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The world is in constant change and so is education.

Why is this challenge important?

It is important because nowadays we could see that educational trends change the face of education. With the introduction of digital education and educational applications, the traditional art of teaching and learning has undergone significant change. Long believed to be a redundant method of obtaining information and sagacity, this attitude is slowly shifting among the general public. Mobile educational applications, massive open online courses, and digital textbooks at the tip of your fingertips have aided learning and education in unprecedented ways.

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Challenge: How to Prevent Getting Burn Out Easily (For Teachers and Students)

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Challenge: How to Prevent Getting Burn Out Easily (For Teachers and Students)

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One of the challenges of both students and teachers is experiencing burnout. There is a misconception that students at younger years don't experience such things because they are too young for them to know what burnout means. On the other hand, teachers do also experience burnout due to stress and other factors which could contribute to it. Teachers do need to find ways to control stressors and release stress which could lead to severe burnout.

Why is this challenge is important?

This challenge is important for the reason that we are living in an era where change is fast and both students and teachers needs to cope up with the changing trends, that's why both of the students and teachers experience burnout. This resources will give the idea and knowledge what burnout means and how we could deal with them. Letting the burnout eat us up will lead to serious cases that's why it is a must to educate about this kind of concern and take immediate action to address this issue.

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Resource 1.1: Changing Educational Trends (Journal Article)

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Resource 1.1: Changing Educational Trends (Journal Article)

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Title: How certain educational trends are changing the face of education

Overview: This article focuses on the the different types of educational trends and its descriptions.

Author: Avik Mallick

Reading Time: 15 to 20 minutes

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The orthodox art of teaching & learning has beheld a remarkable change in recent times with the advent of digital education & educational apps. Long thought to be a redundant means of acquiring knowledge and sagacity this perception is ever so slightly changing amongst the masses. Mobile educational apps, massive open online courses, and digital textbooks available at the tip of your fingers have facilitated learning and education in a way that was previously unheard of. Educational apps are more interactive in the sense that anyone with a smart-phone can access knowledge and connect to peers and mentors alike. One very notable change is that students have also become active contributors in this endeavour instead of just being passive assimilators of knowledge in classrooms. This new perspective has been accompanied with the development of the educational app development industry. There are a plethora of educational apps available today from lesson planning software, tools for teaching and learning, revision blogs, some of which some are more notable than the others. Here is a list of the top educational trends that are contributing and leading the way in an era of rapid change.

Remote learning as the name suggests is a model which allows students to attend school or any institute of learning virtually. Students can attend classes from the comfort of their homes through video and access subject matter & content online. Remote learning usually employs the use of various technologies such as class forums, discussion sites and threads, video conferencing classes, pre-recorded videos, and solution sites. Much like students, the teachers can also be made to mentor or be brought in remotely. With Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC's) available on platforms such as Khan Academy, YouTube Edu, iTunes U, Coursera, edX, Udacity, and Udemy, the popularity of remote learning has increased by leaps and bounds. As a result, students have access to a wider scope of knowledge and in the process it becomes customised to the needs and demands of every student.

One of the bigger players and one of the more important trends on this list, Big Data is commendable for its flexibility and it has allowed us to mould our conventional style of teaching and learning. All of the mobile devices and apps that we use can be linked together to deliver an endless supply of pertinent data. The most useful perk of Big Data is that it supplies real-time information that can be put to use and applied to classrooms immediately.

Personalised Learning

Today, the single most advantageous perk from a student's viewpoint in the process of learning is that it can be customised to every student's needs. As such learning has been personalised to cater to student's needs now more than ever. Blended learning places the ball in the learner's court by giving them more responsibility. It involves more discovery-based methods of learning. Blended learning gives the students the freedom to move through the course material at their own pace. It gives students a certain feeling of control and makes them more confident in their approach. Today education can be tailor-made to suit each individual's needs. This kind of adaptive learning has another benefit as it collects information about the behavioural pattern of students when it comes to learning and how they're answering questions, and then it subsequently uses that information to provide instant feedback in order to adjust the learning experience accordingly.

As the term suggests, gamification was conceived in order to make learning more fun and engaging for students of all ages by applying game design to different aptitude tasks. As technology progresses, it is increasingly being used to augment game design and educational games in every discipline. Because such games often contain tasks mirroring real life issues, it requires students to use a skill-set to solve them which help them in developing different aspects of their personality. Virtual game worlds present learners with a novel opportunity to apply their newfound knowledge which helps improve decision-making, mitigating minor hurdles or major disasters, and consider multiple perspectives. The notion was to apply the traditional game system which was used to provide challenges, rewarding winners. The tasks became gradually tougher as you progressed to the next 'level'.

Mind mapping is a technique in teaching where circled ideas are linked together with lines, which enables the students to understand the subject better and make it easier to recall what they learnt. Think of it as a cue-card or an info-graphic where information and knowledge is kept brief and associated to a symbol or a picture to make it easier to remember. Because of its graphic content it makes it easier for the human mind to comprehend and remember the subject better. With software like Mindmeister or Brainstormer, this has become increasingly easier. The maps can also be easily shared.

The global market for educational apps is increasing every day along with increased reception for the aforementioned educational trends. While it is dubious that the tablet will ever replace the paper there is no denying the fact that these trends are very helpful and are becoming increasingly more popular among students of all ages. Over the years these trends have improved self-learning as they are convenient and easy and provide a range of different learning styles. In the years to come educational apps and new emerging trends can move on to be the future of learning.

