Assignment #5: Half-way Point

The concept of Differentiated Learning (DI) has been the single most significant new idea that I have encountered in this class. I’m hoping that by keeping DI in mind I can keep planning both flexible and manageable. I will admit that I have some apprehension when I think about the sheer magnitude of the planning workload. Learning more about the various learning and behavioral disabilities that are out there has not helped to soothe the concern of workload. Teachers are expected to accommodate larger, more inclusive classrooms, with financial cutbacks happening monthly that put fewer aids and assistants into classrooms, not more. It seems that every year we recognize and are expected to address more and more syndromes and deviations, yet do not have the resources- financial or human- to deliver the services required. As a teacher-to-be this is a daunting state of affairs.

I believe that more exploration and explanation of DI would be very useful. At this point, my mental image of DI is based almost entirely on the video that we watched with the exemplary male teacher. The video and the ideas brought up in it were very useful. It also did a great job of breaking down many of the practical teaching concepts. I feel like now I have an ideal to shoot for, but that so much planning must happen behind the scenes that it seems superhumanly.

Something I hope to see in the last half of the class: diagnosis and few quick fixes. I still feel that I don’t know what all to look for as the ‘all important’ first line of assessment of a problem. Granted, any student that I have will have (and will have had) other teachers who are presumably also watching for indicators of learning disabilities as well as formulating some strategies to solve or minimize these issues. I would like to have a condensed ‘Coles notes’ on LDs, Behavior Disabilities, and Intellectual Disabilities. Additionally, it would be advantageous to have a handful of ‘quick fixes’ – things that could be incorporated and integrated quickly and easily, to tailor and adjust instruction long before the six-month wait until the specialist can visit the student.