Differentiation

 Differentiation: To me this means, Equal education is not all students getting the same, but all students gettting what they need. I think it is imporatant for students to be getting the education they need so they can move onto the next level and be ready. It saves students the discouragement and saves the teachers time so they do not have to go back and reteach the information the student should have already been taught and mastered. Moving grade levels is not about just teaching the information and moving the students on, it is about teaching the students the material so they understand it and can comfortably move on with a proper understanding of what they have been taught.

I experienced differentiation in fifth grade and I remember it specifically. In fifth grade our middle school had a program where the really gifted students, students that were at a much higher level than the rest of us would go to "Speech". In this speech class, they would be taken out of class two times a week and they would do other activities with another teacher and other higher level studentes from other classrooms. To me at the time, I thought I should have been in the class but I did not qualify to go into Speech, which discouraged me a little bit. I always was on the honor roll, and recieved good grades, so when I did not get invited to the Speech program, I was a little upset. Kids that didn't go to this program felt left out, or not special, and the ones that did acted like they were better than the rest of the "normal,average" kid. Another time where I experienced differentiation was when I was shadowing a Kindergarten teacher for three weeks my senior year of high school. There was a girl named Ava in the class who really had a hard time speaking clearly and struggled on her numbers. Mrs. Cotner would send her with a tutor every so often during the week when the tutor was not busy
with other kids, but sometimes Mrs. Cotner would eat lunch and then work on Ava's numbers with her during recess. This Kindergarten class would meet every Tuesday and Thursday one week, and the next week switch to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Ava was so far behind she came everyday. So while the class did a project that she had already done the day before, I would work with her and go over her numbers with her. She benefited from one on one tutoring, and there are many other benefits from one on one tutoring. For more benefits, check out this article.

Technology can play a role in differentiated classrooms in a good way. A child can adapt to computer programs that work with spelling or numbers. There are lots of education based computer programs out there that are classroom appropriate. During free time the computer can be an option for students
to get on and work on their math skills. Also, one of the techniques I have seen a teacher use is stations. During activity time each group of students are at a station, and each day they switch stations, but the activites at each station are the same until each student has been to each station. Computers can be a station option depending on the available use of computers. They can focus on any subject or program during that time. I think technology should be introduced young, especially since technology is a big part of the 21st century. On the other hand, teachers have to be careful how they use technology in the classroom and how/why it is incorperated. In the article, the author talks about how technology could be a good thing, but also the downfalls it has.

Twitter and Me!

Twitter and Me
The activity we did with Twitter in Tuesday's class was a learning experience. I never have taken a test or done anything education related on Twitter before. As the class typed their tweets and everyone responded at same time, I feel like I did not have much of a chance to read the tweets, since I was typing my own response and trying to put a word document together at the same time. I think that social networks could be used for educational purposes and could be very effective considering a lot of kids are familiar with them.

I created my Twitter about a year ago and didn't really start "tweeting" til about halfway through the summer. Twitter did not catch my attention as much as Facebook did, but my parents both had Facebooks and monitored mine. They would constantly rag on me about my status's and different posts I commented on. I was not allowed to sware and I was only allowed to put up certain photos. I got so sick of them telling me, "Take this down" and "delete this". So, I switched to Twitter. My parents are both not very familiar with technology, Facebook is as far as their social networking goes, so my Twitter was anything I wanted to post without the nagging of my parents.

If social networking such as Twitter and Facebook were to be used in the classroom, I think that students and teachers should have their own personal account and a professional account. Teachers and students could learn a lot from each other if they used social networking in the classroom. One thing I did not know about Twitter was the Tweetdeck. Having everything in columns makes the "tweeting" experience a lot easier. Teachers could posts assignments on Twitter and students could turn them in, they could have class discussions, answer any questions about classwork or homework, or they could simply take a quiz like we did in class. A principal from a New Jersey high school replaced the schools website with a Facebook page, and it is accessed more than the old website. This is just one way how social networking is a positive force for students, teachers, and staff.

Overall I do not think Twitter would be a bad idea for the classroom, or any social networking site for that matter. In this article, you can see the 60 different ways Twitter can be used in the classroom.

The Final Frontier

The Final Frontier:

A couple take aways I took from the article.

• Beliefs vary in strength and kind: You can try to convince a teacher to vary or change their belief but some will not budge if it has been been what they have been taught or experienced their whole life. Some teachers may be willing but may fail in an attempt.

• Incooperating technology in the classroom: If you want to incooperate technology in the classrom to enhance student learning, you have to take into consideration the teacher's beliefs and how everything has been rooted into their classroom.

My whole life I have been trained to use Keynote and other sorts of Apple tools. I have never had any experience with Google Drive before this, but I find it much easier and much simpler. Another part that made the whole proccess of group work simplier was the fact you could share the presentation with your other group members and you could work on it at different locations at the same time. Having the chat right next to the presentation made it really easy to ask questions to my other group members. Also if you saw a grammer error or something that needed fixed on one of your partner's slide you could easily change it. For further presentations I will use Google Drive before Keynote and I recommend that anyone who has not experimented with Google Drive attempt to and see the differences between Google Drive and other tools used for presentations.


I created my presentation with Brittany and Meghan titled, Teachers and Technology. Each of us took a section to focus on, How does technology help teachers in the classroom, How does technology help students, and Technology Hindering teachers. After focusing on each section, our presentation came together very nicely and was not a hassle at all.

All About Me

Hayley Marie Wagner

My name is Hayley Wagner. I was born and raised in Monclova, Ohio, which is about twenty minutes southwest of Toledo, Ohio. I found Edinboro University through a recruiting visit in Erie, Pennsylvania. Currently I play soccer for Edinboro and plan on playing again in the fall. My best friend that I met here is from Stayner, Canada. Back at home I am employeed at Charlie's Restaurant and have been employed for two and a half years now as a waitress. When you first meet me I am quiet and shy, but once you get to know me I am one of the craziest people you will ever meet. Basically all around where I live is nothing but farmfields, so I love to four wheel, dirt bike, and have bonfires. In other words, I am a big country girl. Coutry music is about the only music I listen to in my truck besides One Direction. My sister is a HUGE fan of One Direction, and she rubbed off on me. I am studying Early Childhood Educaion with a minor in Special Education and plan on coaching soccer one day.

I was inspired to become a teacher when I was real young. There was a program back at my high school that we got to supervise classrooms and teach a few lessons if the acting teacher allowed us to, almost like a student teacher. We took attendance online of the students in the class and also helped the acting teacher put in grades online. The privacy of the student was not revealed because their student number appeard instead of their name. This is one way technolgoy is used in teaching and a way I'd like to use when I am a teacher.

Another form of technology that can be used for teaching but also for learning is power points. Not only can the teacher use them, but the teacher could also have the students make them and then present them to the class for a topic pretaining to what they are learning.

I believe technology is not only good for the students but for the teachers. This is the 21st Century, technology is a major part of the younger generations and can be very suitable for teaching, but teaching is not all about technology. Technology is growing tremendously as stated and shown is the youtube video, so why not have students learn with what is familiar? I believe teaching is all about making sure students are as well prepared for the future as possible.