I began thinking about this assignment in terms of what I wanted to improve in the classroom before deciding on a technology to use. I didn't want to identify a specific "problem" but rather an area that needs improvement.
Last school year I taught 2nd grade as my student teaching internship. A topic of conversation that constantly came up between my mentor teacher and I was the discussion of differentiating instruction. We had a very challenging classroom with students ranging from a kindergarten to a 4th grade reading level. We also had all the resource students in the 2nd grade packed into our classroom. I had one autistic, one emotionally impaired, and one dyslexic/learning disabled. We also had a handful of students who qualified to see the reading and math specialist, speech pathologist, and school social worker. With that being said, I was very challenged as an intern to differentiate my lessons to fit the needs of ALL of my students. I believe that every student in my classroom had the right to an equal chance of succeeding in my classroom (and I would assume most teachers have this same belief). I was constantly searching and creating lesson plans and accommodating to make sure I was reaching and engaging every learner in my classroom.
My hope is that my technology plan will greatly aid in differentiating instruction and making sure that all students are achieving at their very own highest level possible.
