Differentiated Instruction? Five Steps to Get Started

Since I started teaching four years ago differentiated instruction has been the goal for my classroom.  As I learn more about best practice instruction, I now know a teacher is falling behind if they are not aware of student needs/levels/abilities/interests and how to address them.  In college I was told differentiation was how I should be teaching, but no instructor gave a clear explanation of what I should be doing.  It has been a trial by fire experience for me and I wanted to share my top five tips to getting started!

1. Use Small Group, Rotation Learning

My Rotation Board

The number one step for me starting to differentiate my classroom was teaching in a rotational model.  NO MORE WHOLE GROUP INSTRUCTION!  Now this definitely involves more planning.  Creating four stations throughout the room that have active, engaged learning happening takes more behind the scenes work.  Also, it takes more modeling at the beginning of the year to make sure students know what is expected.  Keep at it and once your class gets into the flow the benefits are immediate.

If you need to approach something from a different perspective for a kiddo it is one hundred times easier to stop, regroup, and try something else in a small group.  See a kiddo needs an extra challenge?  Make his math problem go next level by asking him to draw an illustration or diagram.  Whatever the scenario, you can observe it quickly and act swiftly in small groups.

2. Projects, Projects, Projects!

Barge Building Competition

There is nothing that will provide a student with more opportunity to acquire content, process learning, and make sense of a concept than a hands-on project.  So many types of learning are addressed when you go hands on.

Look at the different ways our barge building competition helped us understand buoyancy.

Visual - Seeing the Water, Seeing the Coins Spread over the Surface of the Boat, Comparing Two Boats
Kinesthetic - Feeling the Foil, Building the Boat
Interpersonal - Working with Others
Linguistic - Communicating with Others, Using Science Vocabulary in an Organic Setting
Logical/Mathematical - Trial and Error

It goes on and on.  The point is that more natural learning opportunities take place during a project than a lecture.

3. Don't Be Scared of Talking, Don't Be Scared of Sound.

Math Rotation

The thing about teaching a differentiated classroom is that it can be a loud, messy, dirty, crazy, and fun place.  All of these things can take place and learning can still happen!  Humans are social creatures who enjoy learning together.  I have found that as long as the kiddos are excited about what we are doing they will stay on task.  Sometimes it gets a little noisy but if I hear academic conversation taking place, please talk away.

4. Use Technology!

Listening Station with Kindles and a CD Player

There are literally thousands of websites and digital activities out there for kids.  Technology is the language of the future and most of our students are more proficient than we are.  We have to keep up.  Join twitter and follow the amazing teachers that are using technology and borrow a few ideas!

5. Don't Be Scared To Make a Mistake

Img Src: http://www.livelifeready.com/2010/06/18/the-huge-mistake-you-are-currently-making/

The hardest part of moving to this system for me was fear of failure.  As a new teacher I felt that if I lost control of my class for a second or if one thing went off the rails that I was failing as a teacher.  Now I realize that it's okay to take risks and try new things.  The kids probably learn just as much from seeing me fail and laugh it off as they do from a successful lesson. 


Hope this was an interesting read!  Let me know if you have any different ideas on how to get started!

Rock and Roll Graphing - A Friday Freebie

Happy Friday!

This is my first of hopefully more Friday Free downloads!

I have always been a big music fan.  I love going to concerts and listening to all the new albums. This year I had some students working on plotting x/y coordinates and thought I would bring this interest into graphing!  I created this Rock and Roll character for a fun way to practice graphing.  Who doesn't need a little more ROCK in the classroom! 

Much more excitement than graphing random x/y points I hope!  Click here to download!

Here comes the school year and I'm nervous again...

So another school year starts this Wednesday.

Here I sit again, going over and over first day plans, thinking about what I will say, and scanning a list of names with unknown faces.

Will I have a great class?  Will I be able to try all my new ideas?  Will the parents like me?

The questions go on and on.  It's such an exciting time of year and I hope I always feel this way before the school year starts. 



Hope the excitement never goes away!

Digital Toolbox - What I Have So Far - Part 1

This summer I had the opportunity to go to one of the INeLearn conferences!  I was amazed at all the great resources I found from this and decided to join Twitter! I am now finding new resources to use every day!

If I learned one thing this summer, it’s that there is a LOT of tools out there for an educator looking to bring tech into their classroom.

