Brand Advocates 2019

You guys!  I'm so excited to continue the opportunity for you to get free products for your classroom from The Differentiation Shop!  Brand Advocates! 

Brand Advocates help to promote products for The Differentiation Shop in exchange for free digital products!  You will be the first to know about new products and also updates to already existing materials!

Here are the basics:

Everyone will:
- Receive one free product per month of participation from The Differentiation Shop
- Send pictures of the product being used in your educational setting
- Share the product on your social media pages
- Agree to preview 3 products over the course of 3 consecutive months

You will also choose one of these important tasks:
- Proofread all or part of a product, depending on the size
- Suggest additional ways to differentiate products to meet your needs
- Write a product review

To apply to become a Brand Advocate for The Differentiation Shop, click here!  If you are selected, you will be contacted by e-mail.  There are only a few spots open each quarter, depending on the need of the shop.  If you are not selected this quarter, please watch for next quarter's post and apply again!!

For the first quarter of 2019, The Differentiation Shop is need of teachers for grades 4-6 teaching language arts!  If this fits you, we'd love to hear from you!


If you are selected, you will receive an e-mail with a list of potential products to preview for the quarter and further directions on how to communicate with the shop!





Looking forward to working with you!

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Fair Isn't Equal

How many times have you heard students say, "That's not fair!" in your classroom??  Ugh!  Why can't they all just automatically know and trust that you have each of their best interests in mind?!?  Oh, right, they are kids.  Ok, ok.  So, let's teach them what fair REALLY means.

My definition of fair has always been - Fair means everyone gets what they need to be successful in this classroom.

Still, some kids do not care about that.  They want the "easy homework" or the "easy test".   That's just how some kids see it.   So, we have to show a different perspective to help kids see that providing appropriate work for students is not about what's easy or hard, it's about what a person needs.

When my dear friend Sarah and I co-taught together, we illustrated this point to our class in relation to visiting a doctor's office.  She is brilliant and gets ALL the credit for finding this great idea and making it work for us!!!

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Suggested Materials:

- Medical costume, because, come on, wearing costumes in school is just fun, although optional.  
- List of medical conditions (You can find a FREE page of these to use here.)
- Box of bandages

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Set the scene.  

You are the doctor.  The students are the patients.  

Each student is assigned a different medical condition from the list provided (or your own!). You will not likely need to use EVERY SINGLE student in your class for this, as kids will lose interest after a bit.  You know your kids, so you can determine an appropriate number.  We usually did around 5-8. 

Starting with the student who has a scratch, one at a time, students will come to the "doctor" to receive treatment.   The student will describe their symptoms, illness, or condition to the "doctor", and you, the "doctor" will hand them a bandaid and send them back to their seats.  No matter the condition.  No matter if it is a scratch, broken bone, stomach bug, etc.  And be super mater of fact about it!  "It's what we do for all patients.  It's fair for everyone to get the same thing.  Next!"  

Then you discuss why it is actually NOT fair that someone with ANYTHING OTHER THAN A SCRATCH would receive a bandage to heal.  It's not what the person NEEDED to get better.  It's not what they NEEDED to be successful in their recovery.

Next, discuss what fair WOULD look like from the doctor.  

And finally, apply that concept to class work.  Point out that we all have areas that are strengths and areas that are weaknesses.  All of us.  ALL. OF. US.  We all bring something different to the table, AND we all are expected to learn math, reading, science, whatever it is.  Our job is to make it fair, our NEW definition of fair, for everyone.

You will find some suggested talking points and questions to pose to your class here.

As a reminder, throughout the year, when any students complain about FAIR work, you can simply hand them a bandaid and walk away.  

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I would LOVE to hear how this goes in your class!  What changes did you make to make it work for you and your group?  How did the students react?  Did you see any changes?  

Brand Adovcates

You guys!  I'm so excited to tell you about a new opportunity for you to get free products for your classroom from The Differentiation Shop!  Brand Advocates!

Brand Advocates help to promote products for The Differentiation Shop in exchange for free digital products!  You will be the first to know about new products and also updates to already existing materials!

Here are the basics:

Everyone will:
- Receive one free product per month of participation from The Differentiation Shop
- Send pictures of the product being used in your educational setting
- Share the product on your social media pages
- Agree to preview 3 products over the course of 3 consecutive months

You will also choose one of these important tasks:
- Proofread all or part of a product, depending on the size
- Suggest additional ways to differentiate products to meet your needs
- Write a product review

To apply to become a Brand Advocate for The Differentiation Shop, click here!  If you are selected, you will be contacted by e-mail.  There are only a few spots open each quarter, depending on the need of the shop.  If you are not selected this quarter, please watch for next quarter's post and apply again!!

For the current quarter, The Differentiation Shop is need of teachers for grades 4-6 teaching math!  If this fits you, we'd love to hear from you!


If you are selected, you will receive an e-mail with a list of potential products to preview for the quarter and further directions on how to communicate with the shop!





Looking forward to working with you!

Becoming Archeologists

My oldest received a super cool gift for his birthday - Dig and Discover Kits for him and his brother!!!

These are from the One Spot at Target (love that area!!)!

The kids spent about an hour at a time for 3 or 4 days digging, using the proper tools to be careful with the "fossils", and learning about being a good scientist.  They would say, "I wonder how this dinosaur got here!"  "I wonder why the shark lost his tooth?"  I LOVE IT!!!  

I would definitely use this as a station during science lessons about fossils.  I found a site on Make Life Lovely for Homemade Fossil Digs!!  It looks really easy and fairly inexpensive.  What a great hands-on experience!!  

What questions would you ask your students to consider while digging for fossils?

STEM TIME - Design and Drill

Well, we've found another STEM toy that we are really enjoying!!  The kids' STEM recommendation right now is Design and Drill.  

This one is keeping BOTH kids busy creating while improving their fine motor skills.

It's really differentiated too, which of course I love.  It comes with these pattern cards for the kids to copy onto the board.  There is a range of easy to hard patterns to choose.  

My youngest isn't quite ready to follow the patterns yet, though, so he just creates his own designs.  Meaning he just shoves any color in that he happens to grab.  

There are also options for which tools to use - a socket wrench, screwdriver, and a drill.  So, depending on a child's fine motor skills, there will be an appropriate tool to use.  The variety of tools has also helped them to do a work together, except when they, of course, fight over who gets to use which tool.  There's always something, huh?

It has been a great tool for increasing their focus time, too.  At the end of each work, the kids are expected to put the work away in the same way they found it to make sure it's ready for the next person.  Removing all of the screws is pretty time consuming, but we stick with it!  I'm hoping that this one day translates to their toys, books, and clothes too.  **Sigh**  One thing at a time.  

Have you found any great STEM toys for creating?  What do your kids love?