I use learning stations because I think they offer a lot of opportunities for differentiated learning and they are good tools to engage the diverse population of students that we deal with on a daily basis. A student's entry point into a certain concept or ability at a given time is determined by their level of readiness.  All groupings must be flexible so that students can move to different groups at different points in time and that readiness for one concept or skill is not always an indication of readiness for another. It is also crucial that all students have the same learning targets or goals that they are working toward, that students are matched to tasks based on some type of pre-assessment data, and that all learning targets or goals are shared by all students. I planned for different learning styles by engaging students in conversation and questioning them as well as asking them to summarize lessons in their own words. This supported the auditory learners and the visual learners were accommodated by a variety of handouts and visual aids. The use of manipulatives, the presence or absence of models for a task, the addition or removal of scaffolding like instructor or peer coaching, are some approaches to make adjustments for student preparation.

To aid in differentiating assessment in the classroom one of the things I did, however minor, was to allow students to have input on test questions and actually come up with some of the questions on the multiple choice test that they were given. As far as accommodating assessments for gifted students, ones with special needs, ELL, or early finishers, I tried to skew the lessons to the interests of students wherever possible. I encouraged small group work and gave alternate higher and lower level readings, as well as giving pre-tests and allowing early finishers to read supplemental material.

There are so many technological tools available online for education that it is difficult to decide what to use. We try to grade new technology by looking at its relevance to the standards, its ease of use, ease of navigation, and accessibility. We used Google Classroom, our Whiteboard for demonstration purposes and video sharing, and students used their laptops in small group research and discussion. Students can use technology to acquire fundamental life skills as they start to develop as independent thinkers. Middle school students will become more independent if they have different teachers for each subject. It is possible to use technology to learn skills like performing research across all subject areas. Through a variety of search engines, websites like Easy Bib help students find reliable sources and show them how to properly cite those sources in order to prevent plagiarism.

Not every student picks up knowledge and retains it at the same rate or in the same way. With the use of technology, teachers may adapt their lessons to the diverse learning styles and capabilities of their students. Students who use technology are also able to work at their own pace.