A Walk in Our
Shoes!
UDL at Lansdowne
Middle
NICOLE NORRIS, PRINCIPAL
LANSDOWNE MIDDLE SCHOOL
BALTIMORE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Baltimore County Participation in CAST/Gates Grant
Lansdowne Middle School

674 students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades

Student demographics-40 Asian, 218 African American, 107 Hispanic,
22 Two or More Races, 287 White

115 students who receive special education services

115 students who receive ELL services

573 FARMS(85%) (free and reduced meals)-Title I

Attendance is 93.5%
Overview of CAST grant

Opportunity for only 2 schools in BCPS – Lansdowne Middle and Pine
Grove Middle Schools

Introduction of UDL to Instructional Leadership Team and
Professional Development for selected staff

Support and motivation from Liz Berquist

Meeting CAST staff and continued collaboration
UDL
Implementation
Process
Keys to Success
Introduction of UDL PLC to
Instructional Leadership Team
PLC Members from each content
area – chosen by their peers
Carrie Reeve – PE/Health (DC)
Lauren Kimble – Math/ESOL
Melissa Wiegner – Special Educaiton
Justin Benjamin – Social Studies (DC)
Amanda Hughes – English/Language Arts
Wendy Prioleau – Reading Resource Teacher
Carol Connor – Reading
Liz Berquist – UDL Facilitator
Nancy Reed – Technology Support
Open-minded; willingness to work
with one another, learn and take risks
Professional Development
Opportunities
LMS PLC
Summer Professional Development for UDL PLC
Our Goals:

By the end of the summer, the PLC
will be able to create and upload on
UDL exchange one collaborative
lesson and one individual lesson or
resource for a teambuilding activity.

By winter break, all departments will
be introduced to UDL exchange and
UDL guidelines through presentations
in department meetings.

By winter break , all PLC members will
need to create and upload one
lesson/resource in their content area
on UDL exchange.

By the end of the 2013-2014 school
year, PLC members will observe at
least one PLC member and co-plan
a cross curricular UDL lesson and
upload on UDL exchange.
Strategies – Year 1

the right people at the right time – UDL PLC

monitoring and assistance from liaisons (Liz and Nancy) provided
time needed for focus and organization

LMS access to technology and knowing which resources were
available through BCPS
– high tech and low tech

deliverables were an expectation

PLC meetings and monthly meetings with
district level administrators
Strategies – Year 1

Access to UDL Exchange and UDL Studio and sharing of resources

Willingness of PLC to share ideas through collaboration, professional
development, and presentations
Barriers- Year 1

Initial anxiety and fear

Time needed to plan

Time needed to experiment with planning resources

Overwhelmed with number of resources

Questioning of current practices and strategies-implementation of
UDL in more lessons

Allowing time and helping students process for self-reflection

Allowing proper student processing time without stepping in
Barriers- Year 1
Implementation outside of PLC

Teacher mindset

Teacher capacity/time for PD

Teacher personality/beliefs

Internet access at LMS
Believe and Achieve
Overview of TU grant
Towson University Presidential Scholar Universal Design for
Learning Professional Development Project
Strategies – Year 2
Bi-weekly PLC meetings
• 3 credit CPD Course
 Support from Lisa Carey, Fellow, Center for
Innovation & Leadership in Special Education ,The
Kennedy Krieger Institute
• Just-in-time planning support for small group
and tech integration
Technology enhances (4 small group sets of
iPads)
• Summer 3 Day UDL Institute at Towson University
•
Strategies – Year 2

UDL as a way to meet highly effective in new
evaluation system (Danielson Framework)

Knowing resources that are available by the
district, connecting them to the new evaluation,
Common Core and UDL – making deliberate
connections

Focus on UDL and the learning environment

Focus on student-centered learning

Continuous reflection on UDL implementation
Assessing and Improving our Learning
Environment

Exercise conducted with PLC

Walk-through the building without students
present and assess

Use of groups, iPads, and knowledge of UDL
Learning Environment
Scavenger Hunt
A LOOK AT UDL AND THE
LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AT
LANSDOWNE MIDDLE SCHOOL
Flexible seating arrangements
allow students to form groups
or work independently.
Options include mats for sitting
on the floor to work.
The floor operates and
adds a “fifth wall” and a
plane for conducting
instruction. This grid was
used for a learning
activity that
incorporated “planned
movement.”
Teachers at LMS support
executive functioning
skills such as selfmanagement and selfregulation through their
classroom designs.
Where students place
their completed work
becomes an opportunity
for students to self-reflect
on their learning.
What Else is LMS
doing well?

Word walls with graphics to
support comprehension

Large rubrics hung on walls
that include sample products
for students to reference for
self-monitoring.

Desks arranged to facilitate
student collaboration.

Executive Functioning
supports built into classroom
design. (Color coding and
labeled organization)
What should LMS do next year?
Recommendations from the UDL PLC:

Create a master schedule of
“free-space” and allow teachers
to sign up to use free classrooms,
the gym, or the halls as flexible
work spaces.

Ceiling mountings for the
projectors.

Wire management system

EF assistance for Teachers who
need help organizing and
arranging classrooms.

Visit other schools to see what
they do with physical space and
furniture.
Materials the UDL PLC would like to
purchase for next year:

Folders & Notebooks to keep in class
to assist with student organization.

Bins for organization

Magnets to turn chalk boards into
manipulative stations

Tape to transform floors into learning
spaces.

Quick response sleeves to reduce
paper use.

Mini-white boards and many more
colored white board markers.
UDL Learning Walks
Barriers year 2

Providing proper differentiated professional
development in order to support appropriate
teacher growth

Identification of effective PLC members

Continuation of implementation process (explore,
prepare, integrate)

Timing of UDL Learning Walks
What’s next for LMS and UDL?

Continued partnership with Liz Berquist and Lisa Carey

Continued professional development with a
differentiated approach for all staff

Foster connections between BCPS system-wide initiatives
and UDL for LMS staff

Scheduled UDL Learning Walks in October and February
Any questions?
Thank you!
nnorris@bcps.org