As an education candidate, I understand the importance of gaining continuous knowledge of your students. I Understand the active nature of student learning by acquiring information about levels of development for individual students. As an educator, I think one way to gain knowledge of your students is by simply talking to them. In the video attached at the bottom, you can see the rapport between my students and me. Every day after school while they are waiting to get picked up by parents, they interact with me at my desk and this has helped me gain knowledge of home life situations, interests, and personalities which are all factors of learning. By speaking with students, I am able to talk to students to learn more about how they like to learn. This allows me to follow Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences theory to ensure research-based data supports my decision-making. He states that students learn in all different types of ways, and being able to explore these processing options will help all students to succeed. From this specific video, I am able to see which students enjoy math, their levels of development within that subject, and their levels of development when interacting with one another. For the specific student doing the math problems in the video, Liam, I am able to see where he excels or struggles in math. He is very high in development of academics for math, so I am able to see this in comparison to other students who attempt the same problems. I understand that students grow and change every day, so consistently talking to them is one of the best ways to get to know them. I also systematically acquire knowledge from several sources about students' varied approaches to learning, knowledge and skills, special needs, interests, and cultural heritages. In the St. Patrick's Day Baking Fraction Lesson, I compared the many different developmental stages of the classroom environment that I was in to cater a lesson that would encourage fun fraction practice and critical thinking for all students. I observed and took note of the different interests of the students and saw that they all loved to create things of their own, which is why I incorporated the Recipe Card and illustration aspect of the lesson. I also differentiated my lesson for students with IEPs and 504s based on accommodations needed. For example, I had one student whose IEP specifically stated to decrease workload, give oral directions, and provide extended time. I did this by marking out every other problem on the worksheet I provided to him, reading the directions out loud for the entire class, and allowing him to work on the activities for longer periods of time. This class had multiple students who excelled at work and had accommodation plans to individualize their work. To accommodate these learners I gave them a more challenging set of problems after they finished the one that the rest of the class worked on and then I allowed them to create multiple recipe cards using different types of math problems. I also discussed with my cooperating teacher at the time if all students were able to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in order to consider the different cultural heritages within the room. This was important in planning my lesson because I was able to make sure that all students had a prior knowledge of the holiday so that they could understand the theme of the lesson. Reviewing the individual IEP and 504 plans of students and having this discussion with my cooperating teacher allowed me to systematically gain knowledge of my students to ensure I catered to specific needs in the class. I understand that in a classroom, every student will be different. As an educator, you must bring these differences to light in a positive way to encourage diversity and to create an environment of learning for ALL students. Getting to know your students can make or break not only one lesson, but everything about a classroom which is why it is so important that all students feel seen.