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School / Work Affiliation: Author/Educational Consultant

Website: http://www.giftedconsultant.com

About Me: I taught science in overseas school for 5 years before returning to teach middle school science in Houston. I went to work in the gifted office in my district as a master teacher presenting staff development and working with teachers. I started to get lots of requests from other districts until I finally went out on my own. I still work with students through a thriving tutoring business.

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What is Differentiation - Really?

Posted on February 20, 2009 at 6:52am 2 Comments 0 Likes

There are a lot of books on the market to address this buzz word - differentiation. New teachers are told to be sure and differentiate while experienced teachers have sat through many a staff development which shared the theories – they may even be able to recite CarolAnn Tomlinson’s content, process, and product with great reverence. All that being said – what is it really?

I would like to propose that is a way of life. It can be studied; it can be analyzed but in order to be a… Continue

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At 7:15am on March 5, 2009, Mendy Gannon said…: Hi! I tried to post earlier, but it didn't go through. I appreciate your suggestion of the gameboard menu for a "work as you go" - I'm working on one now for the middle ages.

I think it will be perfect for my gifted students. What menu do you recommend for lower ability students who so many choices might overwhelm? Thanks for all of your help!

At 9:52am on February 21, 2009, Mendy Gannon said…: Thanks for the offer to bounce questions! I actually do something similar already with my notebooks - the students have a pool of assignments to choose from and can choose what goes on their "right hand pages" from that pool. Right now, I wondering how to make the menus "mesh" with what I'm already doing, and I'm thinking about saving pages after their current unit for the menu options for that unit.

So my question is - which menu ype do you think would be better suited for work as we go/cumulative project? I was almost leaning toward the 2-5-8, but I would love some feedback.

Also, could you point me in the direction of other menu types?