Danielle+Carniaux

Introduction
My name is Danielle and I am originally from Long Island, New York. I graduated from Bowdoin College in 2010 as an English major, a Russian minor and a varsity rugby player. During the 2010-2011 school year I was an alternative certification Special Education teacher with the Chicago teaching fellows. I have recently returned to New York and this winter I am enrolled at Fordham—I decided to go the traditional route this time. I am excited to become dual certified to teach general and exceptional adolescents English. I have mostly taught 4th-8th grade self-contained Special Ed, although halfway through the year I successfully convinced my principal to let me do some co-teaching. Special Education is one of my passions. Outside of education, I am interested in reading dystopias, zumba, cooking vegan om noms and learning to play my ukulele.



My Life as a Technology User
Foreword: Last school year I had the inclination to start teaching my students how to create and use Microsoft PowerPoint. My principal saw my self-contained special education students as the low man on the totem pole. She only equipped my classroom with 2 functional computers and gave my other two computers to a general ed teacher (who already had 6!) to use. This is how I discovered the laptop cart early on before any of the other teachers. It was my best kept secret from September to March. Unfortunately, the laptops did not have any Microsoft programs on them. Even more unfortunately, the school's IT person ignored my plea for Microsoft word and PowerPoint until February. This was a complete outrage to me, a woman who grew up with computers and access to all sorts of programs or people who could get me those programs. I am spoiled by technology, and the thought that someone (CPS, I'm looking at you!) could authorize an administrator's purchase of computers unequipped with the most basic of programs infuriates me. It might be cheaper to buy a computer unloaded, but that cheapness comes at the steep price of student learning and curricular engagement. Outrage aside, while waiting for the IT guy to help me out, I worked on presentations with my younger students on www.littlebirdtales.com. This is a very simplified version of PowerPoint but it proved just as useful and effective and the kids loved how easily accessible it was even for my non-readers and non-writers. I decided to document my technology beginnings and current practices using this tool because I thought it was a great tool to share. It might be something worth checking out for your own students with diverse learning needs. Turn up the volume and check it out below!

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NETS Goals
Goal: I will thoroughly learn VoiceThread so that I may use it to its fullest educational potential as a collaborative instructional tool between teachers, students, parents and the community at large as well as gauge with what ease students with limited reading and writing abilities will benefit from said tool. I will evaluate this tool on my WordPress account, and the review will be available for reference when I begin teaching and lesson planning again. ** Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments ** Goal: I will experiment with Announcify as a tool that students with limited reading abilities can use to assist them with reading online articles. I will evaluate this tool on my WordPress account, and the review will be available for reference when I begin teaching and lesson planning again. ** Model Digital-Age Work and Learning ** Goal: I will experiment with Wikisummarizer as a tool to use (perhaps in conjunction with Announcify) especially for research assignments. I will evaluate this tool on my WordPress account, and the review will be available for reference when I begin teaching and lesson planning again. ** Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility ** Goal: I will design a lesson plan asking students to use news stories from around the world as a starting point for a short story. Students will be asked to use sources like RSOE, Wikipedia, and various other sites to look up background information on the place and culture of the news event which will need to be incorporated into the story’s plot. I will be using tools like Announcify and Wikisummarizer to find out if an assignment like this will be manageable for students with limited reading and writing abilities. ** Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership ** Goal and Personal Use Project: I will create an RSS feed or multiple feeds to collect information from sites that address Special Education, Educational Technology and adolescent ELA.
 * Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity **

Technology Portfolio
I will be collecting my artifacts and assignments on my [|Blog]. I will also by monitoring my progress towards meeting my technology goals and "Personal Use" project.

Copyright Clarity
I created [|this Glogster Pinboard] to educate an audience of students on the basics of copyright, specifically focusing on the aspects of copyright that they will specifically encounter in an ELA classroom.

Statement on Digital Literacy
I have written a digital literacy statement from the point of view of a teacher who is criticized by students' parents/guardians for teaching digital literacy skills. It addresses concerns that parents and guardians may have and cites literature to put their minds at rest.

[|Memo to parents and guardians.docx]