1. Animals + Technology
1.1. Dream Job: create technology for veterinarians for them to "see animals better"
1.1.1. Helms prepares by: teaching math and science
1.1.2. Annotation: The student discussed how he loves two main things, and this is animal and tech. He quickly offered the idea of building technology to "see animals better" and returned often to this idea. With this dream in mind, he seems to be fulfulling the words of Dr. Sanee Bell by becoming an "owner of (his) learning" (Ferlazzo, 2017).
2. References:
2.1. Ferlazzo, L. (2017, January 17). Response: Student Goal-Setting in the Classroom. Retrieved October 5, 2019, from Education Week - Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo website: https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2017/01/student-goal-setting-in-the-classroom.html
2.2. A Student’s Guide to the IEP | LD Topics | LD OnLine. (2019). Retrieved October 5, 2019, from Ldonline.org website: http://www.ldonline.org/article/5944/
2.3. IRIS | Accommodations: Instructional and Testing Supports for Students with Disabilities. (2019). Retrieved October 6, 2019, from Vanderbilt.edu website: https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/acc/#content
3. Loves animals
3.1. 5 dogs at home
3.1.1. "cute and furry"
3.2. 3 cats at home
3.2.1. love playing with the animals
4. Love technology
4.1. First played with technology by taking a toy apart at 5-years old
4.1.1. partially fixed toy, but loved to see what it looks like inside
4.2. Takes the graphics cards out of laptops
4.2.1. took keys off of brother's laptop to replace keys on another laptop
4.2.1.1. Annotation: This point intrigued me the most since he is going well beyond playing with games on his computer and actually modifying laptops. It's fascinating to contrast this student with LD Online's student guide to an IEP where it almost first tasks a student with defining their disability and how it affects them (A Student's Guide, 2019). However, this student hardly experiences this, and he is even exceeding the vast majority of his peers in his achievements using and manipulating technology in novel ways.
4.3. Created a mod pack for Minecraft to play the game in a new setting and context
4.3.1. combined the code on his laptop to use
4.4. Views self as "tech lead" among his teachers this year
4.4.1. asked to come set-up technology in a classroom
4.4.1.1. Annotation: The student's IEP encourages text-to-speech items to be used for testing and daily classwork. However, this support either has not been implemented or worked effectively. In light of his gifts with technology, I wonder if his teachers could task him with finding the most helpful technology tool in the classroom to maximize his learning. In this sense, it could be helpful to provide a list of potential accommodations such as this one found on Vanderbilt's IRIS website (https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/acc/cresource/q1/p01/#content) (2019). With these options, it could really empower the student to explore the intersection of technology and potential accommodations in order to find what is most helpful.