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How certain educational trends are changing the face of education

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Popular opinion which once dictated that nothing will ever replace the paper has now found its opinions revised with the advancement of technology. Mobile educational apps, massive open online courses, and digital textbooks available at the tip of your fingers have facilitated learning and education in a way that was previously unheard of.

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Note to the library user about resource 1.1:

This article will help you understand how each type of educational trend changes the face of education

What I like about this resource:

It gives detailed information about each educational trend.

What I don’t like about this resource:

Examples of each education trend are limited.

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Resource 1.2: Changing  Educational Trends (News Article)

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Resource 1.2: Changing  Educational Trends (News Article)

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Title: The increasing struggle of Philippine Education

Instructor: Sara Soliven De Guzman

Overview: This article focuses on the Philippines' problems with educational challenges due to the pandemic.

Reading Time: 15-20 minutes

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The reality that we face today in the field of education is daunting. Last year, Save the Children organization warned us of an "unprecedented global education emergency," where more than 1 billion children around the world are out of school due to the pandemic and almost 10 million children may never return to school following the COVID-19 lockdown.

In the Philippines, the Department of Education (DepEd) expected a drop of 20 percent of enrollment last school year. Online schooling was a great challenge to teachers who were not familiar with the digital world and, worse, who do not even have the technology and equipment. Students' access to computers and internet connection was the biggest concern. The public school system had to remove 60 percent of their curriculum content to adjust to the remote learning approach.

Schools were fighting a battle unknown and even with very clear convictions - that is to "fight for the cause of the children" - many were lost and fell short of their expectations. After a year of online education, quite a few schools have decided to close down. Many students did not complete the school year. In other words, we saw the drop-out rate rising to extremes. Students struggled and either failed or were simply given passing grades. The online asynchronous learning and module learning platforms failed. These problems were all compounded by the teacher's training for online education, the school's internet capabilities and technical preparation. Not to mention that online program did not quite sustain the students' attention and interest.

A mother from an exclusive private school was hysterical because her son totally blocked off his education. She was devastated that the school only gave once a week lectures of 2-3 hours per subject area while the rest of the week the child was forced to do worksheets through a self-learning process.

Another mother whose daughter studies in a public school said, "The teacher was always late. If not late, absent, I can count the number of contact hours they had on my fingers for the whole school year. My daughter did not learn anything. I'm sure she will have difficulty in the next grade level."

How can our school children under basic education progress if their teachers do not understand their mental and emotional needs? Children from 0-18 years old should be guided by trained adults. They should not be taught like college students. They are still in a process of becoming. Modular and asynchronous learning must stop. This is one of the reasons why our country's educational system is going downhill.

A week ago, DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones demanded an apology from the World Bank after the results of an education survey conducted in 2018 showing gaps in Philippine education was published. Of course, World Bank was quick enough to apologize but that doesn't mean the issue of concern has ended. We must confront our issues with open minds instead of denying the truth. What lies ahead of our country's future is bleak. If the report was from 2018 data, I bet an updated report covering SY 2019-2020 and SY 2020-2021 will even be worse. The secretary must confront the problem and stop sugarcoating it.

What exactly did the World Bank report contain? It noted that majority of 15-year-olds do not understand fractions; that only 10 percent of Filipino fifth graders were at par with global standards due to students' limited proficiency in the language of instruction, which is mostly in English; that bullying was prevalent across all levels and that school officials were not aware of the gravity of the violence in schools.

Basically, the report enumerated the gaps in our educational system. But this is something that we already know. What we do not know is how the present online system succeeded in both the public and private sectors. How many students completed the school year and how many students passed/ failed?

During the Laging Handa public briefing, Secretary Briones said that the DepEd is "ready" for another school year. In an interview with dzBB, DepEd Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio said that the DepEd has been working on strengthening the weaknesses identified in the blended learning system adopted last year. These are correcting the errors in the learning modules, reproducing the learning modules especially for schools with damaged if not lost modules due to typhoons that caused flooding and other calamities, capacity building for evaluators so that they can improve on their work and having more learning evaluators.

When asked about what system does DepEd have to ensure that learning modules are appropriate for the students, he said that the agency has a memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Normal University for quality assurance. Susmariosep!

Honestly, I feel that there are many things DepEd is not reporting. All they have mentioned are surface problems. They do not want us to know the deeply rooted problems that continue to exist in their bureaucracy.

* * *

The most important problem of the day that demands our attention is the question of quality education in our country. Many respectable international institutions have pointed to this vital area of concern but our own leaders seem to be unfazed by it. Why must we continue to deny the truth? Why can't we face and accept it with open arms? We've had these problems from time immemorial which have not been successfully resolved from the past administrations up to the present. The problem is deeply rooted and if we do not change our ways, they will persist.

All the country's questions relating to education are vital problems that must be met and solved by Congress and Senate. Twenty-five centuries ago, when states were still beginning to flourish and still in the infancy period, a Greek philosopher declared that the foundation of every state is the education of its youth. That was true then, it has been true down the centuries and it is true now even to a greater extent, for education is the most important and greatest factor of modern civilization and progress.

Our leaders must not forget that schools are the vanguards as well as the rear guards of civilization; it goes boldly on to achieve new victories while at the same time it guards and garrisons territories that have been won and then transmits them as a precious heritage to our children and grandchildren.

I hope the problem in education we face today appeals to the sense of duty and responsibility of our leaders in all branches of government.

God bless our country!

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The increasing struggle of Philippine education

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The reality that we face today in the field of education is daunting. Last year, Save the Children organization warned us of an "unprecedented global education emergency," where more than 1 billion children around the world are out of school due to the pandemic and almost 10 million children may never return to school following the COVID-19 lockdown.

