Tools for Thinking

Like every good mechanic, handyman, or all around man, we need our tools to do our work. As teachers our screwdriver, drill, and hammer are our organizers and notes. We use these tools to help develop learning students. As for Differentiation the same can be said. These tools are at our disposal we just need to use them. Some specific ones that are listed in the textbook are:

• Graphic organizers: Used to organize information and thoughts
• Notes: Used to jot down important points in a lesson
• Think dots: These can be used for dual purposes - tiering and review
• Learning contracts
• Learning Menus: This is a fun and active way to give students options, but keep them on their right level
• Think-Tac-Toe
• RAFT: Used for writing
• Journals: I am a big advocate for this idea

There are many more, but I felt these few were the most useful and need to be mentioned. Students could really take to any of these tools. The one I focused o most was journals. I use a writers journal and a science journal. Both are interactive and promote thinking. A journal could be used in math as well. They could create a word journal or dictionary as well.
Tools are meant to be used, not sit in the corner rusting. Use them, don't waste them!

Sing to Your Gravy

How do we create a positive effect on students? James Stronge shared some research in the textbook. Below are a few I felt were good examples:

• Students consistently want teachers who respect them, listen, to them, show empathy toward them, help them work out their problems, and become human by sharing their own lives and ideas with their students.
• Teachers' enthusiasm for learning and for their subject matter is an important factor in student motivation that, in turn, is closely linked with student achievement.
• Effective teachers accept responsibility for student outcomes.
• Effective teachers know and understand their students in terms of abilities, achievement, learning preferences, and needs.
• Students achieve at higher rates when instruction focuses on meaningful conceptualization of facts.

That is just a small part of all the research he offers. There is so much we can do as teachers to help our students grow in a positive environment.
"It's hard to care because we don't know how to see through someone else's eyes, to speak someone else's language, to make the world better for a child whose world is out of control. IT's hard because there are too many students to connect with. It's hard because there is barely time to survive between the race that begins with the first bell and ends so long after the last bell rings. It's hard because people at home need so much of us too, and there seems never to be enough of us to go around, even for those people who are at ground zero in our lives, let alone those who inhabit the perimeters of our lives."
There is some much pulling at us every moment of the day. How can we juggle all the responsibilities put upon us. We are in charge of a couple dozen children, it is our job to help them become good members of society. It's a big order to fill with in such a small amount time. But if we allow ourselves to fall in love with what we do, we will be reborn countless times, almost always in a form stronger and more fully human that one that preceded it.
We have two challenges we need to face:

1. We need to cultivate passion for what we do.
2. We need to remove our protective armor and allow our students to shape us, reflecting on and learning from what we see. 

To be reshaped by what we do, is to become one with it. We can use the same ingredients as another great teacher, but without love we can not make it the same. We need to sing to our "gravy" or students, show them the love we have. One "loaf" at a time, each bread needs the time required to raise before we cook it.
How do we begin when there is no paved road for us to travel? Simple, we just begin. We need to trust in ourselves and our students. Be open to change and becoming the teacher and person we need to be!