Differentiation Dive's Podcast

This podcast goes out to all the overwhelmed teachers out there! Today we are dedicating this time to teachers who want to improve some aspect of their practice but might be feeling frustrated and not sure where to start. We should also note that the ideas we talk about today are things we continue to practice and work on. As classroom teachers ourselves we are constantly growing, evolving, and improving our practice. It might be a good idea to give this a quick listen, apply what you can now, but also revisit it at the beginning of this next school year to help get into a healthy mindset around planning and prioritizing. 

Visual supports allow students to participate in classroom activities and routines. Not only do they support students in daily tasks, but visuals support struggling students, diverse learners, and students with social emotional needs in specific situations. When creating visual supports, whether it is addressing a specific routine or supporting a student need, we must first ask ourselves WHY are we creating this visual? What purpose does it address and how will students use it? Sure, visuals look great, but they must have meaning behind them and be adaptable to meet the needs of various learners in your classroom. In this episode we explore questions you should ask yourself when creating visuals to support the learners in your classroom, the importance of visuals, and how you can use them to better support your students in and out of the classroom. 

In this podcast we will explore strategies to build a safer and more trusting classroom community where mistakes are used to teach and push students to grow as opposed to avoidable errors that lead to failure. We will provide you with three strategies that encourage students to learn through making mistakes, two challenges around mistakes in learning WITH a few solutions, as well as one wonder! If you like what you hear in this episode, be sure to check out website and our Instagram @differentiationdive. 

Movement and Mindfulness is such an important part of our school day and it has been for a very long time. These breaks are strategically planned, or spontaneous depending on the mood of the classroom, and essentially work as a refresh button for students and teachers. We've found that movement and mindfulness breaks are most effective when they are integrated into learning activities and should take place before students hit their max or overload. In this episode you'll learn three strategies to ensure the  movement and mindfulness breaks you plan are effective as well as explore a few challenges our readers have shared regarding movement and mindfulness and, of course, our wonder! 

Grading. Ugh. The worst. Time consuming. Does it even matter? Why do people even care about grades in first grade? Just a few of the thoughts that dance around in our heads when hearing that one specific word. The only time in my career ever excited about grading was during the first few months of teaching. A fresh set of flairs, some cute stickers and ready to go until...the piles of work student work began to appear. So stressful and overwhelming something that many teachers still experience. It was at that point in time that we both started to really dive into grading- looking at what I should be grading, how I should be grading, and why it was important to involve my students in the process. Today we explore three grading strategies to speed up your grading process, two challenges facing teachers around grading (with solutions!), and one wonder we have! 

In this episode we  explore one of our favorite topics- problem solving to alleviate executive functioning challenges. Executive functions enable us to move through the day productively, planning, organizing, and completing tasks. Individuals with executive functioning difficulties need support creating and following a plan to complete even the most simplest of tasks. 

School is what we would typically rely on as a constant, we looked to our classroom for stability. Parents and students looked to the school, the teachers, and the classroom as a support, a constant. More now than ever, we need to establish strong lines of communication. It is important to find a way to communicate with our families that establishes and maintains trust. In this episode we dive into that 3-2-1 all about establishing and maintaining communication with the families of our students. We start with the 3 moves we plan to make as we establish strong lines of communication, the 2 common challenges (and possible solutions), and finally our one wonder! Like what you hear in today's episode? Check out www.differentiationdive.com for more ideas and of course, freebies! 

Last May with the death of George Floyd we saw the nation erupt in protests and unrest. Differentiation Dive made several commitments to acknowledge our personal biases, we've been working together to sit with uncomfortable feelings and have also spent time listening, learning, and reflecting. We continue to seek out professional development that fosters growth in teaching children of all races. We made these commitments for our students, our colleagues, our communities, and ourselves. We have worked to learn about racial inequalities that surround us, are nowhere near done, and have some much more work to do but we are here to share our learning. We are committed to creating a more equitable learning environment for our students. Please note that we are not here to teach you how to be antiracist, nor are we experts. We believe learning about racial injustices and antiracist teaching MUST come before anything else, including academics. We encourage you to take control of your learning by following, listening, and reading some of the Black antiracist educators, authors, and influencers on your own. Check out our website for a few of the resources that we have found helpful over the course of our learning. 

