My paypal was hacked.
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Someone hacked my account, added a bank account, and set my available balance to go to their bank each day at 1am. (They did it on Dec 24, right before paypal’s support was closed for the day!)

Luckily, I saw it in time and paypal was able to help me undo the changes.

How did the hacker get in?

While I’ll never know for sure, I was using a password that was a “family password” from 20+ years ago. My father warned all of us not to use it (it’s been breached so many times) but I never actually went and changed it.

But once I was hacked - oh you bet I changed that password (and reminded all my siblings on the family chat to do the same.)

I was reactive about it. Not proactive.

Last week, I presented a workshop for a school on the topic of differentiated instruction.

We spoke about the principles of DI, and how to apply them to a classroom (of course, the workshop was differentiated, starting from the very first slide!)

Carol Ann Tomlinson, author of “The Differentiated Classroom,” speaks about how differentiation should be PROACTIVE as opposed to REACTIVE.

D.I. is a teacher’s proactive response to the learner’s needs.

Reactive was me changing my password because someone had already gotten into my account.

Proactive would have been changing it the first time my father told me about the breach.

Reactive is bringing in some differentiation because ‘students are suffering and I need to try something different.’

Proactive is bringing in differentiation because ‘I know my students each need something different and I want to put them in the best possible position to succeed.’

Differentiation doesn’t mean creating three different lesson plans.

Differentiation is a mindset of recognizing that different learners have different needs and keeping that in mind throughout the teaching process.

Here are 3 of my favorite ways to differentiate, that don’t take ANY prep time:

1. Preferences of Praise - some students prefer public shoutouts and some prefer one-on-one feedback. Ask them what they prefer!
2. Open ended assessments - allowing students to choose their mode of presentation. As long as all requirements are met, they’re free to choose if they want to make a poster, a digital presentation or a song, etc.
3. Choice of music or quiet space - when students are doing quiet work, I have low music playing in one area as well as a quiet spot for students who want quiet.

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What proactive differentiation can you bring into 2024? I’d love to hear!
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Hatzlacha!
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Mushkie

@Evergrowingeducator

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