It's summer-time and time to get some reading done! Myself and my Tools for Teaching Teens collaborators are going to read and review Differentiation and the Brain, How Neuroscience Supports the Learner-Friendly Classroom , by David A. Sousa and Carol Ann Tomlinson.We will each be reviewing different chapters, and those blog posts will be linked together as we go. If you're interested in learning more about this book, check back and follow the links to the different chapters:) I'm going to give a quick review of the book introduction here, and then later today I'll be reviewing Chapter 1. According to the authors, differentiation is brain-friendly and brain-compatible! They describe the rise, fall, and rise of differentiation, starting with the one-room schoolhouses, where teachers taught all subjects to all students, of all ages, and HAD to differentiate - there was no other way! As the country's population grew, public schools grew, and students were separat
Support from good administration.
ReplyDeleteTrue! Thanks for responding!
DeleteGreat question! And I had two thoughts that came to mind...resources and support.
ReplyDeleteWhen I refer to resources I am including everything from curriculum materials to people! My School system has not purchased any new math or language arts programs for us in many years and we need something new, updated and that works. The last math program they purchased turned out to be a total lemon. They have also taken our people away or limited our people. We used to have a full time nurse, counselor, etc... no more of that! We only have a few Teacher Assistants and we have never had a math or reading specialist.
As for the support, I used to feel good as a teacher. Now I feel awful. Everything is our fault. When I had an autistic child in my class, I was given no training and no support and was blamed for everything that went wrong with her. I am now testing all the time and given more paperwork and no time to complete it.
Those were my first thoughts to what a teacher needs.
I know exactly how you feel. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!
DeleteMore time.
ReplyDeleteYes! Thanks for responding!
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