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Note to the library user about resource 1.2:

This article discusses the educational challenges our country is struggling with and how the quality of our education in the country is the most important problem that demands our attention.

What I like about this resource:

It provides authentic information from the students’ parent’s perspective.

It discusses how modular and asynchronous learning affects the student’s life.

What I don’t like about this resource:

None

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Challenge: Balancing Diverse Learning Needs

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Challenge: Balancing Diverse Learning Needs

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A key challenge for all teachers is catering simultaneously for all the different learning needs.

Why is this challenge important?

It is important to recognize that every child is an individual with unique characteristics, needs, and developmental pathways. Addressing the diverse needs of learners will help to ensure that access to education is not compromised by poverty, social class, gender, race, and learning disability. However, satisfying all of them in the same way while approaching a particular curriculum will be a serious challenge. Thus, it is important for teachers to create interventions, and find ways to successfully balance the diverse learning needs of students.

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Resource 2.1: Balancing Diverse Learning Needs (Journal Article)

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Resource 2.1: Balancing Diverse Learning Needs (Journal Article)

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Title: Teaching Learners With Diverse Needs in the Foundation Phase in Gauteng Province, South Africa

Author: Dikeledi Mahlo

Overview: This article focuses on the factors that are considered by teachers in the foundation phase as barriers to catering of learners with diverse needs.

Reading time: 15-20 minutes

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Note to the library user about resource 2.1:

This qualitative study is a good start to help you understand and realize the factors or barriers that make balancing diverse learning needs challenging for teachers.

What I like about this resource:

●      It provides authentic information from the teachers' experiences.

●      It discusses the teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education.

What I don't like about this resource:

●      The respondents are only limited to teachers who are teaching in the Foundation Phase.

●      Teaching strategies that can help teachers to address diverse learning needs were not discussed in the article.

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Resource 2.2: Diverse Learning Needs (Webpage)

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Resource 2.2: Diverse Learning Needs (Webpage)

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Title: How Teachers Can Balance Diverse Learners in a Packed Classroom

Author: Heather Myers

Overview: This page emphasizes the importance of embracing the differentiated classroom, and provides ways you can enhance your classroom experience to work with high achievers, gifted learners, and struggling students.

Reading time: 10-15 minutes

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As classroom sizes grow, teachers are contending with more learning styles and abilities in one room. This is especially prevalent in elementary schools, where students are sorted based on age rather than knowledge level. This creates classroom management problems, where teachers are left trying to challenge high-performers while making sure struggling students keep up.

How can teachers balance incredibly diverse learners when there is only one of you in the room? Here's what other leading educators do and how you can learn from them.

Understanding the Different Learners in Your Classroom

Before you start changing your classroom, it's important to understand your learners. A student that you think is struggling or is an underachiever might be smarter than you realize.

There's a difference between high-performing and gifted students, writes Carol Bainbridge, Purdue University NW instructor and former board member of the Indiana Association for the Gifted. High-performers are well-organized, have good time-management skills, and tend to be well-behaved. Many high-achievers are gifted, but not all. Similarly, not all gifted students are high-performers. Some gifted students can be underperformers or self-motivated, meaning they won't care about assignments that don't interest them.

"Gifted students often frustrate teachers because they don't quite live up to their potential, especially in classes that are too easy for them," says Chris Croll, school board member for Loudoun County Public Schools and founder of the National Center for Gifted Services. "Gifted children often have poor executive function skills so they lose homework and don't know how to study for exams." She adds that a surprising number of gifted students drop out of high school and never make it to college.

Creating a Gifted Classroom

Teachers need to create a classroom environment for their gifted students, as well as their high-achievers and their struggling students. You're never just teaching smart and not-so-smart kids. Students have abilities and skills, along with intelligence levels, that complicate how they respond to teaching.

For example, your high achievers might confidently complete a page of math problems, but your gifted kids could get frustrated by the same assignment. "Gifted students don't need to do 25 problems in math when they can do the five most difficult first to demonstrate mastery," explains gifted education consultant Dina Brulles, Ph.D., co-author of "Flexible Grouping and Collaborative Learning."

Putting the most difficult problems first is a way teachers can challenge their gifted students while compacting the curriculum. Students that complete those problems are excused from doing the rest. If you're working in a small group with gifted students, they can move more quickly through content and move onto more challenging topics.

Don't Forget the High Achievers

Educators often focus on struggling students and gifted students who need extra attention. This leaves the high achievers, who are doing everything right, ignored.

Robert Pondiscio, senior fellow at the Fordham Institute, says educators tend to ignore high-achieving students because they know they can count on them. These students will do what they are asked, regardless of whether or not the teacher is watching them. Unfortunately, this disproportionately affects students from low-income neighborhoods who might otherwise climb to excellence with the right tutelage. He agrees with a Fordham report which states: "High-achieving students - especially those growing up in poverty - need all of the attention they can get."

When high achievers are taken for granted, they're not getting the positive reinforcement they need for doing great work. This can make them not want to try as hard in the future - turning them into average learners.

Interestingly, low achievers and high achievers tend to view the classroom differently, Jelena writes at Nobel Coaching. While high achievers want to succeed and excel, low-achievers want to avoid failure. They don't want to disappoint their parents and teachers and try to avoid the embarrassment of failing in front of their peers.

Identifying the Quitting Points of Your Students

Instead of defining your students in terms of how smart they are, consider how they approach problems. You will likely find that some stick to a concept for hours if you let them, while others will give up if they get bored or can't immediately grasp the concept.

