What does it mean to me?To me, being an innovative practitioner is being flexible and using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) when planning, teaching, and assessing. As a teacher, I must be able to modify and differentiate lessons to fit my students and not expect my students to modify themselves to fit the lesson. This means, making lessons more flexible to my students and integrating new, innovative ways to keep students engaged. Students need innovative educators to become and remain consistently engaged, educated, and enriched.
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How can this be achieved?There are various ways to be an innovative practitioner in the classroom. I have been able to achieve innovation in my classroom by first and foremost learning who my students are, how they learn best and what keeps them engaged. In my experience, I have learned that many children learn better in small groups or centers rather than whole group. I have also learned to modify my instruction to keep students engaged and not overwhelmed, while still learning key core content.
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My experience:One of the resources I have been able to utilize is Splash Learn. Splash learn is a website that provides free access for teachers and their students in math. This website allows the teacher to assign different lessons to each student based on their needs. Students enjoy learning and reviewing their math skills on this website because it is interactive and has math games. I am also able to assign students math topics that they have not learned yet, for those students who need to be challenged in the classroom.
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