The lists of tools below are ones that I have listed over the summer.  There are more great tools out there I am sure but these are the ones I have seen so far!

Graphic Organizers/Tools

1.  Skitch

Skitch is a simple photo editing tool.  The presenter I saw this summer used it as a way to have photo writing prompts for students.  Very cool and different way to present a writing prompt.

2. Middlespot

This website allows you to create a virtual "corkboard" for your class.  It looks like it could be great to create one as a class for a project or maybe use it as a classroom homepage.  Just a warning, when I tried this out myself it was pretty buggy.

This is a sample from the Middlespot webpage.  Pretty awesome all you can put on a board.

3. Tagxedo

Tagxedo is a tool that lets you quickly create word clouds in different shapes.  I imagine using this during a classroom story, printing it, and hanging it in the room.  Or giving them each their own copy.

Tagxedo on the Detroit Lions

4. ToonDoo

ToonDoo is a fun website that allows students to create their own comics.  I plan on using this website to allow students to retell what happened in stories we read in class.

Sample Toon made on ToonDoo

By valerietrudel | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

5. Sumopaint

Sumopaint is a graphics editor that is used in a webpage.  Think supercharged Microsoft Paint.  Sometimes we don't let students doodle enough.

Screenshot of Sumopaint

6. Shahi

Shahi is an online dictionary that has pictures as well as text when searching for a word.  How great for visual learners.

Example of a Shahi Search.  Searching for 'turtle' gives both a definition and pictures on the left.

7. Lucid Chart

Lucid Chart is a easy to use brainstorming or flow chart tool.  You can drag and drop boxes easily, then type your information right inside.  Would be great for brainstorming before a writing assignment.

Sample flow chart created with Lucid Chart

Blogging in the Classroom

8. Kidblog

This might be the resource I am most excited for.  On this sight you are able to create a SAFE, PRIVATE blog account for each one of your students.  Blogs are only accessible by classmates and the teacher unless you change the settings. What a great way to share writing in an environment students understand.

9. Comments4Kids

Comments4kids is a resource for having teachers comment on your students blogs.  You can put your student's blogs on the site to get comments.  In return you are expected to comment on other students blogs.  Fair trade I would say!

Communication Tools

10. bitly

Bitly is a pretty standard URL shortener.  Have you ever wanted to share a link with your students on their computer but the URL is 200 characters long?  Put it in bitly and it will trim it up for you!

Before bitly

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17209-hands-of-glory/

After bitly

http://bit.ly/13ygFdc

11. Creative Commons

Looking for images for your blog, powerpoint, or other digital mediums?  Don't want to break any copyright rules?  Use creative commons to search for images that are free to reproduce, use, edit, without getting into trouble!

Copyright free photo from fotopedia

12.SimpleMeet

Probably my 2nd favorite tool of the summer.  Simple Meet is super easy to use and sets up a quick chat room for students.  The best part of this website is that you can have kids have a book talk in the chatroom, and then have it e-mailed to you for a grade!  They can e-mail you the discussion by just typing in your address.  Super easy and can't wait to try it out.

SimpleMeet Homepage, so easy to start or join a chat.

13. Screenr

Screenr is a free online screen-casting tool in those times when you want to give an online tutorial to parents how to use a piece of technology.  Look forward to using it!  Below is a quick Screenr I made showing how to add a category to tweetdeck.  A bit blurry, sorry!



14. paper.li

Create your own online newspaper in minutes.  Pick the categories you want and have it e-mailed to you.  Below is a copy of Detroit Lions Daily that I created.  There are tons of educational opportunities here!



OK.  So I am running out of gas finishing this up.   I will have to create a 2nd part to this when I get the time.  Enjoy and let me know of any more you may have heard of!

Class Dojo - An Effective Management Tool

Hello!

So this past school year I discovered the amazing classroom management tool Class Dojo.

Our classroom uses the website for individual, incentive-based rewards.  It's very easy to set up for students and offers immediate results.  You enter the students names and each student is assigned a character!  So cool!  If students sign up at home they can even change their character.  My students were able to do this and absolutely LOVED it!  Students are awarded points for activities such as helping others, hard work, and being on task. 

 

This is what the interface looks like on the Class Dojo page.  You just click a students name to add points to their character.

