What does differentiated education mean to me?
To differentiate education I believe the teacher must recognize the differences in her students, and adapt herself to all of them as best she can. She must teach to each of these differences. She must also learn to push herself and her students out of their comfort zones. She must recognize the differences in herself and realize how different and how similar she is to each of her students. These differences can be cultural, learning abilities, social, and/or ethnic.
"You don't get harmony when everyone sings the same note." Doug Floyd
I think that this quote applies itself perfectly to the ideas behind differentiated education. I think that the harmony that can exist in a classroom where everyone is excited about learning and feels no pressure to fit into any kind of mold could feel like a choir singing in harmony. There is a moment where everything is so beautiful it almost hurts to listen. I hope that my class can be that different someday. I don't exactly remember specific instances of my teachers teaching in a differentiated way. I do remember that sometimes when I was "learning" things that, I actually felt like I was playing a game. It was a fun thing! It wasn't work, like many students seem to view learning.
"You don't really know something until you teach it." Dr. Scott and others...
I don't know if I had ever heard that quote before, but it is definitly true. I am still unsure of how I will implement all of these things we have learned in my classroom, especially since I am going to be an Art teacher. All I know is that I want my students to love art and realize its importance in the world. I want them to not be nervous every time I introduce them to new materials. I want them to have fun and relish expressing themselves in a variety of ways. If these things happen, learning should come naturally.
I think that learner-centered instruction and standards based instruction can be reconciled. I think that they need to meet somewhere in the middle. There needs to be a commitee of educators, not government officials, that meets to create an instructional system that uses parts of each of the rival methods. The teachers that we read about in the Tomlinson article met and discussed the standards. They found a way to work with the standards, instead of against them. If we could come together and do the same with both of the methods, we could end the wars between educators and administrators.
To differentiate education I believe the teacher must recognize the differences in her students, and adapt herself to all of them as best she can. She must teach to each of these differences. She must also learn to push herself and her students out of their comfort zones. She must recognize the differences in herself and realize how different and how similar she is to each of her students. These differences can be cultural, learning abilities, social, and/or ethnic.
"You don't get harmony when everyone sings the same note." Doug Floyd
I think that this quote applies itself perfectly to the ideas behind differentiated education. I think that the harmony that can exist in a classroom where everyone is excited about learning and feels no pressure to fit into any kind of mold could feel like a choir singing in harmony. There is a moment where everything is so beautiful it almost hurts to listen. I hope that my class can be that different someday. I don't exactly remember specific instances of my teachers teaching in a differentiated way. I do remember that sometimes when I was "learning" things that, I actually felt like I was playing a game. It was a fun thing! It wasn't work, like many students seem to view learning.
"You don't really know something until you teach it." Dr. Scott and others...
I don't know if I had ever heard that quote before, but it is definitly true. I am still unsure of how I will implement all of these things we have learned in my classroom, especially since I am going to be an Art teacher. All I know is that I want my students to love art and realize its importance in the world. I want them to not be nervous every time I introduce them to new materials. I want them to have fun and relish expressing themselves in a variety of ways. If these things happen, learning should come naturally.
I think that learner-centered instruction and standards based instruction can be reconciled. I think that they need to meet somewhere in the middle. There needs to be a commitee of educators, not government officials, that meets to create an instructional system that uses parts of each of the rival methods. The teachers that we read about in the Tomlinson article met and discussed the standards. They found a way to work with the standards, instead of against them. If we could come together and do the same with both of the methods, we could end the wars between educators and administrators.
1 comment:
I love your choir analogy.
" All I know is that I want my students to love art and realize its importance in the world."
I can't think of a better place to begin!
Post a Comment