This post was written by an undergraduate student, Kirsten Pickford, in the College of Education at MBU.

I can’t be the only one who has felt the fear of differentiated instruction! I think we all can agree that differentiated instruction is essential for our students to explore their strengths and weaknesses. I think back to the quote by Albert Einstein “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” When I initially began my licensure program I dreaded having to figure out and plan how to manage different learning levels. Although I am a strong proponent of differentiated instruction, as a future teacher and career switcher, I admit I have been quite nervous about this aspect of teaching. That is, until I stumbled across this video on Twitter and it put my mind more at ease.

In this video I learned that differentiated instruction is all about content, process, and product. Differentiated instruction doesn’t have to be a pre-planned model that takes hours to plan. A lot of the time, it is just getting to know your students and allowing them to grow in areas that are beneficial to them while keeping them engaged. We as educators can do this by observing and listening to our students. This video gives wonderful examples of small changes in the classroom that can create opportunities for our students to grow. An important word to remember when it comes to differentiated instruction is flexibility. If we are flexible with our teaching strategies and cater to the needs of our students we will be able to form trust and bonds that will open our students’ minds to learning and becoming the best they can be. I can say that this video alone has opened my eyes to differentiated instruction and put my mind more at ease. I hope it does the same for you!

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