Teachers Adam Chamberlin and Sveti Matejic co-authored the book "Quit Point," in which they discuss what makes students quit and how teachers can "hack their classrooms" to identify the point at which their students quit. One of the first concepts they emphasize is that each student has their own quit point - and that point is constantly changing.

They use the metaphor of reading to explore this. There are times when you can't put a good book down. If a book is hard going, though, you read it more slowly or in smaller chunks. Some people will give up on the book entirely. The same concept applies to other things. Students might stick to one concept if they want to succeed and fight to get it, while others might quit as soon as they encounter a roadblock.

A student's quitting point doesn't only apply to math class and other core subjects, but to artistic programs as well. About half of the students who pick up musical instruments at the start of the year quit playing by the end of the year. Trombonist and music educator Anthony Mazzocchi says one reason students quit is because they don't think they're talented, but there are other reasons. Parents don't emphasize music as important and get tired of forcing kids to play. Meanwhile kids don't think the instrument is fun, mostly because the music they play isn't aligned to their interests, plus their teachers don't give them enough opportunities to perform.

As an educator, you can only hope to move the points at which students quit for good. For struggling students, this means encouraging them to keep trying even when they fail. For gifted students, this means trying to keep them interested.

Embracing the Differentiated Classroom

Once you focus on extending the quitting points of students, you can start to change your classroom. One way that teachers can accommodate high and low achievers in the same classroom is with differentiated instruction. This is the concept of breaking up the class so different learners can learn at their own speed. Low achievers can take their time with concepts while gifted students can work ahead on new concepts.

Professor Carol Ann Tomlinson at the University of Virginia, author of "Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom," says teachers can work with four elements in the classroom to develop a differentiated learning environment. These are:

Content. The concepts that students need to learn (and the resources available to them).

Process. The activities and steps students will take to absorb the information.

Products. Tools and opportunities for students to review and apply the materials.

Learning environment. The way the classroom looks and how students feel.

These elements work together to develop student-centered instruction, where the teacher adapts to the students, rather than expecting all students to adapt to one learning style.

Providing choices for students is key for developing a differentiated classroom, agrees Todd Finley, professor of English Education at East Carolina University. This approach gives students freedom to choose how they learn, while maintaining structure in the learning environment. A few examples of giving students choices include:

Allow students to choose how they learn: in pairs, groups, or individuals.

Allow students to choose what they answer: answering their choice of three questions out of five.

Allow students to choose what they study and focus on (within certain limits).

With these steps, students are engaged in the learning process, which extends their quitting point.

If the concept of a differentiated classroom seems confusing or overwhelming, know that there are resources out there to test this model. For example, Marcus Guido at Prodigy shares 20 examples of teacher-developed strategies you can apply to your class.

Extra Tips for Balancing Different-Leveled Learners

There are additional ways you can enhance your classroom experience to work with high achievers, gifted learners, and struggling students. Here are five best practices that some teachers have shared on they improve their learning environments.

Develop a Growth Mindset

As you build your classroom, focus on student growth and development at every level. The Common Core and other guidelines often force teachers to create a "yes or no" classroom where students either know the material or don't. High achievers rest on their laurels while struggling students are left behind.

By creating a growth mindset, every student, regardless of their level, has room to improve. Struggling students can see themselves improve and high achievers can develop a love of learning. Donna Wilson, Ph.D., and Marcus Conyers, Ph.D., authors of "Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains," share a how-to guide for educators who want to implement these ideas into their classrooms.

Test Spiraling Content

Math teacher Michelle Russell implemented a concept called "spiraling content" in her class. This is when you provide spaced practice, assigning homework that reinforces concepts from past lessons. This gives lower achieving students a refresher and chance to catch up plus the confidence to move ahead with new concepts. In this way, the material spirals out, instead of being seen once and never again.

For gifted students, you might consider adding a question or two from upcoming chapters for extra credit so they can challenge themselves with new material.

Let Your High Achievers Help Their Peers

Elementary teacher Erin Beattie encourages teachers to let high achieving students teach. She says the best way to prove you know something is to teach it to someone else. By pairing high achievers with struggling students, you can hone their peer-to-peer teaching skills while giving the rest of the class a support system. In this way, you also reward high achievers for their knowledge and hard work.

Be Specific With Your Compliments

If you do reward your students, let them know what they are doing well and how you value it. Instead of telling students they're smart, Steve Miller, instructor of philosophy at Kennesaw State University and founder of Legacy Educational Resources, says you can compliment them on having an extensive vocabulary.

Specific compliments change the idea that "smart" is something you either are or aren't. It allows teachers to show students exactly what they're good at and that they can be good at multiple things.

Don't Force Kids to Focus on One Goal

In an article on high-achieving adolescents, Kathryn Grubbs, academic counselor at University of Washington, examines the concept of multipotentiality. This is the idea that students are likely to have multiple interests and goals in life. She cites a TED Talk by career coach Emilie Wapnick (founder of Puttylike.com) on why some of us don't have one true calling, especially because so many people in our modern workforce change their jobs several times throughout their lives.

"Asking your child what she wants to be when she grows up can feel overwhelming not just because your child may not know, but because it may feel like she has to choose one thing," Wapnick says. By encouraging students to excel in multiple ways, instead of siloing them in something they are good at, you free them expand their knowledge and continue to grow.

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How Teachers Can Balance Diverse Learners in a Packed Classroom | Ozobot

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As classroom sizes grow, teachers are contending with more learning styles and abilities in one room. This is especially prevalent in elementary schools, where students are sorted based on age rather than knowledge level. This creates classroom management problems, where teachers are left trying to challenge high-performers while making sure struggling students keep up.

