Blog Post #2: Six Statements About Differentiation

1. Rather a parent, day care provider, or a teacher you know that not every child is the same. You need to change your approach to teaching with every child in your classroom because they all have different experiences, backgrounds, and learn differently.

2. If you spend the time to get to know each student through pre-assessment, continually assessing their knowledge and understanding, getting to know their interests, and background you will be able to teach to each child's needs while teaching the curriculum.

3. Differentiated teaching is responsive teaching that requires the teacher to know who they are teaching, where they are teaching, what they are teaching, and how they are teaching. None of these are more important then the others.

4. Differentiation includes making the child feel safe at school, in your classroom learning environment, and part of a community by getting to know the students and having the students help other students through the learning process.

5. Students need to be responsible for there own learning and compete against themselves instead of others. Students should learn that everyone has different needs and it is not fair to compare themselves to others. They should try to improve their own learning and knowledge by trying things that are just a little too hard for them.

6. The teacher must know what they want each student to learn before they plan each unit. The teacher needs to take into consideration the curriculum, and a few concepts they want the student to know and remember before they can differentiate the lessons to students needs. Differentiation does not necessarily mean you have to plan a million activities you have to make sure the student understands and is engaged in each activity.

Blog Post #1: Morning Meetings Reflection

I love the idea of holding morning meetings. Growing up I was an extremely shy child. I didn't like to answer or ask questions because I was always afraid of what others might think and wasn't entirely comfortable in the classroom environment. I believe holding daily morning meetings would benefit shy or withdrawn children the most. If a child can laugh and have fun with their teacher and classmates it makes them feel more like a family or community that they are comfortable participating in. I believe morning meetings could help students with special needs as well. It is a great routine for children and can help the students build friendships. As a teacher I believe the daily routine of a morning meeting will make your students feel safe in your classroom. It helps you to get to know the students better and helps with management issues. It is also a great teaching tool. You can incorporate almost any subject into your morning meeting message or games. Anytime you can make learning fun, the students will understand and remember the concepts better. I believe morning meetings is the base of differentiation and is a great tool for understanding students needs.