IEP Overview

Edu Blogging

For my individualized education project, I decided to report on the site I set up for the private school at which I teach. Last year, I single-handedly published the school newspaper. Though the students, parents, staff, and community members greatly appreciated the monthly publications, I knew I would not have the time to commit to such an undertaking this year. However, the students were inspired by the newspaper to excel and really enjoyed the reward of seeing their names in print, and the community members valued being able to stay current with what the students were learning. I knew I could not just pull the paper without replacing it with something of equal value. I began considering setting up and administering a school site where the students’ work would be featured. I also thought this would be an opportunity for the students to learn basic word processing and technological skills. Setting up and administering such a site would be completely new to me, and I relished the challenge. Because of the other programs I taught the students which they incorporated into their site pages, this IEP ended up much more expansive and involved than I imagined!


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Online Community Journey

The Search

In my search for a social web that would fulfill this assignment, I joined many online communities in an effort to find one where teachers actually interacted. I discovered that perhaps as a result of their intense schedules, many teachers will join a site, but never really check back to engage in any discussions.

The first site I joined seemed to have a largely Asian constituency whose members failed to login after their initial posting. Widening my scope, I joined the National Association for Down Syndrome Discussion Board since one of my students at my private school (who is also my youngest brother) is Downs, and since I also help with the special education students at the public school in which I'm presently interning. Though this site really didn’t provide any new ideas, it was helpful to read that others have gone through similar struggles and are in similar transitions. Using the name Pondskater, I was able to give them some ideas from my own experiences.

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