Patricia Chapa

June 14, 2022

Professor Ugo
Professional Development Hours/Field Experience

Part 1: Names of the professional development modules completed and hours earned:

1. Universal Design for Learning: Creating a Learning Environment that Challenges and

Engages All Students (2.5 hours)

2. SOS: Helping Students Become Independent Learners (1.5 hours)

Part 2: Brief descriptions of the modules listed above:

Universal Design for Learning: Creating a Learning Environment that Challenges and

Engages All Students

In this module I learned that the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) created a

framework for teachers to create several strategies, materials, and techniques to offer to students

in a variety of ways. The purpose of this framework or teaching style is to make learning based

on the student’s skill level. The framework consists of three principles, the first principle is

called represent. In this principle or step, teachers present information so all students can hear it.

The next principle is Action and Expression. This principle gives students flexibility to finish the

assignment based on their best skill, for example finishing an assignment with word online rather

than handwriting and vice versa. The next principle is Engagement, this principle allows students

to finish the assignment based on their own interest, for example students are allowed to make an
essay based on electronics or finance, or anything that they find interest in. The main goal of

UDL is to make learning for students as engaging as possible.

SOS: Helping Students Become Independent Learners

In this module I learned about the two main ways teachers can manage student behavior. The

first strategy is self-directed, which consists of a teacher giving a student guidance and proper

strategies to manage behavior, but it is the student’s responsibility to control their behavior using

the guidance and strategies provided. The next strategy is the teacher-directed strategy, which

consists of the teacher being in control of the student's behavior. For students to be successful

with controlling their own behavior they need to be aware of self-regulation, this will help

students become more independent and stick to their goals. The important goal if this module is

for students to be self-sufficient with their activities. Whether it be self-monitoring, self-

instruction, goal-setting, or self-reinforcement, the goal here is to make sure the student is self-

sufficient to complete the task and to take a step back and reflect if there are issues with

accomplishing a task.

Part 3: Insights gained (what did I learn?). How do these modules relate to the course

content?

In this week I learned that we need to focus on our mindfulness or awareness of how students

better learn and think. Not all students belong to the dominant social groups, some students can

come from a culture completely different from the dominant ones, and to make class comfortable

for them, it is important to allow students to complete assignments based on their favorite

subjects. It is important to have multiple perspectives or views from other students point of

view so we can understand their way of thinking. Once we understand how students think, we
can apply the UDL teaching strategy so students can complete assignments based on their best

ability and favorite subjects, this will aid in keeping the student engaged and not fall behind in

class. We also need to help students become independent learners, there are some students that

only need guidance and strategies to make themselves independent from learning. Also, there are

students that will need to be more dependent on the teacher to become self-dependent, for

example a teacher will need to be more observant and correct student’s unhealthy habits by

implementing strategies and monitoring the habits as they use the strategies.