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Note to the library user about resource 2.2:

If you want to know what other leading educators do in balancing diverse learners in a classroom, this webpage might help you learn from them.

What I like about this resource:

●      It shares insights and know-how of outstanding educators.

●      It provides different approaches, examples, and tips on how teachers can balance diverse learners.

What I don't like about this resource:

●      It does not give emphasis on the inclusion of students with disabilities.

●      It does not provide new creative options in teaching diverse learners like the use of technologies to support learning.

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Challenge 1 - Changing Educational Trends
Challenge 2 - Diverse Learning Needs
Challenge 3 - How to prevent getting burnt out easily (for teachers and students)

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Resource 2.3: Diverse Learning Needs (Video)

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Resource 2.3: Diverse Learning Needs (Video)

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Title: Using Technologies to Support Diverse Learning Needs

Source: Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium - ERLC

Overview: This is a video documentary of students, teachers, and school staff in an Alberta K-6 School about the use of technologies to create new options for differentiating instructions and supporting students' participation.

Viewing time: 6 minutes and 9 seconds

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Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium - ERLC

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Using Technologies to Support Diverse Learning Needs

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Note to the library user about resource 2.3:

If you'd like to watch the success stories of students and teachers in the use of technologies to support diverse learning needs, this video might interest you! Teachers and school staff in an Alberta K-6 School discuss the importance of providing students with the technology tools they need in order to be successful learners.

What I like about this resource:

●      It is very informative and inspiring as teachers and students share their experiences about the use of technologies to support diverse learning needs.

●      School staff are thinking of ways to support the continuity of this program to ensure learners' continuous success.

What I don't like about this resource:

●      The variety of technology used by students in this video is limited.

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Resource 2.4: Diverse Learning Needs (Webpage)

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Resource 2.4: Diverse Learning Needs (Webpage)

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Title: 7 creative ways to teach diverse learners

Author: Mary Dean

Overview: This page provides a compilation of many tried-and-true, research-based, and teacher-approved techniques in teaching diverse learners.

Reading Time: 5-10 minutes

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Classroom teachers and other specialists seem to be on a constant search to find creative ways to teach diverse learners. This label is a catchall assigned to many different types of students because of their culture or race, religion, academic ability, native language, or socioeconomic status, among other considerations.

In general, the term represents one who differs from the majority of students in some way when it comes to their education.

The law protects many of the groups mentioned above when it comes to the type of education they should receive. According to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), meeting the needs of diverse learners is a responsibility, not a bonus. Many teachers have committed to making sure that all students receive an equal and adequate education. But it's figuring out how to provide this that's the tricky part.

This article is a compilation of many tried-and-true, research-based, and teacher-approved techniques that can make figuring out how to teach to diverse learners a lot easier.

7 things you can do to teach diverse learners

1. Make an IEP cheat sheet

Individualized education plans (IEP) are lengthy, detailed documents. Even if you start the year gung-ho and read every IEP plan delivered to you, it's highly unlikely that you'll memorize and retain every single accommodation required.

To save yourself the time of having to go back and read the plans repeatedly - or worse, forgetting to provide what the law requires - you should take some time to make an IEP cheat sheet. Doing so will allow you to store reminders about important special education for a student on a single page. The benefit? Fewer headaches for you and a greater understanding of ways to reach and teach diverse learners.

Most educators have created at least one lesson where they thought, "This is great - I can't wait to teach this!" Then, they took it into the classroom, and the kids either didn't get it or wouldn't participate. This demonstrates a teaching fact that should be shared with all newbies: A good lesson written to state standards isn't good enough.

It can be challenging to keep students engaged and actively involved. This is especially true for students who struggle with learning, speak English as a second language, or have trouble focusing. The solution? Incorporate active learning strategies. Michigan State University's Office of Medical Education Research and Development suggests the following as a way to teach diverse learners:

Group learning

Case-based learning

Group discussions and talk-and-turns

One-minute papers and one-sentence summaries

Demonstrations and memory matrixes

The "muddiest point" is a personal favorite of mine; it hat asks students to write notes on the most unclear or most confusing part of a lesson, assignment, or project. Then, you address these issues with students.

3. Embrace small group and learning stations

I will never forget the first year I taught fourth grade as a self-contained instructor. I had been teaching third grade at that particular school for a couple of years and decided to move up a grade to teach with two of my favorite co-workers. When I found out they liked to teach math in small groups, I instantly thought that the move was a mistake. You should teach math to the whole class at once, I thought. That's the way we learned it, wasn't it? Thankfully, I was wrong.

Here's how this might look in a classroom:

I split my class of 20 into five mixed-ability groups. Students also sat in these groups daily since the desk layout was also in groups of four. Every day during math, I would do a whole-class introductory lesson that served as a lead-in for what we would learn. This covered the basics. Then, students would look at the whiteboard and determine where their group was to start on the center rotation. My setup included:

Teacher Table: Daily Lesson (I taught this to each group).

Table 2: Math Facts in a Flash (handheld games/tablets practicing math facts).

Table 3: Review Roundup (worksheets/games that review concepts students already understood).

Table 4: Dice and Card Center (you can find tons of these activities on Teachers Pay Teachers).

Table 5: Create a Test/Writing Prompt/Journaling (activities vary, but create a test requires students to pull a topic such as addition, subtraction, etc. and then create math problems and an accompanying answer sheet).

Students rotated tables clockwise at my signal (with a timer, of course) until everyone had been to the teacher table. The results were amazing! All students, including my diverse learners, understood the material better.

