Differentiated Instruction

To be completely honest, differentiated instruction at first seemed like an overwhelming challenge to me. We got our first hand out with all the different ways to differentiate instruction and it seemed like it was much more work that I'd ever thought I would have as a teacher. However, after watching the videos we've seen in class as well as one I found on Teaching Channel, it doesn't seem quite as overwhelming as it did before.

Teaching Channel has proved to be a great educational resource for me. There are videos for practically anything you could have questions about. I found a great video designed for first year teachers about differentiated instruction. While, I'm not quite a first year teacher yet, it did prove helpful when thinking about how I could differentiate instruction in the future. Differentiated instruction is altering your lesson or activities to make sure that all levels of students are challenged. You can make your lessons or activities harder or easier depending on the readiness level of the student. 

I plan to teach at an elementary level and I think this is a perfect age to use grouping for the differentiated classroom. I could use stations for my groups and have them all do different activities depending on the readiness level of each student. It also would free up my time to walk around and monitor. I'd also be available to help if necessary.

While the video I found is about a high school teacher, the video as a whole seems to serve as a general introduction to differentiated instruction and can be used as a tool to those who have never understood the concept. The video give occasional tips, for example:

• Continually assess students
• Tier lessons to challenge all students
• Use word problems of varying complexity
• Group by readiness, interest, or learning style

It was an extremely helpful introduction to the concept of differentiated instruction that I plan to refer to when I am a first year teacher.

Algebra Teacher Collaboration Response

Ms. Warburton and Ms. Jones are two algebra teachers at a middle school who teach different students but use the same lesson to do it. It provides a very consistent learning environment for all the students at the school because they're all being taught the same way. It is a great study for collaboration in learning. 

Ms. Warburton mentions that confusion leads to learning. What she is really going for when she says that is that students learn when they're wrong and the learn from it. They expect confusion, get past the struggle and learn. That way, they end up learning more than they probably would if it was just told to them. When the students get confused, they have to work past that to understand every process. 

Ms. Jones mentions that she likes her students to discuss math because it builds their confidence. What she says about this is, that what her students say matters. All of the ideas come from her students. It helps them speak and discuss with the vocabulary, and that leads to understanding ton concepts.

There are things about each teacher that I really liked that while their lessons and teaching methods were consistent, each of them also brought their personality to the classroom. Ms. Jones says that she is probably louder than most teachers but Ms. Warburton mentions that it sounds like she is cheering for her class as though she was at a football game. I liked her energy because it was so much positive feedback for her students. Ms. Warburton on the other hand has a number system for the noise level in her room. This keeps her students on task and also helps them know when to figure things out on their own, and when it's okay to ask for help. I also like Ms. Warbuton's scoring system which helps her students learn from their mistakes. They're not just marking right or wrong, they are writing if they know why they got it wrong, or if they still need help on it. Ms. Jones is great during her warm up because she lets her students write their answers and their work on the board. It gets them involved and helps them see where they could have made a mistake and if another student made the same mistake, they also see that. 

To look at a few other teachers I decided to search for teachers who have talked about their math warm up routine because that is what I focused on in our collaboration video. The first thing I found was a video from the Teaching Channel. It is about a teacher who does a unique warm up that focuses on the mistakes the students make and how to fix it. I think that is my favorite thing to focus on because I feel like it helps the students the most. 

As I was doing research I realized that the assessment that I was focusing on is called formative assessment. You use their mistakes to help the students learn and make sure they understand what is going on. Not just in math. The second video is a video on formative assessment and how it can be used in more than one context in the classroom. 

The Importance of Collaboration in Elementary Education

Teacher collaboration is extremely important for many reasons. In the most basic sense, two teachers working together will benefit any student who needs extra help in certain areas. But on a more specific level, collaboration is very important for exceptional children especially at the elementary age. At this age, exceptional children are identified and labeled. At this time it is extremely important for teachers to collaborate to make sure the child is getting the best education available (Brownell, Adams, Sindelar, Waldron, 2006). This is the best way for a child to learn and studies haveshown that even teachers will become better at their field by working together. 

For exceptional children, collaboration between their teachers is vital. But it's important to also understand that teachers can and should collaborate on any subject. Older teachers can help newer teachers, teachers who are stronger in math can help a teacher who is struggling to teacher her students. Teachers can work together to plan lessons and projects that will benefit all students (Boss 2009). Nowadays teacher collaboration isn't just between teachers in one school. Now teachers can collaborate across the country on a website called Teach 21. This website was developed by teachers in West Virginia and really shows how helpful collaboration can be. It also is a huge testament to our technology that we can collaborate online.

References:

1. Bronell, M., Adams, A., Sindelar, P., Wladron, N. (2006). Learning from collaboration: the role of teacher qualities. Exceptional Children, 72(2), 169-185. Retrieved from: https://libproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=19467718&site=ehost-live.

2. Boss, S., (2009). Making time for teacher collaboration is crucial. Edutopia. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/teacher-collaboration-crucial