I'm reading Lynne Schrum and Barbara Levin's book "Leading 21st Century Skills: Harnessing Technology for Engagement and Achievement". Before the authors get into what we need to be doing as educators, what we need to allow our students to do and what we expect from them, they describe the differences between the multiple generations that are present in our school systems. There are the Baby Boomers (born between mid 1940's and 1960 - veteran teachers and administrators), the the Gen Xers (born between 1960's and 1980's - some teachers and administrators aka "MTV Generation"). Following Gen X came Gen Y (or Millenials - born between early 1980's and early 2000's). The Millenials are the ones who are most tech savy and are our young teachers and students today. To quote the authors..."This generation is described as the most wanted, safe, and pampered generation" and "the most plugged in and connected generation".

From this Millenial group will come the next generation of educators. Because they grew up with technology all around them, it will be easier for them to understand how to effectively reach their students because they are comfortable with it. Looking at our class, I feel that there is a good representation of different generations of learners and therefore different generations of educators. How and what we learned as kids influences our instruction.

Differentiation is not only in instruction. To be an effective educator we must all be able to adapt our teaching philosophies, our instruction, our content AND realize that students of different generations bring different tools to our classrooms. We all know educators in our buildings that are resistant to change.  We need to remind ourselves to embrace the differences, embrace change (because it's coming whether we like it or not) and continue to make a difference in our students lives.