Susan Fitzell - Educational Consultant & Speaker » Differentiated Instruction

About Types of Intelligence

Susan Fitzell — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:15:52 +0000

As long as classroom instruction is primarily geared to reach only one or two of these different intelligences, a lot of kids will struggle to process the information being offered them and experience a serious disadvantage in achieving [...]

Administrator Recognizes Teachers!

Susan Fitzell — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:48:30 +0000

On January 4th, 2010 I had the pleasure of presenting a seminar on teaching strategies to over 150 teachers from Havana School District 126 in Havana, Illinois. The Superintendent, Dr. Mark Twomey, was there too meet me before the session started, he not only introduced me, he STAYED for the entire presentation. It’s not [...]

Schoolhouse of the Past… Schoolhouse of the Future

Susan Fitzell — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:29:16 +0000

Though many of the buildings still stand—including several here in New Hampshire—and a few are still in operation scattered around the United States, the one-room schoolhouse is pretty much a vestige of the past as an educational model. It was far from ideal, of course, with limited resources and curriculum, entirely dependent on the education [...]

Does Co-teaching Work?

Susan Fitzell — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:05:17 +0000

Well, here's the nitty-gritty: No matter what the research says, the label is often wrong. What I mean by that is: School districts who put two teachers in an 'inclusive' classroom can CALL it co-teaching, yet, it may not be CO-teaching at all. And, if it is called co-teaching on paper simply because two bodies are in the room and it doesn't work, it's decided that Co-teaching does not work. Read the article for what does [...]

What I Learned about Teaching from Studying Martial Arts

Susan Fitzell — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:11:48 +0000

Excerpt from a 1993 journal entry:

I wrote a note to my building principal to update him on my progress in Kung Fu since the “Kung Fu Parable”. I told him that my experience in Kung Fu will make me a better teacher. It has reminded me of what it feels like to be a “kid/student” [...]

Disability, Difference, and Diversity

Susan Fitzell — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:01:43 +0000

The goal—that is, the content to be learned--is still the same for all students, but the path to learning can become much more varied and responsive to the different learning styles and levels of the students in the classroom. Once the basic concepts are understood, though, there are many simple and effective techniques for implementing differentiated instruction in the classroom. Introducing pictures and images, movement-based exercises, cooperative projects, and color-coded instruction aids are four teaching strategies that target the special needs of diverse learning styles, while still benefiting all the students in that [...]

Visual Search Engines and Visual Learners

Susan Fitzell — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:32:45 +0000

When I consider how often we have students search the web for information, I wonder how many times struggling readers look at a page of search results and feel like they are reading a foreign language. Would students work better with visual searches or might they be distracting? Here are some that I've experimented with recently. I hope that you not only find them useful, I hope that you find them [...]

Capitalizing on Vocabulary

Susan Fitzell — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:18:10 +0000

Strategies for teaching vocabulary from teachers in the [...]

Music as a Behavior Management Strategy

Susan Fitzell — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:06:12 +0000

A couple of teachers in my fall seminars offered the ideas outlined below for using music for classroom [...]

Seven Surefire Ways to Relate Classroom Material to the Student's World

Susan Fitzell — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:55:49 +0000

One of the best ways to engage and motivate students is to apply learning to real-world situations or to associate the learning with something that students can identify with. The examples that follow have been used successfully in classrooms around the country and can be adapted for your subject and [...]