Introduction

So many of us have been here. You've got a lesson you feel really good about. Clear objective, engaging resources. You know where students should land. Then they walk in.

Some are ready to push deep. A few are still working on grade level text. Two really need translated vocabulary. And then there's the student you've been meaning to build scaffolds for, but you just haven't had time. Even worse, you get called out and need to suddenly shift to a sub plan. You get an email that classes are being shortened for a last-minute assembly. Or half your class is out on a field trip you didn't know about.

I'm Matt. I've been there too — wanting to show up as your best self, wanting to provide equitable access to all of your students, wanting learning to be consistent and powerful, all while you're being pulled in a million different directions. I designed this course to walk you through Diffit and share the ways it was built to help in those moments where you need to pivot, or when you want to be responsive to anything that arises in your classroom.

Quick check before we get going. There's a short "What is Diffit?" video on the course landing page. If you haven't watched it yet, that's a really great place to start. Go ahead and pause here if you need to go back and do that.

Here's where we're headed. I have a handful of short modules for you. Together we're going to use Diffit to generate some resources, adjust them for your classroom, get familiar with Diffit Chat, and then talk through sharing, exporting, and anything you might do with what you create. There's a submission at the end, and then you get a PD certificate and a badge.

It's all self-paced. You can move at whatever speed works for you. You can do this on your own or with your colleagues. And you can reach out to me anytime you have questions.

But before we go further, one thing. Picture your classroom. Is there a student you keep coming back to? A class period where the range of needs makes it extra challenging to teach from one set of materials? An upcoming unit where you already know differentiation is going to matter even more? Pick one — a student, a class, an upcoming unit — and hold on to it, because we'll come back to it.