Diversity in the Classroom- Are We Doing Enough?

Over the past couple of months, I have been learning about diversity and how a lack of it can effect people. I decided to do a little bit of research to see how teachers can help to promote diversity in the classroom and I found a website that I will add the link to at the end of this post. I would like to bring up the main points and share them with you.

1.  Express interest in the ethnic background of your students.

2.  Redirect your role in the classroom from instructor to facilitator.

3.  Maintain a strict level of sensitivity to language concerns.

4.  Maintain high expectations for student performance.

5.  Incorporate methods for self-testing.

6.  Maintain an “inclusive” curriculum that remains respectful of differences.

If you would like to know more about how a lack of diversity can effect students, I’ve written an essay about a student who requested to remain anonymous. The interview I gave her made me open my eyes a bit more and be on the look out for how I can improve myself as a future teacher to avoid making the same mistakes her previous teachers made. Check out the “Sample Works” page on your left and give it a read!

If you would like to read a bit more in depth about the main points I’ve listed above, they came from this site.

mnemonic poem

 H – Happy
 A – Anxious
 R – Rushed
 P – Perfectly Imperfect
 E – Energetic
 R – Really Creative

               Hello, My name is Harper Ward and I am a soon-to-be teacher. I have always enjoyed teaching, I worked as a dive coach for years and spent my junior-senior year of high school student teaching at my local elementary schools. Through these interactions as both a coach and a teacher, I discovered how passionate I am about being an educator. I am an all around happy person who is always looking for the best in people, you could call me optimistic. I am working on my anxious tendencies, where I want everything to be perfect and agonize over the details of things that really matter to me. I am full of energy and it expresses itself in a rushed way on occasion, I can’t stand being late to things so I find myself speeding up to try and make it to events or places on time. I’m no artist, but I love creative projects! They feel freeing and they are fun to do!

Overall, I hope this helped you understand a little bit about me! Hope you have a good day 😀

Meme

Our Meme is about change in the classroom and how some teachers are very set in their old ways. We have new ideas about how we can change the old, boring research paper into a fun exciting Wax Museum. This way the students still have to do research and learn about the topic we assigned, but it has a fun spin on it!

A wax museum is creative and entertaining for both the presenter and the audience. The child does the research about the topic they were given and then creates a character about that topic and gives a short speech when approached. This way we can be certain that the information is retained, the repetitive nature of this project helps the child to really remember the topic and the creative aspect helps it to be fun! Learning without fun can usually guarantee that no lasting information will be kept by the student.

Wax Museum

This picture is describing a scene where one teacher is arguing against doing a research paper for a final project. Research paper are not interesting or fun enough to teach children. So this comic is how we chose to express our view that a hands on, creative project would be more interesting and attention grabbing for the students.