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HELLO!

With the semester coming to an end, I decided I need to blog about a few more things that I feel are important to me.I read things that moms of current elementary school students have written and I don't know why I do this because afterwards I usually feel very angry. I feel that parents don't understand the teachers role in the classroom anymore, or why we teach what we teach or why do teach that way. Parents aren't willing to change their learning. Many things I've read comes across to me that they just want their children to learn the way they learned, which is fine. at home during homework time, teach them the way you learned. But do not DOG the teacher and their teaching to the common core standards because YOU don't understand them. 

I was on Facebook last night and this exact same thing happened. I read through the 40 different comments under one mother's post about her frustration with math homework. There were a few people defending the way math is taught today while others were on her side saying the only reasons teachers do what they do is because of the Obama's and because they just want to confuse their students more. 

UM..NEGATIVE! WHY WOULD A TEACHER WANT TO CONFUSE THEIR STUDENTS? 

This was frustrating to me. I never really knew how much it would bother me until I was reading through the comments. It was interesting to see that the people who were standing up for the way teachers teach were actually teachers......interesting (go figure!) Maybe that is why I was so bugged by it as well. Many of the teachers were trying to explain how the common core is just standards....There have always been standards in teaching so having them is nothing new to the system . We teach math using a variety a ways to help students see there are different ways in solving problems in case a student doesn't understand one way. --anyways, this frustrated mom on Facebook was taught using the standard algorithm and it worked for her (because that was the only way they learned, so it had to work) it worked for lots of people, even me! But after teaching 5 math lessons during my field work and using the base 10 and pictures to help students see there are many ways to visualize and solve a problem was very eye opening for me. I saw students who were struggling start to "get it" I love seeing students "get it." That is why I want to teach. I want students to understand concepts they way that is best for them to "get it."

This brings me to differentiation. I feel this mom was basically saying that she wants her student to be taught the way she learned. The "one-size-fits-all" way. WHY would you want your child to not learn multiple ways of solving problems, maybe even ways that would be better for them? WHY would you want your child to just blend in in the classroom when they could have the potential to stand out? WHY would you want your child's teacher to just teach one way...what if you child was the one child who didn't understand that way and then fell behind? ..........Teachers have come a long way and teachers all have your child's best interest in mind and if they don't, they shouldn't be teachers. I feel that parents need to understand that teachers have had training in teaching and there needs to be some respect and support for your child's teacher, after all they are trying their best. 

Wow......obviously I could go on and on because, as I just discovered, this is very important to me. But I won't. But you do have to look at these two pictures. They are just perfect. I should show this to that mother...There are reasons for teaching multiple ways. who knows, maybe her child's teacher has a great differentiated classroom!?!

So, I was reading the article titled, "Different Learners-Different Lessons" By Carol Ann Tomlinson 
A lot of what she says in the article goes along with what I was just talking about. 

Tomlinson talked about how teachers today still think about how to reach out effectively to students who span the spectrum of learning readiness, personal interest, and real world experiences. In a differentiated classroom:

•  Teachers begin where students are, not at the front of a curriculum guide.
• They accept and build upon the premise that learners differ in important ways.
• Teachers are ready to engage students through different types of learning by differing interests and using different degrees of instruction and complexity.
• They also ensure that a student competes against himself as he grows and develops.
• Teachers use time flexibility and use a range of instructional strategies
• They become partners with students and see how the environment and what is learned is what shapes the learner.
• Teachers in accept, embrace, and plan for the fact that learners bring many commonalities to the school as well as essential differences that make them an individual.

I came upon this quote in the article I read and I love it. I just wish parents in the world could see that teachers might not know everything, but they really do come to school ready to teach their children in the best way possible. Here is what the quote said, 

"Teachers in the most exciting and effective differentiated classes don't have all the answers. Instead, they are dogged learners who come to school every day with the conviction that today will reveal a better way of doing things--even if yesterday's lesson was dynamite." -Carol Ann Tomlinson

Just like we've been learning in my differentiation classroom at UVU, when you differentiate you are differentiating content, process and product. As a teacher this a very important to remember. In the article it also talked about differentiating the environment which I feel is also just as important. 

Teachers look to differentiate these 4 items:

* Content (what students will learn and the materials used), * Process (activities through which students make sense of key ideas using essential skills),

* Product (how students demonstrate and extend what they understand and can do as a result of a span of learning), or * Learning environment (the classroom conditions that set the tone and expectation of learning). I'd just like to end with one last quote that says, "So it is with teaching--neither to mourn what we have not done nor to rest on our victories, but to look at all the reasons we have to show up again tomorrow at the classroom door, ready to join our students--all of our students--in learning."