Jenn Spellman

I began my career in education as a classroom teacher instructing secondary education students in English Literature. I use the word “instructing” because at the start of my career that is largely what I did- delivered information to students. I was fresh out of college, new to the classroom and ill prepared to create a learning environment that met the needs of the diverse learners in my classroom. I used as my model the same traditional classroom that I had known as a student. From the front of the classroom, I served as the great fountain of knowledge and expected that my students would magically drink in all of the literary analysis and writing instruction I had to offer. As I remember my first year of teaching, I cringe at my great expectations and guiltily think of all of the students I failed to truly educate.
My greatest strength was the ability to reflect on my teaching and the desire to truly learn how to reach my students.

During that first year, and for many years afterward, I hungrily looked for ways to improve my craft. I quickly learned that knowing my students was the foundation to a successful classroom. Conducting conferences, creating student interest inventories, and implementing multiple intelligence surveys led me to the understanding that a classroom where learning took place was a student-centered classroom. I enrolled in literacy classes and learned how to employ reader and writer workshops. I visited classrooms where Socratic Seminars and Independent Reading programs were engaging students and creating thoughtful learning spaces. I modeled these practices in my own classrooms, failed, and tried again. Slowly, I mastered practices that empowered my students to be writers and readers. I learned to see myself as a guide not a guardian. I learned with my students and was eager to learn more.

At this time, I began to encounter students who I could not reach or teach with these methods. Even with the best of intentions and the best practices I had learned, these students were not making progress. I found that these students were the ones I connected with most deeply. As I examined my classroom and my lessons, I began to shape projects and lessons to meet their needs. Although I had never heard the term differentiation I began to employ it intuitively. I learned how to leverage student’s strengths, scaffold assignments, and provide multiple ways to access the curriculum. I used assessments to mold my instruct