I Like Differentiation

I am so interested in differentiation. I am also appreciative for it because I felt like it put together a lot of puzzle pieces that have been vaguely mentioned throughout the program so far and pieced them together in a way where I could wrap my head around it and I am not so overwhelmed by all of a teacher's responsibility anymore. I loved the addition of the affect and the learning environment to the student traits of learning profile, readiness, and interests and curricular elements of content, product, and process because I could understand the important role that both affect and learning environment have.

I really believe that learning environment is such an under-looked element of teaching because at least for me, a room that is cluttered with visual aides covering everyone square inch of the wall and cabinets seems very overwhelming and I myself can't concentrate with so much going on. I've always been like that. When I am extremely stressed, I clean my room as a start because I feel so much better. I'm not as overwhelmed and I feel like I can do it. I also feel like the learning environment goes hand in hand with Maslow's heirarchy of needs because the mood of the room will influence a students feeling of being comfortable and safe.