Now, I'm not suggesting that you have to divide your class into small groups for every lesson (although you certainly can). You should consider including centers and small group activities into your weekly routine in some way because it:

1. Helps all learners, especially diverse learners, by addressing knowledge gaps

2. Promotes collaboration and communication among students

3. Gives you more opportunities for feedback

4. Encourages independent learning

The University of New South Wales Sydney provides some suggestions and guidelines for effective small-group teaching.

4. Group by learning style, not ability

In my experience, grouping by ability is counterproductive. It can make things a little easier at the teacher table, but research is clear that in general, it keeps struggling students where they are and does little to boost students of intermediate aptitude to higher levels.

So, how should we group students? I've found that using mixed-ability groups can promote learning, especially when students get the opportunity to coach or teach their peers' An extension of this is to place students who learn in similar ways together - visual learners with visual learners, auditory with auditory, etc. Doing so can make a huge difference during small-group instruction.

Here's a personal example:

Ms. Dean has a group of four students who are hands-on learners and have varied math abilities. One student is advanced, one is at baseline level, and two struggle with math. In general, all four shine during inquiry-based activities and project-based learning opportunities but dislike paper-and-pencil activities. One of the students is an ESL student. One has ADHD.

By grouping them together, Ms. Dean is able to create a differentiated instructional plan and use hands-on manipulatives to allow the students to demonstrate their skills. She finds that doing so is one of the most effective and creative ways to teach diverse learners.

While you are differentiating your teaching, consider project-based learning (PBL). But first, a disclaimer: You can not assign a poster project on Friday, send it home with students, and call it project-based learning.

Project-based learning is not a summative assessment; it is a way of actually helping students understand what is being taught through hands-on methods. During PBL activities, kids work together to solve real-world problems by coming up with solutions together. Although glue and poster boards are sometimes involved, the real ingredients of project-based learning activities used to teach diverse learners are:

The academic content itself (the topic you're teaching)

Real-world scenarios that make the material more relevant

A sense of purpose (end goal)

Opportunities to practice collaboration

21st-century skills

Student-focused activities with ample choice

Opportunities for self-reflection

Examples of PBL activities include this example:

A history teacher is looking for a way to help his students better understand the impact that legislature and the Trail of Tears had on Native American communities. Instead of having them read a passage or do a traditional research project, she assigns them to small groups.

Then, she asks them to come up with a better way the government could have continued on with U.S. expansion without negatively affecting the populations that had lived in the U.S. for thousands of years before European settlers arrived.

Because he wanted students to have a choice in their learning, the teacher made the project open-ended. This permitted students to present their plan any way they wanted to. Some suggestions included a skit, papers, or visual presentations.

6. Incorporate ed-tech and adaptive learning tools

Another suggestion for finding creative ways to teach students is to incorporate ed-tech and adaptive learning tools. There's plenty of technology out there designed with certain types of students in mind; there's no need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, try incorporating these tools:

Peardeck presentations like the Newsela Daily Deck, designed to make news articles interactive

Plickers, free card activities for formative assessment

Wordsinasentence.com to help students understand vocabulary in context

Classcraft for game-based classroom management options, like topic review framed as Boss Battles

Book Creator as an alternative assessment

Google Keep for electronic note-taking and organization

7. Provide alternative testing options

One final suggestion is to find alternative testing avenues for individual learners (if allowed) or the class as a whole. The fact that we traditionally test on paper doesn't mean that it's the only acceptable way. Instead, you should differentiate your approach by allowing students to answer orally, through drawings (pictures), and with the use of their notes.

Doing a quick Google search for "alternative assessments" will bring up tons of creative testing ideas for every type of student. This will allow you to evaluate your students better and improve your own teaching.
Photo: Google Edu

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7 creative ways to teach diverse learners

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Classroom teachers and other specialists seem to be on a constant search to find creative ways to teach diverse learners. This label is a catchall assigned to many different types of students because of their culture or race, religion, academic ability, native language, or socioeconomic status, among other considerations.

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Note to the library user about resource 3.4:

Figuring out how to ensure that all students receive an adequate and equal education might be tricky.

Explore this webpage to find out creative ways to teach diverse learners.

What I like about this resource:

●      It is very informative and enriching as it provides detailed examples and teachers' experiences.

●      It promotes the use of project-based learning and technology.

What I don't like about this resource:

It is limited to seven creative ways to teach diverse learners only.

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Resource 3.1: How to prevent getting burnt out easily (for teachers and students)

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Resource 3.1: How to prevent getting burnt out easily (for teachers and students)

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Title: Burning Out in School: What It Means and How to Help

Author: Lexi Walters Wright

Overview: This page tells what burnout means, shows the causes of burnout among students at school, and shows ways how to prevent school burnout.

Reading Time: 10 to 15 minutes

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At a glance

Burnout in school happens when students face ongoing stress or frustration-with no time to relax and recharge.

Well-meaning teachers, family, and professionals can accidentally contribute to burnout in children.

Knowing the signs of burnout can help you and your child find ways to take more breaks and reduce stress.

Imagine having 14-hour days with few breaks, loads of work, and lots of stress. For many struggling students, that's not so unusual. So what happens when kids have to deal with all of that day after day? They may burn out in school.

Learn what burnout means, why kids who learn and think differently may be especially at risk of burning out in school, and how to prevent academic burnout in your child.

Burnout is a state of mental, physical, or emotional exhaustion. Burnout in children happens when kids are faced with ongoing stress or frustration with no chance to relax and recharge.

