After reading the Leading and Managing Differentiated Classroom text, I felt incredibly overwhelmed.  I want to be able to have a balanced emphasis on individual students and the course content. I understand that students differ as learners in terms of background experience, culture, language, gender, interests, readiness to learn, modes of learning, speed of learning, support systems for learning and self-awareness as a learner. So how do I differentiate lessons for every single student to benefit their needs? It seems nearly impossible. For our social studies class, we had to do a project on the learning community in our classroom. It forced Megan and I to find out about each of our students profiles. We asked several questions in a survey format to learn a little bit more about each student. We hope to use these to help differentiate our future lessons. But, so far in the classroom, I have not seen our mentor teacher work independently with each student. So, I feel like she does not know her students very well to be able to differentiate lessons based on their affect or interest and possibly readiness. How do I find the time to get to know my students to a level where I feel like I am catering to all of their needs? I am determined to create a learning environment that embraces my students. The appearance, organization, and structure of my classroom should create a fun and energetic classroom. More importantly, my main focus will be on the emotional climate in my classroom and the engagement I have with my students. I feel as though students are more encouraged to learn when they feel safe, respected, involved, challenged and supported.  So, in order to have effective differentiation to the learning needs of my students, I must create a learning environment that responds positively to the diverse personalities, learning styles, and overall quirkiness of every individual in my classroom. So, what I am still wondering: to successfully differentiate my classroom to create, monitor, and sculpt in order to support the best possible learning outcome for each student, what can I do?