I grew up in a rural,
mostly Caucasian town. One of my classmates was African
American and a favorite memory of mine is running track together in
high school. We lived about an hour from Columbus, Ohio and often had
to race against inner-city schools. When we would arrive at the meet and
size up our competition, Lina would always say, "Crap, they're all
black." Her stereotype of inner-city African American girls made me
laugh then, and it still makes me laugh now. She is a dear friend to this
day and, based on the results of some of those races, she wasn't entirely wrong.
I was raised in a
very nonjudgmental home. My parents never talked down about
other races and cultures. In fact, my parents spent time serving in
the Peace Corps in India and I was often tortured as a child by slide shows and
the smells of foreign spices. Much
like my parents, I expect my children to treat everyone with
respect, regardless of race, religion, disability, etc. We
are all the same in God's eyes. When talking about diversity with my
children and students, I always remind them that we have no say in choosing the
color of our skin, what disabilities we are born with, and the culture into
which we are born. What we do have control over is our character and
how we treat others.
I now live in an even
smaller town in Arizona, yet there is slightly more diversity because the United States/Mexico
border is just 75 miles south. As a result, there are
several students with ties to Mexico. As
a teacher, my hope is to make all students and families feel safe and
comfortable while at school. I don't pry for information, as I don’t want to make students
feel uneasy, yet I am excited to learn about their background and culture if they
wish to share. It helps us understand why people do things a certain
way, teaches us some really neat things about others, and learn how to assist
students and their families. Because I took over my class mid-year, many
things got lost in the shuffle. One of those things was the
fact that I had an ELL student. I was shocked to finally learn this because he was one of my best students in terms of reading, writing,
etc. It was unfathomable to me that he started kindergarten knowing little to no English. I learned that he had achieved
the status of Proficient on his last AZELLA exam, and was in the second of
his two-year monitoring phase.
Prior to parent-teacher conferences, it dawned on me that I hadn't heard
back from his parents. I asked the student if an
interpreter would make them feel more comfortable and he said, "Yes." As a result, I arranged for an interpreter,
and our conference went amazingly well. I almost missed an opportunity to
meet with them because I didn't gather this information sooner. I
think my relationship with this student grew stronger after I learned
more about his background and family. He shared that he was born
in Mexico, and I invited him to share information about his home country with the class. He enjoyed sharing and I know the other students
enjoyed learning.
I had a United States map
hanging in my classroom last year that garnered more interest
than anything else. Students would be near it when they lined up to leave the classroom and
were always talking about where they had traveled, where they had lived, etc.
We live in a town near several military installations so there is diversity
in terms of student hometowns. I never would have guessed that
a $1.00 map from Dollar Tree would be such a conversation starter! My
thought for next year is to add a world map to the mix. At the beginning
of the school year, we could do some activities to learn the ancestry
of students. I envision the activities involving both student and family, and inviting some parents to speak to students about their culture.
Had I thought of this last school year, I could have invited a student’s mother to speak who is
from Germany. Next year, I may have
a student whose parents hail from Vietnam. My experience has
been that students really enjoy learning about culture and diversity.
Unfortunately, time is limited, and we spend a great deal of
time on mathematics and reading. My hope is to incorporate multicultural
elements into other subjects. I like to spend the last 15 minutes
of the day reading to students. Perhaps I can choose books with a
multicultural perspective. Another idea is to have students do
writing assignments that cause them to think globally and multiculturally.
I will continue to have multicultural books in my classroom. If I
determine that books about other cultures would be beneficial, I
will use my Scholastic coupons to purchase them. When creating word problems
for mathematics, I will include ethnic names and topics. This might help engage students of various backgrounds. It will
take some creative thinking, but multicultural elements can be
incorporated into subjects other than just social studies.
How will I know if students
are developing cultural competence in my classroom? Well, the first thing
that comes to mind is how students are treating others. Are they
being kind to one another regardless of race, religion, culture, etc? If so, that is a good start. Also, I will feel
successful if interest is piqued when a student shares information
about his or her culture. If I hear conversations between
students about where they are from, where they go to church, what holidays
they celebrate, etc., I will know they are interested in learning about
others, which helps lead to understanding and tolerance. If I
continue to see that my classroom books about different cultures, languages,
holidays, etc. are being checked out, I will know that students are enjoying
becoming more culturally competent.
With my own children, as
well as my students, I will continue to emphasize that
our differences make us unique. If we were all the same, life would
be rather boring. We all have different stories, and sharing our stories
helps us learn new things. As I mentioned in the second paragraph,
we have no control over where and how we are born. We do have control
over our character and how we treat others, which is what I will drive home to
students as much as I possibly can.
Candidate has analyzed in detail different ways s/he will know if students are developing cultural competence.
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