LETS WRAP IT UP!

• “Teachers can differentiate four elements of instruction: content, process, product, and learning environment.”
  • Content: What is taught
  • Process: How it’s taught
  • Product: What is produced and can be evaluated
  • Learning Environment: Where and Who
    (Individual, Group, Student/Partner, Teacher/Student; Teacher/Class)
• “Instruction can be differentiated based on student traits, such as readiness, learning profile, interest, and affect.”(See traits immediately below.)

Student Differences that are Accommodated by Differentiated Instruction
Consider the traits below in creating, modifying and varying lesson plans

Interests Academic Skills Sets Language Proficiencies Organization Skills Learning Styles, Profiles (Audio, Visual, Kinesthetic/Tactile)

Personality Social/Emotional Development Intelligences Learning Difficulties Attention Spans Motivation levels

 (found on http://setconnections.org/differentiated_instruction.html)

THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT 

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION:

"NO two children are alike.  An enriched environment for one is not necessarily enriched for another." -Marian Diamonds: Professor of Neuroanatomy at Berkeley

"Three principles from brain research: emotional safety, appropriate challenges, and self constructed meaning suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach to classroom instruction teaching is ineffective for most students and harmful to some." -Teach Me Teach My Brian

"If you always do what you did, You always get what you got." --Marian Diamonds: Professor of Neuroanatomy at Berkeley

JUST REMEMBER... all of your students are going to be different.  Get to Know your students, and get to know how they learn, and what their interests are.  "Remember, if you always do what you did, your always going to get what you got."

HERE ARE SOME HELPFUL IDEAS:

A Final Note..

a Final Note...

One of the last things from chapter 7 that I would like to talk about comes from this: "If we allow ourselves to fall in love with what we do, we will be reborn countless times, almost always in a form stronger and more fully human than the one that preceded it... We must accept two challenges.  First, we need to cultivate passion for what we do.  Second, we need to remove our protective armor and allow our students to shape us, reflecting on and learning from what we see.

In just the three short weeks that I was in field, I grew so much love for the children in my class.  I became aware of horrible circumstances that the student's in my class were facing at home, and it killed me to know that these sweet innocent kids were going through such heartbreaking things.  I CANNOT wait to go back to this class.  I have grown so much passion for teaching from my field experience, and I have learned so much from these sweet kindergarten students.  I now can say that I will love what I will be doing for the rest of my life, and nothing can change that.  There may be bad days, but I can ultimately say that I know I am going to love what I am going to do.  I cannot wait to change the lives of the many students that I come in contact with over the next several years.  

Teachers who CARE

The Simple, 

Hard Truth About Teaching

James Stronge who writes about effective teaching in his book.  Strong says research tells us the following:

*These are my favorite lines that Strong says about caring teachers.*

• Students consistently want teachers who respect them, listen to them, show empathy towards them, help them work out their problems, and become human by sharing their own lives and ideas with their students.
• Caring teachers who create relationships with their students enhance student learning.
• effective teachers consistently emphasize that their love for their students is a key element in success
• Teachers who create a warm and supportive classroom environment tend to be more effective with all students.
• Caring teachers intentionally develop awareness of their students' cultures outside of school.

Here are some of my favorite quotes about caring teachers:

If kids come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families, it makes our job more important.

-Barbara Colorose 

Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stops.

Henry Brooks Adams

Students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Anonymous

Children are like wet cement, whatever falls on them makes an impression.

- Haim Ginott                                         

It all comes down to caring, Our instruction will be much more meaningful if our students know that we care.  Our students are not going to remember the math lessons that we taught, they aren't going to remember the writing lessons that you teach, BUT they are going to remember how you cared about them individually.  Your students will remember that you cared about them, and you cared about their success.