"Study as if you were to live forever, live as if you were to die tomorrow." (Maria Mitchell)

DIFFERENTIATION: Normal is only a setting on a waching machine

The session by Jacque Melin and Sally Hipp was very intersting. Some new methods of teaching were introduced and I found them rather easy to implement into a classroom.

Here a few quotes that Jacque Melin began our session with and really intrigued me:

"You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore."

"Remember that nothing that's good works itself just to please you. You've got to MAKE the damn thing work." (Thomas Edison)

I never heard these quotes before and they're great ones to post in a classroom. Students will not be able to learn to their full potential if they're not willing to branch out of their comfort zones and actually put effort into learning. Teachers are not there to just pour information into brains and then see students off into the world. Education is a two-way street.

After the presentation, Jacque pointed out some useful websites on differentiation that I will share:

http://wblrd.sk.ca/~bestpractice/index.html

http://www.wilmette39.org/cd39/definition.html

http://www.dcmoboces.com/dcmoiss/staffdev/oinit/dile/dido...


I would like to also share a method to group students in the classroom that I thought was unique. One way to get students talking to each other about a particular subject, and here this would work really well for talking about a novel, is to split the classroom into two colors (1/2 of the students could be blue, 1/2 of the students could be red). Have the red students make a circle, and then have the blue students form a circle inside of the red circle so that each student is facing a student of the opposite color. (See this figure). Give all students one question to discuss about the relevant topic and have them talk one-on-one with the student of the opposite color that is standing across from them for one or two minutes. Then say "stop" and tell students to move 1,2, or even 3 spaces to the left or right so that each student has a new partner. Then ask students another question that they are to discuss. I really like this way of integrating discussion into the classroom. It's more student-led than teacher-led, and it's also a great way to get kids out of their seats and moving around.

Sally Hipp and Jacque Melin provided us with a lot of very helpful resources (such as the internet links above) and some great hand-outs that have ideas on it such as the red/blue circle method. Even though the session was geared towards more Middle School students, I can easily see how the ideas/methods could be edited to fit an elementary setting.

I definitely plan on keeping all my information and helpful resources in a portfolio so that one day I can implement these ideas into my own classroom.