Preparing for Teaching Differentiation

Center for Global Education

 Marymount University, Arlington, Virginia

This afternoon, Kelsey, Kristina, Kara and me (Sue), met at Reinsch Library to plan our Professional Development Presentation on Differentiation for the teachers at the Arlington Academy of Hope near Mbale, Uganda. What was evident from the moment we started talking, was our excitement to share our teaching experiences with the staff at AAH. We look forward to getting to know the teachers and their students, so that we can offer effective Differentiation strategies for their practice. All of us anticipate a valuable and unique learning experience that we will remember throughout our careers as educators. 

We also tried to focus on the educational needs of the students at AAH, although we acknowledged that our understanding at this point is somewhat limited. This didn't deter our robust brainstorming, which led us from defining Differentiation, to contemplating how best to teach the instructional process from pre-assessing to post-assessing, as well as including diverse learning styles and the importance of higher-order thinking skills. If we missed metacognition, we'll include it next time we plan! In a very short period of time, we had many ideas for structuring and supporting our presentation.

As we prepare for our time in Uganda, we wondered about how we can best collaborate with the teachers at AAH and the outreach schools. The conversation also kept returning to our anticipation of meeting the students who attend AAH. The opportunities we will have to interact and teach the children of this community will be the highlight of our trip to Uganda. We are confident that our collaboration with AAH's teachers will positively benefit their students' lifelong love of learning. 

Thank you, Sue.