My background is special education. As other special educators know, we are experts making content accessible to all students no matter their learning style, needs, strengths, and weaknesses. Special educators are trained to modify content and make accommodations for students. Essentially, I feel confident that I can lead professional development in differentiated instruction within our school community. I can provide support to teachers in how to modify content, process, product, and environment in order to individualize instruction for our students.
I have also trained my colleagues in the implementation of school- wide progress monitoring and data based decision making. We worked with all staff members to collect data on individuals and groups of students, design and implement interventions for students, and track the effectiveness of these interventions over time.
No doubt I can lead the staff in differentiated instruction and data based decision making. I do continue to battle with finding time to lead in these areas. However, I can find time to lead by increasing the amount of time I allot to walkthroughs, providing systematic feedback to teachers, and by making this knowledge easily accessible to teachers through conversations, my webpage, and social media.
How do you find time to lead teaching and learning in your school?
