Our question for this week was: How will you become an effective multicultural teacher? What teaching methods will you use to guarantee you are effective with your students? I would be an effective multicultural teacher by incorporating the different cultures from around the world in my classroom. I would incorporate the different ethnic music, traditions and important facts from various cultures throughout the year. To guarantee this was effective, I would have different cultural leaders from our area come in and discuss their heritage. At the end of the "chapter" or particular culture study, I would then test my students to see what they have learned and encourage them to do their own research. Because I plan to teacher Kindergarten, I think it will be a challenge for some students, but I think that it is important that they gain a sense of understanding and respect for other cultures.
I think what I found to be the most shocking in this chapter was the affect that teacher expectancies have on the students. I do not pretend to be blind to the differences in socioeconomic status, or the cultural and ethnic diversities in the world today. I can say that as a teacher, I will do everything in my power to create equal expectations for all that are in my class. As a child, I had what most people would consider to be a rough childhood. Of course, at that age, I felt like that was pretty normal. Looking back, I think that I used my school time to get away from everything that was going on at home. I loved school- so much so that I have decided to become a teacher. I feel like my teachers probably knew what was going on for me at home, and maybe they didn't expect as much out of me. Either way, I proved to them- and to myself- that nothing could stand in my way. I was always at the top of my class.
For this reason and others I do not think that expectations should vary from student to student. I think that rather than expecting less from students, teachers should create their lessons and learning environment in a way that can benefit all students, so long as they choose to be an active participant in class.
I have to say that I was most shocked this week to learn that a lot of my classmates want to change assignments or alter the expectations on assignments for students that, as our prompt suggested, lived in a shelter. I think that this surprised me because we just read the chapter that explains the impact of altering expectations for individual students based on their race, gender or socioeconomic status. I wrote that I would make allowances for all of the supplies and information needed for this assignment in my classroom, and make sure that all of my students were provided an equal opportunity. I am curious to see how our instructor responds to those that want to change the assignment for those students. We'll see!
https://mail.otc.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://elbowskneesdreams.teacherlingo.com/default.aspx
The blog I have chosen to follow is called "Elbows Knees and Dreams" and it is written by a woman that is teaching preschool. I have only read a few entries, but this is a perfect real -life blog. She writes about lessons, books and arguments within her class. She has little boys that punch their classmates for no reasons, struggles with students that have a very limited English vocabulary, and somehow still manages to impress her senior teachers with her lesson plans and the reading time in her classroom. It is very humerus- and only makes me that much more excited to have my on classroom someday!
I think that by keeping my own blog, and following ones like this one, I will have a better opportunity to reflect on my own thought processes and gain insight into the "real" classrooms. I am becoming more and more eager to have my own classroom. I know it will be a lot of work and I will probably make those mom's on the Suave hair commercials look like heaven. (I am referring to those that look like they have been hit by a ton of bricks- you know, the hair commercials that say "Is motherhood messing with your hair?")
There will be days that I would rather pull my own hair out then face a
classroom with screamers and biters... but there will also be days that I
actually reach students. I will have the opportunity to impact so many little
lives. I can not wait! In keeping this blog and reading others, I have learned
various methods of successful "teaching." I think that this blog has helped me
to come up with ideas that are impertinent to the educational and cultural values of
the students in my class. It has also helped me to be more open minded in ways
to approach a lesson.
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