​WHY DO I TEACH?

 I am happiest, when I am teaching. Seriously. I don't pretend to understand it. When I am not teaching, I love being a mom to three amazing kids (ages: 20,16 &14), a wife, a runner, a baker, mountain biker and skier.  


MY STORY
 I have lived in Colorado for 23 years, and in Aspen for the past 4 years! That said, I grew up outside of Detroit, MI in Grosse Pointe. I earned my bachelor's at a small liberal arts college in Springfield Ohio, Wittenberg University. I avoided teaching altogether for years but then fell head over heels with SPED when my 3rd baby went to kindergarten. I just completed my 10th year of teaching and 6th as a Special Educator. I am also currently completing my Master's degree in Special Education and have created a Significant Needs Program for students with modified curriculum at my school. It brings me joy to work with all students at with a variety of needs. 
Professional Training:

  • Licensed Elementary Education (K-6)
  • Licensed Special Education Generalist (5-21)
  • Orton-Gillianham Certified Therapist
  • PSIA Certified Level 1 Ski Professional
  • PSIA Certified Children's Ski Professional Specialist 
  • Safety Care Certified Professional Training​

Daily Chores:
         1. Provide the best instruction and supports to my students
  • 2. Make the most of each and every day whether it be in my job, my home life or my recreational life
  • 3. To listen, support, and learn. My brain is almost always turning over and chewing on some piece of new instructional information that will serve my students or the community in a better way.
  • 4. Recharge
  • 5. Send it

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Everything Special Education

Please utilize my website as a resource to support you with your adventures supporting different learners. 
    In the end, it's your run and yours alone. Others can run it with you but no one can run it for you. Embrace it. Be strong. Keep moving forward. 
                                                                                                                                                    slowisthnewfast.com
                                                                    Contact Me:  cdevlin@aspenk12.net

  
​  Start at the Beginning

Have you ever just wanted to skip over the whole process of being a novice learner? All of the mistakes, the uncertainty, cringeyness, lack of confidence, and general messiness of the learning process. A necessary place to begin. 

I found this video years ago when I first started teaching. Many of my days felt like this:  The Novice 

One main difference between experts and novices is that the expert’s organizational knowledge enables them to readily and efficiently identify patterns in order to ‘chunk’ information (Bransford et. al 2000). This ability provides experts to view a problem from a conceptual perspective or with the intent to understand the issue.
 
Another difference between the expert and novice is the expert's ability to efficiently and fluently retrieve knowledge to support problem-solving in new situations or learning. In my early years of teaching, I struggled with identifying students with academic disabilities (SLD). It is like a puzzle, yet the pieces are scattered and sometimes hidden. It was challenging to analyze the data and identify their learning patterns. As my content knowledge increased so did my pedagogical knowledge. As my PCK grew, my thinking changed in regards to teaching and learning. Therefore it would stand that as we learn to understand technology integration, we grow our understanding of its connections to our pedagogical content knowledge. 

Another tell-tale sign of the expert is their ability to adapt their knowledge and teaching to any classroom in any given opportunity. In fact, I would suggest that experts often look for opportunities to adapt their skills to a variety of teaching and learning settings. Experts are the artisans of their craft. 

​The novice must step out of their comfort zone to grasp these foundational pieces of learning in educational technology and technological integration in order to access a deeper understanding of how our PCK connects to technological knowledge.

To read more: revision2_cep_810_unit_1.pdf

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References, Media, and Image Credit: 


Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. National Academy Press. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368.

Sagar, D. (2022).  [Photograph/Abraham Maslow Quote]. Quotefancy. quotefancy.com/quote/1010022/Abraham-Maslow-You-will-either-step-forward-into-growth-or-you-will-step-back-into-safety
 
Trending Happiest (2016, November 28) Trying to get through my day. [Video]. Facebook.  www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1897402760481052&ref=sharing ​