Last night, I got an incredible tweet from a parent in Alberta, @judana70. I’ve connected with this parent through Twitter thanks to @gcouros. Yesterday evening, we had a discussion about education, and I mentioned how much I love to teach. I gave her the link to a guest blog post that I did on Pernille Ripp’s blog describing my “aha moment” in education. This parent left a lovely comment on the post sharing her personal story too. It really made me think.

As teachers, we usually have over 20 students in our classes that all come to us with a variety of needs. Some of the students need enrichment, some are working at grade level, and some need additional support. Our job is to meet all of these needs and create an environment in which all students can be successful. Sometimes we need to change our teaching style in order to do this. Sometimes one thinks, why am I doing this for one student? What about the other 19? That’s when I started to reflect on the changes that I’ve made for one student, and I realized that all of these changes really do benefit all of the other students too.

At the bottom of all of my school e-mails, I include the signature, “If they don’t learn the way you teach, teach the way they learn.” Every time I send out an e-mail, I am reminded of the importance of doing this. Right now in math, I am teaching the students how to make the same number in different ways. I’m going to think of the issue presented here not in terms of 19 students + 1 student, but in terms 1+ 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1+ 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1+ 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1+ 1 + 1 + 1 + 1: every “one” counts. If you had to make your class into a number sentence, what would it be?

Aviva