Brain based learning research teaches us three things.  First, no two students think or learn in the same manner.  Secondly, students need to be able to problem solve and think for themselves.  Thirdly, strategies that work for one student will not necessarily work for another one.  To sum this up, each student is unique with their own way of processing information and preferences for demonstrating understanding of that processed information.  This is a fundamental belief of mine which is why the idea of differentiation in the classroom is so important to me.  In fact, I feel that a teacher should consider the individuality of students and their personal modalities even over their readiness levels.  In my experience as a classroom teacher I watched in amazement how struggling readers instantly gravitated toward a book that was on a much higher reading level then that level in which they were proficient; they not only read the book but had a high level of comprehension in the material.  In my math class students who stumbled over concepts such as place value and computation had high levels of success in concepts such as geometry and patterns.  As a new instructional technology teacher this year I began asking people if technology could be differentiated to meet learning needs.  Most of the people I spoke to brought up the topic of assistive technology.  While assistive technology certainly has its place and its importance this was not exactly that to which I was referring. 
        In my mind I was thinking about brain based learning as it applies to technology.  Even before beginning the process of NETS*T certification, I began researching technology and differentiation.  One of the reasons that the idea of differentiation is so important to me is the fact that my son is a student who learns while battling ADHD.  My son is a visual/auditory/kinestitic person. 

       One of the first things I do in my classroom is ask the students to take a learning style inventory.  In the past I only had to do this with no more than 20 students.  This year I weekly taught 2 classes of kindergarten through fifth grade.  On top of this I meet with many other classes on demand plus provide professional development to the instructors.  I still had each new class from 2-5 that I worked with take a learning inventory.  I keep the inventories in a notebook separated by school and teacher and use these when planning lessons.  My lessons are planned with the idea of brain based learning in the fore front of my mind.

        The lesson entitled, What is a Scientist?, was originally created two years ago to be used in my third grade classroom.  This year I used it at the beginning of the year in grades 3-5.  It gave me an indication of where the students were in terms of their technology skills while teaching the vague concept of the scientific method.  It is designed to introduce research skills and allow students to choose a method of demonstrating what they have learned according to their learning modality.  The lesson went over very well.  It took three weeks to finish in the 4th and 5th grades and in 3rd it took us four weeks.  I did not get to see the student presentations but the teachers reported that as a class, the presentations went over very well.  The third graders had more difficulty with some of the technologies such as creating a portaportal and making their own power point.  They loved the power point and digital camcorder.  The fourth graders enjoyed creating portals which is evident by the fact that this was the activity most chosen.  They did not choose the powerpoint.  The fifth graders really got into making scavenger hunts and the digital camcorder.  There were no extreme special needs in the classes I used this lesson in but there were many Title I students who were struggling in reading.  This was especially true in the fifth grade.  I believe that is why the digital camcorder was so popular.

          The lesson, Brotherhood in the Biome is one of my favorite lessons.  As with What is a Scientist?, this lesson was created with learning modality as the basis for meeting student needs.  The lesson was originally created for my classroom two years ago and did not feature the technology.  I revamped the lesson this year to integrate technology with the content needing to be taught.  In the classroom I coupled the lesson with a powerpoint that the students moved through at their own pace.  The powerpoint used a graphic organizer to help focus the lesson.  The powerpoint lesson provided the students with background knowledge on the concept of biomes and habitats.  After that, the teacher led the class through a discussion.  The third grade teachers reported that students were much more comfortable participating in class after going through the powerpoint.  After the class discussion students were taken back into the computer lab and led through the research scavenger hunt.  This lesson was done at the end of the year and by that time students were much more familiar with the different technologies.  I had a variety of projects turned in.  They did like the idea of pod casting best.  Even though we did not have permission or a place to "post" our pod casts several students brought in their mp3 players and we did upload their recordings to their players.  The students were enthralled!

               By reaching out and attempting to meet student needs with our lessons, the students exposed to these two lessons, as a class, had a high success rate on the county six week tests.  We are waiting on the results of the Virginia SOL tests to find out if the content stayed with them throughout the year.