Differentiated Teaching Experience

As I shared in my introduction, my classroom experience has been in the preschool setting. I have used many differentiated teaching and learning activities with them in the past I just never realized it called differentiation teaching and learning until I started this program. I found it extremely important to get to know all of your students, their interest, and learning needs in order to build trust. If the students trust you then they are more willing to take risks in their learning, which will lead to further learning. By knowing student interests and learning styles you can use that information to engage them in the content areas. I did this all the time with my students. I thrived on finding lessons based off the student interests. I would purposefully try to plan lessons or activities that I knew would “blow” their minds and really get them thinking! I would build off my student’s natural curiosity and interests. I found that this created an internal motivation to learn. I always love to see the wheels turning in their minds and the questions/reasoning they come up with about a topic. I feel that using these same strategies in an elementary school would be just as beneficial. Creating many new adventures in learning!

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Carrie. Welcome to my very first blog! I have been working in the early education field for 15+ years. I decided it was time for a change, so I decided to pursue my multiple subject credential and Masters in Education. This journey has been an adventure to say the least.  It has been a wild ride so far and just the challenge I was looking for professionally.  I have found a lot of similarities and many differences between the two fields. I am excited for all the adventures in store for me as I make this transition from Miss Carrie the preschool teacher to Miss Nichols the elementary school teacher!  

            I am a Northern California transplant; I moved to Southern California for college and never looked back. You simply can’t beat the weather! I love the beach and all ocean sports, especially scuba diving! There is something so calming about being in the deep blue water swimming with all the fish. I love to travel, and have been to 5 of the 7 continents. My favorite places are those, which include spectacular scuba diving spots. In my spare time I enjoy spending time with my nieces and nephews. You’re looking at the worlds best Auntie Eemo here!

 Two years ago I ran my first half marathon on a fluke! I found that I really enjoyed it and have since taken up running. Running is a activity in which I would have never pictured myself enjoying, but I caught the bug and have been doing it ever since. 

 One last fun fact about me is that I am a twin!