I have traveled just 40 miles between districts, and already I am encountering a huge difference in the two schools I have been placed at.
Yesterday in a department meeting with RLA teachers, a teacher brought up an issue she is having with a parent of a gifted child. Differentiation is the topic, and whether or not teachers are trained well enough to be doing this and how much extra time this takes to do for every lesson. When I went to college, we were trained on differentiation and required to plan adaptations for both learning disabled and gifted kids. I realize that it takes extra time, but I believe that every student deserves the right to succeed, and that may mean providing a variety of activities to keep all levels of kids engaged during a lesson with the same objectives. There are some simple ways to tweak activities that would count as differentiation but not require a substantial amount of extra work on a teacher’s part. Because this is the way I was trained, it just takes me a couple of minutes to think of some adaptations to add to the end of a formal lesson plan. I am not always implementing these adaptations in class, but it will be easier to do so when I am in charge of my own classroom. Regardless, they are always there if they are needed. Writing a DEP, however, does not seem to fall within the realm of a teacher’s responsibilities. For IEP’s, the special education teacher writes those (with the aid of teachers, parents and the students) and it should be the same for gifted students and DEP’s.
There is politics at any school that you go to. That I know. The major difference between the two districts I have spent time in thus far is that instead of being concerned with a large population of ADHD or learning disabled students, we have parents concerned about their “gifted” child. That is amazing to me! I know there are talented students in every school, and parents who care in every district, but I think the amount of these populations change with location and socioeconomic status.
Despite the politics and issues that sometimes engulf a school, I have an important piece of wisdom to remember that was written to me in a letter from my first cooperating teacher: once you close the classroom door, it is just you and them, and that is where the magic happens. Strive to learn and grow with them, and to not “be a teacher” but “be yourself.” Do what you can to make the learning experience meaningful for all students in the room.
By: 
