Week 1 Reflection

This week was very interesting. I had the opportunity to make an inphographic for the first time. I'm not sure if I was successful. After reading my peers blogs I saw some of my other peers inphographics and really liked them. Ali's inphographic, I will definitely use in my classroom. It's a very easy grab and go check for differentiation. It's  easy to ask yourself, am I doing this or not... check and then change. Mia's inphographic reminded me of my students. "Everyone has different ways of learning on different days." This quote explained my students to the T. It's amazing how students can understand content in one lesson and then in a different lesson be completely lost and need extra support, modifications or the procedure changed for them. This week, I read on my peers blogs, in our course text also and completed my own research on differentiation. I read that differentiation is not one thing that can be changed for a student. It's assessment, modification, flexible grouping, where students are being given support one to one or in a small group. It's having the students collaborate set goals and be student centered learning and it's all based on balance. Not every student will be completing the same task in the classroom during the lesson. I think balance falls in the categories of assessment, modification and flexible grouping. Cindy said it the best on her blog with balance: "teachers who differentiate instruction have to manage and monitor many activities simultaneously." Teachers are constantly assessing their students, modifying their assignments, changing the process to their instruction and creating flexible groups with their students. If our classroom is not balanced, then we are not differentiating our lessons. Without differentiation our students will not be successful. Again, I concur with Mia's  quote on her inphographic, "all students learn in different ways on different days." Educators and non-educators need to remember this when teaching to a student. We want to give our students the best education and help them be successful, then we need to differentiate constantly.