I looked at Jana's blog and she posted a really good quote from the book: "The more willing we are to take the risks, the better the lives of our students are likely to become, and the greater the fulfillment we are likely to feel at the end of the day."
I really like this quote because it gives me the motivation to feel like I really can be an effective teacher if I'm willing to put in the effort and try new things. If I try something new and it doesn't work there are always other things I can try without giving up on my students and assuming they can't learn it.
I also looked at Lance's blog. One thing that he wrote about was deciding what groups students will be in before class. Sometimes teachers just decide on groups at the moment they need the kids in groups. When you do this, students might not be in the best possible group for them. You might put 2 friends in a group that like to talk a lot to each other or you might put a student a group where they feel behind and stupid so they won't feel comfortable saying anything. Sometimes it's okay to put students in random groups, but I think the teacher should be very aware of who is in each group, how they work together, and if students will learn the best in that group.
Good! And, I can think of another good thing about Lance's discussion... Purposefully putting groups together is an easy way to put differentiation into anything that you would be doing in groups! And, it meets several hallmarks, including "Proactive rather than RE-active." 4 points
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