Of course, some stress is necessary for kids to achieve. It can motivate them to set goals and then reach them. The problem comes when the work and the stress are nonstop.

At first, kids may continue to do well at the things they've been trying to do. But then they may not rest long enough to feel a sense of accomplishment. And they may not have enough time to recharge by the time they take on their next challenge.

What Can Lead to Burnout in School

Sometimes, it's hard to know what kids' days are really like, or how much stress they might be feeling. Consider this scenario:

A sixth grader with dyslexia wakes at 6:45 and leaves for school at 7:30. First period starts at 8:15, but she goes early for help with word problems from the math teacher.

She has a full school day of academic work in her regular classes. She also works with a reading specialist twice a week. Teachers may forget about her accommodations, and she may need extra help during class. So she has to self-advocate throughout the day.

After school, she spends two hours at either soccer or band practice. She loves both activities and does well at them. But when she comes home at 6, she has two or three hours of homework to do. It can take her longer than her peers to finish her work. Often, her day, which began before 7, doesn't wind down until 8 or 9.

"Helping your child build time management skills and take effective work breaks are two key ways to avoid burnout."

By the weekend, she's had it. She bursts into tears over little things. She complains angrily about going to the tutor. She's exhausted. And on Monday she starts a new week with the same schedule, stress, and frustration.

She may be able to push through it. But eventually, the signs of burnout appear. She stalls when it's time to study. She doesn't feel like going to band practice. In the end, she does both-but she has no energy or enthusiasm for either.

Burnout Factors for Kids Who Learn and Think Differently

Anyone can feel burned out. Athletes can burn out in sports. Employees can burn out at work. Medical students can burn out in medical school. But kids who learn and think differently may be more susceptible to burnout in school for several reasons:

They might have to work harder or longer than their peers to achieve similar results.

They may get extra instruction or therapy on top of their already full schedules.

Kids who struggle with attention have to work hard just to focus. They may sit with their work for hours and not make much progress with it-and still feel exhausted when they get up.

Kids can't control or "turn off" their learning and thinking differences. So they may feel victimized on top of feeling stress.

Their self-esteem may be affected by being aware of their differences. This can make kids feel less motivated to try as hard. And that can make tasks feel harder and take longer.

They know what it feels like to fail. So they may feel extra anxious about their performance, which also adds to their stress.

Kids who learn and think differently may have good relationships with adults in their lives who try to keep them motivated. But that can backfire, because kids might feel extra pressure not to let them down.

Well-meaning family and professionals may overdo the amount of learning they try to squeeze into every homework, tutoring, or therapy session. Instead of feeling like support, these relationships may feel overwhelming.

Kids who learn and think differently may have friends who can't relate to what they're experiencing. This can make them feel lonely or isolated.

How to Prevent School Burnout

You can also talk with your child's teachers, IEP team, or tutors about what you're seeing. They may have ideas for reducing the amount of extra work your child is getting. And if you think your child's burnout might be due to issues with anxiety or depression, talk with the school nurse or with your child's health care provider. They might recommend speaking with a mental health professional.

Key takeaways

Kids who learn and think differently may have to work harder or longer than their peers to finish the same assignment.

Friends may not understand what your child is going through.

If you think you're seeing signs of burnout, help your child manage time more effectively and "turn off" more often.

About the author

About the author

Lexi Walters Wright is the former Community Manager at Understood. As a writer and editor, she helps parents make more informed choices for their children and for themselves.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Donald Deshler, PhD is a professor in the school of education. He is the former director of the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning (KUCRL).

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Burnout in school happens when students face ongoing stress or frustration-with no time to relax and recharge. Well-meaning teachers, family, and professionals can accidentally contribute to burnout in children. Knowing the signs of burnout can help you and your child find ways to take more breaks and reduce stress.

# data[].attributes.headline
How to prevent getting burnt out easily (for teachers and students)

# data[].attributes.subject
How to prevent getting burnt out easily (for teachers and students)

# data[].attributes.body
Note to the library user about resource 3.1:

This page will give us the knowledge that kids also experience  burnout and this page gives tips how to deal with burnout especially to kids/students.

What I like about the resource:

·      It provides tips how to deal with burnout

·      Gives us the ides that kids also experience burnout and needs to be addressed.

What I don’t like about the resource:

·      None

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Resource 3.2: How to Prevent Getting Burn Out Easily (For Teachers and Students)

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Resource 3.2: How to Prevent Getting Burn Out Easily (For Teachers and Students)

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Title: Teacher Burnout Solutions & Prevention - How to Retain Talented Teachers

Overview: This resource will give you the scope of what teacher burnout means, the causes of this teacher burnout, and what is the preventive measures that a teacher could do to avoid severe burnout.

Reading Time: 20 to 30 minutes

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Teacher Burnout Solutions & Prevention - How to Retain Talented Educators

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Addressing teacher burnout is crucial to retaining high quality educators. Explore prevention and solutions for teacher burnout here.

# data[].attributes.headline
How to prevent getting burnt out easily (for teachers and students)

# data[].attributes.subject
How to prevent getting burnt out easily (for teachers and students)

# data[].attributes.body
Note to the library user about the resource 3.2:

This resource will provide you ideas about teachers burnout and what a teacher could do to lessen or even prevent severe burnout.

What I like about the resource:

I like this resource because it provides facts on what are the causes of teacher burnout and provides recommendable advices how to prevent burnout among teachers.

