Educating for Diversity
Clear Understanding
Posted February 29th, 2008 by kpinkpirateIn my Education 3200 class, I have to do a project, and I joice to do my project on professors with thick accents. I think that these professors should be required to take English pronunciation classes in order to make their English easier to understand. I know that these professors are brillant, they are the smartest in their feilds, but their brillance "gets lost in translation." This is not fair to the students, and it is not fair to the professors either because what they are saying is not getting absorbed. Not only will it help the professors' achievement ranges, but it will also help them in their everyday lives.
Diversity Professional Development Project
Posted February 28th, 2008 by ael0428For my Introduction to American Education I have to do a professional development project after choosing an important standard from the North Carolina Teaching Standards. There are five standards, and I chose to do my project on the second standard, which is "teachers establish a repsectful enviroment for a diverse population of students." I chose to make my project about making my classroom a more diversity-friendly place. I would strive to focus our studies for the year around the topic of diversity. I would do units all throughout the year focusing on different geographies, locations, countries, and cultures. I would aim to have all of my students have a better understanding of different places and people around the world.
read more »professional development project "culturally responsive teaching"
Posted February 28th, 2008 by jrs0811For my professional development project, I have choose the second professional teaching s standard. I intend to learn how "culturally responsive teaching" to make a welcoming environment for each student that may walk into my classroom someday. I want to be able to understand the different cultures and create a learning environment that everyone can benefit from without stereotyping or racism. It is important that every student, regardless of race, gender, or ethnic background have a equally opportunity to learn. If anyone has any advice for my research, please let me know. Thank you.
How to be a diverse teacher
Posted February 7th, 2008 by dmf0824My name is Donna Francis and I am a sophomore at East Carolina University. My major is elementary education with a concentration in reading. One of my goals that I have to become an effective teacher is to be more diverse. I remember when I was in elementary school there was a lot of emphasis on Black History Month. Children would do research reports, projects and have special programs. Toward middle and high school however, it stressed the same people but the amount of work became less and less. I also notice that there are months during the year celebrating other cultures but to me there is not a large emphasis placed on those compared to that of Black History Month in February. I bring this up because I am Native American and Native American Heritage Month is during the
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The Holidays
Posted December 28th, 2007 by JJ ThompsonWe are in the midst of the holiday season, formerly "holy day" season, and questions persist about what's okay and what's not in terms of language and other "official" recognition of what is clearly a Christian holiday.
In my school, we were instructed years ago, and reminded again, to use the term "winter break" rather than Christmas break. I sometimes wonder if that is an attempt to cover up the tacit celebration of a Christian holiday or whether there is genuine concern for other cultures and traditions.
read more »Inclusion
Posted December 5th, 2007 by jackie styonsI am a special ed. major and it seems like the hot topic in all my classes is inclusion. Does it work? Should special needs students be included in regular ed. all the time or just some of the time?
As I've done some observation hours around local schools, getting a feel for the field, I have come to a few conclusions myself. I believe, that while some one on one instruction or small group instruction is still necessary to keep a special needs student on track, they should be included in the regular ed. classes as much as possible. These students must have some kind of peer model and when they are tucked away in a trailer on the outskirts of the school grounds they realize that they are different and their motivation dwindles.
read more »Not Everyone Speaks the Same Language, Let Alone the Same Dialect
Posted November 26th, 2007 by sah0618I am originally from Chapel Hill, NC and in visiting the schools there I have noticed several problems that come with teachers trying to educate diverse students. Of course there are tons of different ways that students are diverse. There is race, sex, ethnicity, ancestry, ESL, special education, ect. What I have noticed at home and what I would like to touch on is students that are from the same country but do not speak the same dialect. I was observing in a general ed.
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Modern Day school segregation
Posted November 12th, 2007 by Tracy SuggsI am currently in school for special education. As I do my observations, I have noticed that the kids in my classes do not seem to care about race or ethnicity and converse with each other. I am not saying that they are suppose to care because, ultimately, race or ethnicity should not matter when making friends or learning. As I think back to a discussion that occurred in one of my classes, There was a guy a few years older than me who graduated from the same high school as me. We began to talk about segregation in our school, he said that he remembered our school being extremely segregated. Then I recalled that there was quite a bit of intermixing. So I will get to my point and my question.
read more »What is "inclusive education"?
Posted September 18th, 2007 by mpinkavaIn the current moment, I can't give a complete definition of "inclusive education" and I may never be able to. Funny thing is, I am currently finishing a masters in "inclusive elementary education." In addition to studying "inclusive education," I taught for a year in an "inclusive school" in a Washington DC public charter school as well as a semester student teaching in an "inclusive school" in Brooklyn, NY.
read more »Educating for Diversity
Posted September 16th, 2007 by AnonymousBy now, everyone should be aware that America is rapidly resegregating its schools. The era of forced integration is over, and neighborhoods, through the practice of real estate agents and the heavy hand of "the market" and what people can afford, have once again drawn invisible lines that demarcate white from black, white from Asian, white from Hispanic.
It is particularly disheartening to me as an educator, having taught all my life in highly diverse settings, to imagine that the commingling of cultures, the mixing of classes and the tumbling together of ethnic differences will be lost on a new generation of children. It is sad because if anyone can overcome the divide that permeates our "fear of difference", it is children--in their intoxicating innocence. No one is born to fear others; no on is taught prejudice; these are, after all, learned behaviors.
Here is an excellent program which aired recently on National Public Radio looking back at the era of forced integration, particularly in Charlotte, North Carolina. While there were difficulties and hardships around forced bussing, there were also some amazing stories of eyes being opened, of individual discovery, of walls coming down. Schools were at the forefront of social experimentation and change.
I do not advocate a return to forced busssing. As a nation, though, I believe we need to consider carefully the divisions that make up our society. Schools are our public squares, and if the recent Supreme Court decision outlawing the use of race as a prime factor in assigning students a school stands, then I believe we will begin to slowly move backward towards ignorance, easy stereotyping, prejudice and class division.
How many Hurricane Katrina's will it take to wake us up to the differences in our society and why they matter?
This is a group that seeks to work with diversity in positive ways: to promote social harmony and understanding, to increase sensitivity for individual difference and to build into our school experiences the kind of discussions and meaningful dialogue that will move our country and our world to a richer understanding of the diversity of the human family.
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