Category: Differentiating Instruction

Practical strategies for accommodating a wide range of learner preferences, modality preferences, learning styles, and personalities and temperaments.

Basic Brain Gym Exercises
By Categories: ADD/ADHD, Behavior Management, Body and Brain, Differentiating Instruction, Learning, Learning styles, Life Management, Non-traditional learners, Parents, Special Needs, Teaching Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

4 simple activities to wake up the brain These are the four core Brain Gym exercises, also referred to as PACE exercises (Positive, Active, Clear, Energetic). I have described these exercises as they were taught to me. There are dozens of videos and PDFs with these and other Brain Gym exercises available since I first…

Presentation: Motivating the Unmotivated
By Categories: Avoiding power struggles, Building responsibility, Classroom management, Counselors, Creating community, Differentiating Instruction, Educators, Emotionally safe schools, Feedback and encouragement, Increasing Positivity, Learning styles, Motivating cooperation, Motivating your kids, Non-traditional learners, Parents, Recognition and reinforcement, School climate, Social and Emotional Growth, Win-win authority Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Getting past defenses, disinterest, and disengagement Presentation by Dr. Jane Bluestein Of all the challenges teachers face, the one mentioned most consistently over the years has been, “How do I engage kids who aren’t motivated and just don’t care?” Few things are more frustrated that having your planning and enthusiasm met with groans, shrugs, or eye…

Increasing Success for ALL Students
By Categories: ADD/ADHD, Body and Brain, Differentiating Instruction, Educators, Learning, Learning styles, Non-traditional learners, Parents, Special Needs Leave a comment

Strategies for changing or maintaining the students’ level of alertness and attentiveness There will be times when your students are starting to drift off or glaze over but you need their attention for a few more minutes before the bell rings. Or they come in all wound up and you need them to settle down…

Your Personal Learning Preferences
By Categories: Differentiating Instruction, Educators, Learning, Learning styles, Non-traditional learners, Parents, Special Needs Leave a comment

A brief self-assessment As a part of many of my presentations (including nearly all full-day seminars and keynotes that address different ways people learn), I poll the audience to give participants a sense of differences that exist within the group. Even with small groups, the responses tend to be all over the map. Because I…

Jane Bluestein Discusses Emotionally Safe Schools
By Categories: Assessment and Testing, Body and Brain, Counselors, Creating community, Culture and Community, Differentiating Instruction, Educators, Emotionally safe schools, Health and Safety, School climate, Social and Emotional Growth, Taking care of yourself, Tolerance and Respect Leave a comment

Interview by Kate Bedford ©2001 Kate Bedford, Six Seconds Jane Bluestein is an award winning author and speaker. Her newest book, Creating Emotionally Safe Schools, is a comprehensive look at how we can make any educational institution safer— from an emotional, academic, behavioral, social, and physical standpoint. Formerly an inner-city classroom teacher, crisis-intervention counselor, and…

Myers-Briggs Scales and Categories
By Categories: Differentiating Instruction, Educators, General Interest, Learning, Learning styles, Non-traditional learners, Parents, Special Needs Leave a comment

Personality inventory scales and categories The Myers-Briggs assesses where we place on the following four scales: E<——————>I Extrovert<——————–>Introvert N<——————>S Intuiting<———————–>Sensing T<——————>F Thinking<———————–>Feeling J<——————>P Judging<———————->Perceiving (Finish Oriented)<———–>(Process Oriented) The four scales above allow for a possible 16 combinations with variations within any one category depending on the placement or strength in any one scale. David Kiersey’s…

Myers-Briggs Personality Types
By Categories: Body and Brain, Differentiating Instruction, Educators, Learning, Learning styles, Non-traditional learners, Parents, Special Needs Leave a comment

Descriptions of personality inventory categories Overview of David Kiersey’s four temperament groups, based on the 16 Myers-Briggs categories (which is only one of over 200 “quadrant models”). Note that people in each group share certain similarities in their reality and their approach to the world, and that the people in one group operate from a…

Multiple Intelligences
By Categories: Body and Brain, Differentiating Instruction, Educators, Learning, Learning styles, Non-traditional learners, Parents, Special Needs Leave a comment

Many ways to be smart Here is a very brief overview of Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, or different ways of being “smart.” Linguistic Skill with words; using language, expressing with words, either written or spoken, and understanding what is said or written. Related skills might include storytelling, memorizing, writing, discussing, debating, journaling, oration and reading….

Test Time
By Categories: Assessment and Testing, Body and Brain, Counselors, Differentiating Instruction, Educators, Emotionally safe schools, Learning, Learning styles, Non-traditional learners, School climate, Schools in Society, Teaching Leave a comment

Bringing balance and sanity to our schools How often do you hear yourself urging a student, “Come on, you have to learn this. It’s going to be on the test!”? I hear this appeal in classrooms all the time, and am certainly guilty of having uttered it myself. Still, I have to laugh, because after…

Ways to Reach More Students
By Categories: Body and Brain, Differentiating Instruction, Educators, Emotionally safe schools, Homework, Learning styles, Non-traditional learners, Parents, Special Needs Leave a comment

Accommodating a variety of learners While these tips were originally developed with regard to classroom environments, they are also relevant to parents (think about how and where kids do homework), and apply to learners of all ages. • Build on student strengths; teach to a variety of intelligences and abilities • Respect different types of…