Teaching Every Child
Every teacher puzzles over the question of how best to reach every student. No matter their age, children learn at different rates and in different ways. A classroom of eighteen students contains eighteen different sets of needs.
At USN, teachers have never been satisfied with shrugging their shoulders over the difficulties presented by this problem. This summer, the first and second grade teams—and one fourth grade teacher, veteran Kim Avington—traveled to Chicago for a conference on differentiating instruction, the term educators use when discussing this issue.
The conference included sessions on math, social studies, science, literacy, and technology. First grade teacher Betsy Hoffman calls their time there "chockful of information that ranged from using technology in the classroom to getting boys to love reading."
Since they had just gotten their iPads thanks to the USNA gift, our teachers were particularly interested how these new tools could help them make their classrooms work best for every child. Betsy Hoffman says, "We learned all about meeting students where they are as opposed to teaching to the whole class." (She points out that this idea is already an important commitment at USN.)
All the teachers harvested lists of useful apps and "resources, digital and human." They learned how to engage the entire class while one student works at the Smart board or on the iPad. They brought home many creative ideas for using the iPad in their classrooms.
Betsy Hoffman sums up what they learned about using technology in their classrooms. "We learned mostly that if it is not purposeful, no matter how fun and clever it is, it is not worth using." And USN students are already reaping the rewards of their teachers' summer endeavors.