Final Reflection

In the course DVD Putting it all together, Dr. Carol Ann Tomlinson described how having a positive mindset can effect both your planning and teaching (Laureate Education, 2009). I agree with this statement and I think after completing this course, I have a positive mindset for differentiating instruction and assessments in my classroom. The differentiation station groups that we set up in the class have been extremely helpful in providing me with various tools and resources to use in my classroom. There were several online resources that I was not familiar with at all before this course. The CAST website is one of these, and I think that it will come in very useful in my classroom. The members of my group also offered several other suggestions of resources to use. Since I teach the 2nd grade inclusion classroom, I need to modify everything I do for my diverse learners. I even have to modify my classroom set up in order to make my students successful. I plan on creating a spreadsheet of the tools and resources that I gathered through this course and the differentiation station group. I will need to organize my list according to type of resource, student age level, and also provide a brief description so that I remember what the resource is. I plan to keep this list by my computer at school so that I can look at it any time I need a good idea of ways to differentiate for my students. I am one of those people who will forget about something unless it is out in the open where I can see it. Hopefully by placing it next to my computer, I will look at it each day and figure out ways to incorporate these online tools and resources. I can also e-mail my list out to the other members of my faculty so that they can utilize them as well.

One of the immediate adjustments I have made in my classroom is allowing my students to answer questions and quizzes using the student response system. I feel that this is a great way to get the students excited about learning, and also answer questions in a non-threatening way. Today was our first day to use them and the students did surprisingly well. I also plan to create 1-2 alternate assessments to go along with our traditional paper and pencil reading tests. Possibly allowing the students to create a Podcast, digital story, voice thread, or simply record themselves using the flip camera are all different possibilities that I have been toying with. Since I teach the inclusion class, my students seem to do better when they can express their knowledge verbally rather than writing it down. I want my students to be successful, so I will do whatever I need to in order for this to happen. I also hope to offer my students more choices on classwork, however, this will take more planning on my part. Right now I do not have the time in order to do this because I am currently dealing with 2 behavior students in my room that require all of my time. I am hoping that after these students get acclimated a little bit, it will calm down so that I can work on differentiating my options for student products. I am very excited about all the different tools that I have learned about through this course and I will definitely be implementing them in my classroom.

References:

Reaching and Engaging All Learners Through Technology (2009) Putting it all Together

(Laureate Education, Inc, CD-ROM, 2009 Release).