Differentiation Dive is a podcast about ways to differentiate common teaching strategies or skills in the classroom. With many schools and communities moving to online learning or the hybrid model, we are focusing much of our work on planning for remote instruction. We miss our students and classroom/school community but are excited and ready to focus our energy on this new adventure. Change is never fun and often brings on more work but we are ready for it! Our work and material is intended to support your learning community to provide unique and meaningful learning experiences for students. This episode we will dive into two groups we want to share strategies to build community with: Staff, students, and parents! We will also share solutions to two obstacles we face in remote learning: too much support from home and how to increase opportunities for observing students during play, transitions, or working independently. We will leave you today with a wonder. Don't forget to check out our blog for some freebies as well as give us a follow on instagram! 

The goal of this podcast is to educate our community of followers with the current hybrid learning model proposed by our district (and many more) and what a typical day will actually look like for students and staff. We want to recognize the team of educators, parents, and administrators that have worked tirelessly to create this hybrid model. We sincerely appreciate their work and value the time and energy they put into creating this plan. We are NOT here to create additional anxiety, complain, or minimize the work that has been completed. However, we do think it's important to talk out the plan and be educated before moving forward. We are excited to get back on track after this post and refocus our lens on what we love to talk about-  best practices and strategies that work with whatever the adopted plan may be. We remain dedicated to providing teachers and families with strategies to differentiate and learn in (and out) of the classroom!

Confused about all the online learning platforms? Not sure which one will best support your student? Interested in learning new tips and tricks about Google Classroom? Well this episode is for you! Although still dealing with remote learning we dive into one special learning platform. This episode's discussion is all about Google Classroom. During this episode we will give you 3 strategies to use with Google Classroom, 2 common obstacles teachers often face with the learning platform, and one wonder we have! 

In this special edition of Differentiation Dive is dedicated to all those families that are in the midst of setting up remote learning in homes across the country. Instead of providing you with our traditional 3-2-1, we will be answering some frequently asked questions from parents of our own students as well as those from the listening community. 

With the majority of students at home due to COVID-19, many teachers and parents are scrambling to find ways to best support children in a remote learning environment. Here's the thing though. We are all in this together. Although these feelings are not going to just go away, there are things we can continue to do to forge ahead so we can continue to provide unique and meaningful learning experiences for our students. Are we going to have to adapt? Oh yeah.  Do we need new skills to teach in this environment? YES. But can we do it? You betcha. It's going to be a learning curve and patience is going to be tested in a new way. There are going to be times where you feel overwhelmed with the million different e-learning platforms available to you, when you feel like you can't possibly learn how to use another app or tech tool, or when you feel like you made a million mistakes delivering your e-learning lesson. Transitioning from traditional teaching to teaching in a remote learning environment is not easy but we are here to help. In this special episode we are going to share what we have found to be the most useful strategies so far and what we are going to use moving forward.

For many students, and teachers alike, the writing process can be a very daunting task. Struggling teacher here. There's always so many steps, requires loads of organization, and often times requires a plan you might not necessarily have! Prewriting is the first step in the writing process and one of the most important as it sets the stage for the writing project. According to research, prewriting should be implemented with many choices. Like personalities, prewriting strategies can be very specific to students and can range from making lists, to quick draws, to outlining. This is the time for you and your students to get creative, get messy, and just get all your ideas on paper.

According to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, children's vocabulary size approximately doubles between grades 3 and 7. And Vocabulary instruction is directly tied to increased reading comprehension, academic achievement and success. This instruction does not take place during just one part of your day but is something that should be integrated throughout the day - math, science, dance, music - you name it, anytime is a perfect to learn a few new words or dive deeper into an author's word choice. Your students can learn to apply the following three strategies when learning new vocabulary, regardless of the content area.

Do you know the difference between number sense and mathematical procedures? Number sense is about understanding what a number means and what it represents. Procedures on the other hand require students to recall specific steps to solve a problem without necessarily understanding why they are taking the steps. Students with a strong foundation in number sense are better prepared to accurately solve arithmetic problems, and expand their mathematical thinking. Incorporating activities that support the development of number sense into daily routines and differentiated tasks help build student confidence. 

Do you use read alouds in your classroom? Read alouds are a powerful tool that can serve many different purposes in the classroom while reaching many different students and learning styles. Read alouds support instruction by motivating, encouraging, and exciting your students. A good read aloud can also reset the vibe in your classroom, allowing your student to sit back and enjoy a good book. This episode will deliver a 3-2-1 on one of our favorite teaching strategies, read alouds! We will give you 3 strategies to differentiate, 2 common obstacles or challenges with ideas to overcome, and 1 wonder we have! 

Differentiation Dive is a podcast for teachers by teachers. Liz and Katie, both Chicago teachers, bring you tools and strategies that you can use every day to help meet the needs of a wide range of students. Each podcast will provide listeners with differentiation strategies and resources immediately in the classroom without reinventing the wheel.