parent empowerment is nonexistent on Guam. Parent empowerment involves providing parents the opportunity to make decisions and become involved with the school as partners in their children's education. Here on Guam, the community of stakeholders, which includes the parents and their children, have no voice, no say in how the school system is structured.

In the U.S., parent empowerment has increased in midst of the No Child Left behind Act. In terms of school choice and NCLB, students are eligible for public school choice if the public school they are attending doesn't meet the AYP, or annual yearly progress. In some cases, parents can opt to send their child to a private school if all the public schools in their area are insufficient to their child's education.

Some states issue vouchers to parents to promote parent empowerment. Vouchers are funds allocated to parents to be used to purchase education for their children at a public or private school. Many critics are against the voucher system because it takes the focus away from reforming the American public school system. Charter schools are another option, but at times, standards are not aligned with the public school system since it is an "independent" public school. Parent empowerment does not occur here on Guam because educational funds are always in short supply. We therefore follow federal regulations to bring funds into our education system.


INTASC Standard 10