Most importantly, this standard wants me to recognize the importance behind developing

a comfortable and positive school environment for students to learn. Not only can this be done

by establishing a supportive physical environment, but also by providing students with a place to

emotionally and socially develop without being judged. Students’ physical, emotional, and social

development have a significant influence on their intellectual development. As a teacher, it is

important to understand that it is our job to find the best practices that fit our needs as a teacher

as well as our students’ needs as learners. This describes the standard’s emphasis on explicitly

tailoring instruction to meet students’ diverse needs, thus helping to make learning more

engaging and meaningful.

I chose a paper discussing how to address the diverse needs of the early adolescent as the

artifact to demonstrate how to apply this particular standard. While researching sources for this

paper, I considered possible strategies middle school teachers can use as tools to help engage

their students in the learning process as well as simultaneously address their individual needs.

This helped me realize how to “analyze individual and group performance in order to design

instruction that meets learners’ current needs in the cognitive, social, emotional, ethical, and

physical domains at the appropriate level of development.” In the paper, I present five practices

intended to create a caring and supportive learning environment for the students. For example,

integrating technology into the classroom and making connections across all content areas are

two practices that specifically address individual student’s learning needs through their personal

interests. By understanding how to incorporate a variety of teaching strategies into the

classroom, instruction will “introduce concepts and principles at different levels of complexity so

that they are meaningful to students at varying levels of development and to students with

diverse learning needs.”

 Simply as a student teacher, I have not yet had the opportunity to use the strategies

presented in the paper in my teaching practice. However, this paper and its resources will impact

my teaching in the future by providing prime examples of how to create an effective classroom.

For example, I fully intend on developing a ‘classroom constitution’ with students. Classroom

constitutions help students develop a feeling of ownership and present opportunities for self-

discipline. This hands a greater amount of responsibility to the students, making them an active

participant in their own education. There are a variety of ways to accommodate students’ needs

in our classroom environment and through our instruction. Therefore, this assignment will

significantly impact the structure of my future classroom and instruction.

By considering how to address the variety of needs of the early adolescent, I feel more

prepared to teach and learn in a diverse society. ‘Diverse’ can be defined in multiple ways. For

one, it can be interpreted as an ethnically and racially diverse environment. However, it can also

be interpreted as an intellectually and socially diverse environment. Considering how to establish

a sense of community as well as how to tailor the instruction to meet individual student’s needs

provided me with an opportunity to reflect on the variety of students possibly found in

classrooms. I now understand how to integrate technology into the classroom and make

connections across all content areas to appeal to student interests. This will prepare me as a

prospective teacher to provide the best education for an emotionally, intellectually, and socially

diverse group of students. I look forward to using this knowledge in my future and am confident

that my future experiences will furthermore build upon these understandings as well.