Entry #10: Muratore

 "When you know your students, you know how to reach them and are able to make sure they get the most out of their learning." 

                                                                            Matt Muratore

This particular comment made in Muratores blog entry, "Differentiated Learning to Engage Students", was most meaningful to me because it is something I am very passionate about within my own classroom and teaching methods. I'd like to take this time to bless Muratore on the many connections he was able to make between Teaching Reading and Muhammad. To me, this means that he is constantly thinking in a way that can cultivate the genius of his future students in many different ways and aspects. This statement by Muratore makes me think of when Muhammad said:

"This cultivation calls for reaching back into students' histories and deeply knowing them and their ancestries to teach in ways that raise, grow, and develop their existing genius."

                                                                                                                                                                                           Muhammad, 2020, p. 13

It's a goal of mine in every class I have to get to know my students. I use many different methods including share times, individual conversations, feedback bellworks and exit tickets, attending their extracurricular activities, and more. I also make it clear that I am a human being just like them and that I am their equal. I'm a firm believer that students can't learn from those they don't relate to. In order to create that relation, you have to get to know your students and their identities and you have to find some way to build those connections. Those connections are what will create a trusting relationship between a teacher and student that allows for the student to get the most they can out of their learning experience. 

I'd like to know what methods Muratore would use in his future classrooms to get to know his students' better and to facilitate the realization and owning of their individual identities. I'd also like to press what Muratore meant by naming his blog entry, "Differentiated Learning to Engage Students", does he mean that these ideas of getting to know your students and helping them to understand their individual identities is differentiated learning in itself or does he mean that he would use differentiated lessons to get to know his students and engage them in their own realization of their identities? In the case of the latter, how would he use differentiated lessons to achieve this goal?