William Damewood

Background

About William Damewood

Passion, understanding, engagement and differentiation. These are the words that guide my teaching style. These words are the basis for how I teach students in any and all settings. I have a passion for teaching students with Learning Disabilities as I had one myself as a child. Understanding is the other side to the same coin. I understand what it is like to not know what is going on and to be afraid to ask because you may sound stupid. I was in those shoes as a child and I use that experience to help guide my teaching practice. Engagement is a keystone to the education process. Without engagement, the student will only retain part of the information that they are presented with. I encourage my students to be actively engaged in the lesson that I teach and that other teachers teach. I try to employ strategies such as: think-pair-share, rally robin and timed-pair-share. I learned these strategies from the several Kagen Workshops that I have attended. Differentiation is what makes education accessible for a student with a Learning Disability of any kind. This allows that student to learn with his/her strengths rather than forcing them to conform to the majority’s learning style. I have prepared alternate reading choices, provided books on tape, held vocabulary preview groups and other means to differentiate my own instruction and that of my co-teachers.