Differentiated Instruction

As  I said in an earlier post, I am working on a class dealing with Differentiated Instruction.  Whether you've heard of it or not, it has become a mammoth task to develop a class on it in the sense that there is a great amount of information out there and I have had a hard time tackling it.  I can't use everything out there, but I am trying to sift through and find the most informative and useful information.

I decided to post links to a few sites and articles I have found along the way.  Keep in mind, much of what is discussed are items we learned in college as educators - multiple intelligences, learning styles, etc....  None of this is really new.  However, I have found many recent articles on these topics as well as new articles on brain-based learning.  For starters, here is a video interview on learning with Sir Ken Robinson. Hopefully these are useful to some of you.

Sir Ken Robinson -



Edutopia Learning Style Quiz - http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-learning-styles-quiz
Multiple Intelligences Quiz - http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions/choose_lang.cfm
Brain Imagery and Learning Article - http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-brain-research
How the Brain Learns Best - http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/brainlearns.htm

Keeping it all in one place - Teacher Resources on the Web

One of my jobs here at the Eighth Floor is to maintain our SMARTWiki.  This site was developed to provide links to interactive materials on the web.  These links are those that work well when using an Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) in the classroom.  We put together this site not only to share resources, but to also provide teachers with a starting point when using IWBs.  When a teacher gets a new piece of technology, they may not know what to do with it, so it made sense to share those resources with them.

Now, here's the trouble:  how can I keep up with everything on the web in my search to provide cool links?  There's a lot out there!  It took quite a while to come up with this answer, and it's not a simple one.  Here are a few ways I keep a handle on it all:

• Google - I do a lot of searching on Google.  It has become my best friend when it comes to adding resources to our website.  
• Tech & Learning - I have a subscription to Tech & Learning magazine.  This magazine deals with everything to do with Technology and Education.  You'll find articles, links, and polls dealing with all sorts of technology.  It is a free subscription, so check it out. 
• Edutopia - This magazine published by The George Lucas Educational Foundation provides articles dealing with innovation in education.  
• Google Reader - tons of sites have RSS feeds that you can assign to a Google Reader account.  Rather than lump them all in my favorites or bookmarks in my browser, I put them on Google Reader and put a shortcut on my desktop.

This was just a starting point for me, and I thought these links might help others.  Sharing these resources was a goal of mine because, as an educator, I can't tell you how many times I came home from an education conference with tons of so-called "cool resources" only to spend the next few weeks trying to figure out what was so cool about them.  The SMARTWiki was created to put all the cool resources in one spot and cut out the confusion.  One thing I have to tell myself is that finding all these resources doesn't happen in one day.  It takes time and it is something that can be built upon over time.  Knowing that, please click over to our page, check out what we've found, and stay tuned....