I took this a step further this year and printed out all their characters.  As a class we came up with rewards that each student could earn by gaining a certain amount of points.  They were able to "level up" their characters.

This is our classroom bulletin board.  You can see students were able to earn helmets and swords for their characters.

The neat thing about the program is that when students earn points it makes a noise similar to Mario grabbing a coin.  If the class ever started to get a little chatty I could ring up a few points and the kiddos would immediately quiet down and try to earn their character some points.  Very effective and fun!

Overall a good tool that took very little upkeep once I set up the bulletin board.

Forget the Test, Love the Craft - How I Am Learning to Avoid the Teacher's Hangover

This is a conversation that I had with one of my students the other day.

Me (joking to another teacher):  I’d love to go out to dinner but I am poor!

Student (We’ll call him Johnny):  You’re poor Mr. Teal?

Me (laughing): Sadly, Yes I am Johnny, but it’s fine.

Johnny (looking more bewildered that I have ever seen him look over a math problem or a difficult reading passage):  But Mr. Teal… you’re a teacher!

Me: Well Johnny, I love teaching you and the other kids more than anything else, but they don’t pay teachers a lot of money.

Johnny:  Well you should get paid A LOT Mr. Teal, because you’re the BEST teacher ever!

Oh Johnny, if only that were true. 

Now I didn’t mean for Johnny to hear the offhand comment I made to another teacher before school, but it is funny how sometimes a kid’s perspective can be so spot on.  Among the teachers I have worked with throughout my five years in teaching we often have all felt the same way.

We love our jobs.  

We love seeing our students’ faces each morning.  No matter how tired or grumpy they sometimes can be in the A.M.

We love seeing the “light bulb” go off during a particularly tough science concept or writing lesson.

We don’t mind being mentor, confidant, therapist, and (if time permits) teacher to the kids we see.  In fact, not only do most of us not mind, but we probably wouldn’t be as happy doing anything else but helping the kids we see every day.  We were “built” for this daily grind.

We also all share one more common thought...  We feel under-appreciated!

Now some of this has to do with money.  Next time you hear a politician or pundit yelling on TV about how teachers are overpaid try to think of another profession that requires 4 years of college and pays $32,000 for first year employees.  Now yes, I sure there are other jobs like this, but I am sure they feel the same way us teachers do!

However, for most of us this has to do with unanticipated pressures we never thought we would face as bright eyed college students.  The amount of pressure we face teaching predetermined standards.  The amount of pressure we face making sure our kids are prepared for tests that determine how skilled we are as teachers.  This wasn’t advertised in school and boy is it exhausting!

I’m not writing this to complain.  I love my job and couldn’t dream of sitting behind a desk crunching numbers each day.  Most professions probably have as many perceived injustices as we teachers feel.  I am writing this to try to tackle something I have been thinking the past few months.

How do I deal with the teacher’s hangover?

As teachers we leave college with our teaching degrees still hot in our hand, feeling that we are going to change the world.  We get into the profession and work our tails off.  Late nights grading, parent phone calls, and lesson planning are how we spend our free time.  We get a few years in and we just feel like we are spinning our wheels.  

Are we really making a difference?  Are we really doing the best we can to help each child we see?  These are the questions we sometimes forget to ask ourselves.  We instead ask, “Did I review everything needed for the next standardized test?”  “Do my students need more practice with multiple choice testing strategies?”

I don’t think most of us went to school to learn how to teach multiple choice testing strategies.  

So I guess I am starting this blog to working on answering those first two questions.  How can I make a difference and help each child while still adhering to my responsibility of teaching standards?  Hopefully I can share my ideas and lessons with others in this space.  

I am always looking for a creative outlet.  I have tried writing songs, comic books, and even drawing.  Three things I don’t do very well.  Then it hit me after my conversation with Johnny and thoughts about this teaching hangover.  My profession is my creative outlet! I have to have one of the only professions out there that you can do almost anything you want!  (So far as we hit those beloved teaching standards.) I already spend my time designing and sharing lessons that I think are fun.  It's a matter of forgetting the test and loving the craft.  Hopefully this blog will help me to get back to loving the teaching.  And if this doesn’t work at least I am doing something better than deciding between the latest episode of American Idol or The Voice or whatever new singing show is just around the corner!