What I don't like about the resource:

None

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Resource 3.3: How to Prevent Getting Burnt Out Easily (for Teachers and Students)

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Resource 3.3: How to Prevent Getting Burnt Out Easily (for Teachers and Students)

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Title: How to Deal with Student Burnout

Discussant: Thomas Frank

Overview: This video provides the overview on how burnout could affect the students performance and  provides the student's the ideas on how to deal with school burnout.

Viewing Time: 6 minutes and 8 seconds

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How to Deal with Student Burnout - College Info Geek

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Resource 3.4: How to Prevent Getting Burnt Out Easily (for Teachers and Students)

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Resource 3.4: How to Prevent Getting Burnt Out Easily (for Teachers and Students)

# data[].attributes.body
Title: What is Teacher Burnout?

Author/Discussant: Niroga Institue

Overview: It shows how teachers deals with stress, burnout, and even trauma in the schools.

Viewing Time: 1 minute and 56 seconds

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Aplaca, Crystal Claire
Serjo, Ycera Angela
Vinson, Gwyneth

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BEED 3-A

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Resource 1.3: Changing Educational Trends

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Resource 1.3: Changing Educational Trends

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Title: 21st Century Education

Source: AITSL

Overview: It discuss 21st century education focusing on redefining the experiences of students and teachers through changing educational trends with the integration of technology.

Viewing time: 3 minutes and 40 seconds

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Note to the library user about resource 1.3:

Hi! If you'd like to know how other countries use technology as a response to the emerging changes in educational trends, this might interest you!

What I like about this resource:

It is very informative and interesting.

It discuss well with graphics the 21st century education, and it shows how other countries adapt the changes in educational trends.

What I don't like about this resource:

It does not include information about the first-hand experiences of students and teachers in adapting the changes in educational trends.

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Changing educational trends, balancing diverse learning needs, and how to prevent burnout easily (for teachers and students) are real-world challenges that must be addressed and solved in order to provide better educational experience for students, and improve students' performance and teachers' efficiency.

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What is the problem?

Changing educational trends  is a challenge for teachers because they need to adapt in their current situation in order to deliver the the lesson effectively. From time to time, trends in education is changing especially during pandemic where we are in remote learning.

What are the givens?

Educational Trends - a general direction in which something is developing or changing

Change - the act or instance of making or becoming different

What are the possible solutions?

Applying efficient and appropriate teaching strategies or method and integrating technology in order to improve that teaching-learning progress.

Why should we solve it?

The world is in a constant change and so is education. We need to adapt in order to deliver the lesson in the most efficient instructional method. The learning progress of our students relies on how we deal with our situation in education. It is up to us teachers to modify the lesson to reach each student as required.

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What is the problem?

Balancing diverse learning needs is a challenge for teachers as they need to try different and creative teaching strategies to satisfy a slow learner and quick learner. So they will be forced to bring in a lot of creativity and diverse strategies which in turn require additional preparation time.

What are the givens?

Diversity - everything that makes people different from each other. This includes many different factors: race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, ability, age, religious belief, or political conviction.

Diverse Classroom - includes students that bring unique experiences, strengths, and ideas in the classroom.

Diverse Learners - include children and students of all abilities from racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Children with Diverse Learning Needs - children who require special education programming because of their behavioral, communicational, intellectual, learning, or physical characteristics or a combination of those characteristics.

What are the possible solutions?

Employing different creative teaching strategies or methods, integrating technologies in teaching-learning process, developing students' growth mindset, and having good attitudes toward inclusive education are some of the possible solutions for balancing diverse learning needs.

Why should we solve it?

Students learn in different ways with different interests, study habits, and learning styles, hence, teachers are challenged to accommodate these differences in one classroom at the same time. Ensuring that each students' learning needs were addressed might be difficult for teachers. Therefore, providing solutions to make balancing diverse learning needs much easier for teachers and students is important.

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HOW TO PREVENT GETTING BURNT OUT EASILY (FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS)

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HOW TO PREVENT GETTING BURNT OUT EASILY (FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS)

# data[].attributes.body
What is the problem?

School burnout is challenge for both teachers and students, it is no joke that this burnout could happen to both teachers and students due to stress, dealing with loaded school works, environment, and when both teachers and students doesn't meet the desired goal or objective in school. Some people don't take this so-called "Burnout" seriously because they thought that this type of experience could be gone in just a couple of hours or weeks but actually it's not, if this burnout wouldn't be addressed immediately this could result to depression and more serious bad results.

What are the givens?

Burnout - is a mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion which cause by too much stress.

School Burnout - is is a mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion which is experienced by both teachers and students which caused by too much stress in school and excessive workloads.

What are the possible solutions?

For teachers, involve them to a seminar sessions which talks about how to deal with stress ,and also, caters enjoyable activities which could help teachers to get away with stress and forget about school and school works for the meantime. Other solutions could be a least have someone or a colleague to talk about your problems and stress that you're dealing with because sometimes the best remedy for this is to voice out and let that stress inside you get out by sharing it to your trusted friend or colleague.

For students, the teacher must involve the students through such activities such as field trip or watch a movie which could help students loosen up their minds from stress and excessive school works that they're dealing with in school. Also, it is advisable for students to have a time-management and avoid procrastination to avoid piling up of activities which could cause stress.

In general, both teachers and students should know when to take a break and rest. Your mental, emotional, and physical health is what really matters.

Why should we solve it?

We should solve this kind of issue for the reason that if we don't take immediate actions in lessening the stress that both teachers and students experiencing, this could lead to more bad serious results which could affect their physical, mental, and emotional aspect even lead to depression. It is really important to have balance within this aspects ,and also, it is important that we should keep our physical, mental, and emotional aspects to be wholesome.