Leadership Artifact #1: Presenter at Ohio Special Education Leadership Conference
John R. Reyes
October 2nd, 2013
Description:
After a year using a program provided by a grant written by my Director of Intervention Services
a co-worker and I helped present VizZle software as a part of a Vendor Session presentation entitled
Using Interactive Technology to do More with Less. My part of the presentation was to present how I
utilized VizZle and similar interactive technologies in my classroom.
Impact:
Speaking in front of others when nothing is expected of me is quite easy. Speaking in front of
people when they are intent on learning something is more difficult but I have become used to it with
my students. Speaking in front of my same age or older colleagues is something I’m not nearly as
practiced at and therefore a bit more nerve racking. This presentation at the Ohio Special Education
Leadership Conference marked my first venture into presenting in front of other professionals and was
definitely a learning experience.
It is amazing how bad public speaking habits such as talking at light speed rear their ugly heads
after years of speaking slowly and coherently to my students. However, I do feel that I learned a great
deal from the experience. I centered my part of the presentation about using the software (VizZle is
interactive Autism software that works both on PC’s and different tablets) with my students as a
transition to their community. While this is not the only way I use it I highlighted a less in which I used
the software as part of a scaffolding lesson to transition students from identifying sections of a grocery
store using pictures from a local store to eventually going to the store in person and purchasing the
things they needed to cook a recipe.
After presenting how I used the software I answered questions and passed the torch to the next
speaker in line. The panel discussion format was a fun way to jump into a leadership role in the
education community. Overall I felt the experience went well and I look forward to future opportunities
to impart and discuss different techniques I use in my classroom.
Intent:
While my aim in teaching is to stay in the classroom I think a lot can be gained from ventures
into a leadership role. I have always agreed that one of the best ways to learn something is to be able to
teach it. Teaching or providing an example to my colleagues of effective and different ways to do things
in the classroom has an added benefit of making me better at doing the thing I was already working on.
In this case I intend to use the Autism software (VizZle) even more actively in my classroom. I also plan
to branch out to other types of technology with one of my goals being to have a few different software
programs each year that my students can use to become more effective members of their community.
In terms of my career a presenter, I plan to try and pick from the programs I develop the most effective
ones and present them to my colleagues, if not at state conferences, within my district.