Learning is a messy process; it never happens the same way twice; it is different for each person.

Scott Kinkoph is the lead technology teacher at Brecksville-Broadview Heights Schools in Ohio. His work varies from integrating technology, to curriculum coach (no one calls him this), to professional developer, to teacher.

He publishes a website called {TedchEd.Out where original content and his blog resides. As a connected educator, he uses Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, and Pinterest to expand his PLN.

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Embrace the mess of learning. Acceptance brings peace - a phrase a minister said to me once. At some point in my career as an educator I realized I can't control learning because I am not the learner.

I changed my approach to teaching focusing on being a guide and coach than a teacher.

Educators have a preferred, familiar pedagogy established by years of experience. They tend to use this despite the ever changing needs of students.

Juxtaposed to traditional pedagogy are modern methods that focus on personalizing learning for students.

Teachers, shifting instructional practice, may find this difficult and stressful leaving tradition to embrace new pedagogy.

Teaching methods are not sacred, and educators need to examine the practices they use in light of their effectiveness.

If formative data is not proving students are not learning then instructional practices must shift to meet the needs of students.

To be pedagogically responsive is to be aware of diverse teaching methods and use them as dictated by student needs.

Innovation and creativity are important. An educator may need to find new ways of engaging students in learning. However, this doesn't happen in a vacuum. Partnering with other teachers is key developing innovative methods needed to reach students.

Be a "boss," be awesome and trailblaze new methods to meet the neds of learners.

To be pedagogically responsive means breaking tradition. Rebecca DuFour says, "Teaching without learning is just presenting." Break the "I teach and they listen" mentality common in many classrooms. Remove the all powerful worksheet that dominates class work.

Instead, become a coach and guide for students. Work with them and next to them as they venture down a path of learning you set before them. Shower them with reflective questions disrupting their normal ideal of school replacing it with the real experience of learning.

Do what has to be done.

Breaking tradition leads to the messiness of differentiation. Knowing the learning needs of students allows you to do this. Consider personal and academic needs.

Neat learning is characterized by the desks in rows all facing the front where the teacher stands and talks expecting attentive students to listen. It's not very messy or exciting.

Neat learning is also characterized by the assumption that students learn the same way and at the same rate.

Learning is never linear. Students make sense of learning in their own way using their own mental structures. To help students make the desired connections, offer multiple and varied ways of learning.

How - the essential question to messy learning.

It is a buzzword but an important one. Doing this with efficacy and fidelity is essential to individualized messy learning.

Differentiate lesson plans. Perhaps 2 or 3 sets have to be written for students, maybe more.

Differentiate assessment. Give some students complex problems to solve. Others may need assessments given orally. Some may need paper and pencil. While others may need a shortened version of the assessment.

Differentiate materials. Digital, print, video, and audio are ways to differentiate how students get their content. Differentiating this allows students access to content.

Differentiate pedagogy. How you teach matters. "Teaching without learning is just presenting," says Rebecca DuFour. Consider using multiple intelligences concomitantly with Bloom's Taxonomy to meet of diverse learners.

This favorite question of mine forces to thinking outside the box. New ideas come leading to innovation. Old problems get fresh solutions. Stimulate out of the box thinking.

Ask this question to start a unit or lesson and let students loose to learn. Give them open resources to read, listen to, or watch, and use all of this to produce artifacts of learning to prove deep learning. Curiosity is stimulated and students take hold.

Restaurants offer a variety of food for good reason. People have different tastes and choose to order a wide variety of food. They offer appetizers, sides, salads, and entrees to appeal to the vast tastes of their clientele.

What if a restaurant had one choice on the menu? How long do you stay? Think about your classroom and offering only way one to learn or do something.

Create learning menus that allow students choice to demonstrate their learning. Vary the difficulty of activities through different menu options. For instance, appetizers might be more simple activities to complete, while entrees may be more complex problems to solve. Options are endless.

Textbooks, smeckbooks. There are better resources on the Web. Curating and sharing these resources diversifies the knowledge base of students. Vetting them is important because you don't want students to have just anything to lean from.

Use Pinterest, Learnist, Diigo, or some other way to curate many web resources and share these with students.

The goal is to create independent learners who can craft their own learning using a variety of resources and publication tools.

At the core of this is the fundamental belief that learning is messy and differentiation is the road to get there. Embedded in this is the focus on intervention and enrichment.

Creating learners independent of teachers is the goal.