Individual+Differences


 * Stories about Individual Differences **

**Individual Differences (Rubina)** Students in my class were definitely different. There were students with learning disabilities, students who had emotional and social issues that they were fighting with everyday. There is this one student on an IEP who has problems which I was never told about. In class, he was incapable of socializing, keeping up with class work, listening during a lesson. During my 3 weeks there, I worked with this student independently to assess where he was standing in the class. There were also 3-4 with behaviour problems. They would talk out loud in class, whistle, walk around while I was talking, or would treat other students disrespectfully. There were also students who often got emotional; they set high academic standards for themselves and if they weren't met, they would cry… that was disheartening and stressful.

Without going into too much detail, there's a boy in my class who would most likely benefit from being identified. Some signs of this are that he doesn't make eye-contact, he fidgets constantly, and when he's frustrated or overwhelmed, he'll pull on his hair and make really obvious faces that he needs a change. His mother puts a lot of pressure on him to succeed (his older sister won several awards for her academic successes throughout school). Last year, his homeroom teacher mentioned to his mother that she should see if he can get identified (so the teachers can legally and ethically give him accommodations/modifications). She took it offensively. Luckily, my AT is well known among the teachers. When he brought up that this student might benefit from being identified, the idea seemed to somewhat jive with the mother.
 * A student who probably needed to be identified**

I created a worksheet for exponents with powers, base, exponent, expanded form and standard form columns. I added a column with words (2 to the power of 3, or 2 cubed, or cube of 2), so ESL students would know how it's said and may consult their dictionaries should they stumble upon an unknown word.
 * Added a word column (Doina)**

I just think it's incredibly fascinating how a student behaves differently when they understand material. For instance, I have this one student who always misbehaves (the class whistler). He will only pay attention if hes been told to, or when he actually finds it interesting. But what makes me laugh is when he actually understands something, and asks me a question about it - he behaves completely differently. For instance, he lowers his tone of voice (respectful) and he looks directly at me and says, "I understood most of it, but I am confused with certain things". After answering his problem and going through it with him, he gets excited and feels accomplished; I also reward him with a compliment. But as soon as I leave his table, he starts behaving the same way. I will have to go over to his table, ask him to have a seat and take out some work. ..............!!! Oh how I hate when they move out of their seats.
 * Personality change (Rubina)**

There were a number of students in my class that were identified with IEPs. This meant that there would essentially need to be a number of lessons created for one math lesson. Apparently most of the students with IEPs were doing a modified curriculum (Roughly a grade 6 math curriculum)**,** so it felt as though I were almost teaching a split class. I found it challenging (But rewarding) to teach both groups of students, and I always got a really good feeling when a student "got" the lesson.
 * Differences (Lisa)**

**Individual Differences (Michelle K)** Going into the placement I knew that we would have students with IEPs in our classrooms however, until being in the classroom I did not realize how many students with IEPs there would be in one class. In my homeroom class there were 10 students (of 32) who were identified as having IEPs. This was surprising to me. However, all though these students were identified, from gifted to learning strategies, communication problems to behavioural problems, it was even more surprising that there were so many students that could also be identified but yet were not. The experience, was an eye opener and a glimpse into what was needed in order to effectively teach a class with so many individual differences.

I could not believe how easy it was to tell when students are on medication. It shocked me also with how many students do take medication for a variety of reasons. Students came up with excuses to not take their medication, and the disruption within the class of them and those around them made it impossible to not notice. It was frustrating to teach a student who has the ability to act in a conducive manner within a learning environment, but they and their family have not taken the care or time to devote to giving them the best chance they have to succeed.
 * Differences in students and medications (Amy)**