I get excited at the prospect of having my own classroom someday and learning about the lives of my students. I want to use the knowledge I gain to make good classroom choices in how I teach and in what methods I decide to teach. The Ladson-Billings article had a good statement that read, "Teachers with culturally relevant practices see themselves as part of the community, see teaching as giving back to the community, and encourage their students to do the same." I think that one of the best ways to understand my future students would be to get out into the community where the school is located and understand how their lives are lived outside of school. This goes beyond just realizing that the school is perhaps in a neighborhood that might all be of one race (or even multiple races); to me it means participating in community functions and seeing your students outside of school. I always liked running into my teachers in the grocery store. It made them seem like real people who had real families.
Not only do I want to learn about the cultural diversity of my classroom, but I would also like to understand the different ways in which my students will learn. Not all students in my classroom will comprehend language arts in the same way. I was never a student who liked reading nonfiction, like my history books. I could never concentrate and it always seemed my social studies homework was always reading the text and answering the questions. However, some students thrive on reading non-fictional texts and dislike reading novels. Finding out differences in reading among my future students will help me to get to know the diversity of how they learn. I would mix up the assignments so each student will be able to learn in the way they know best as well as learn in ways that are different to them as well.
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As a TE student, we spend a lot of time in classrooms throughout the program. Something I have noticed in the past few years going to various classrooms for field experience is that no two classrooms are alike, even in the same city. For this reason, I think it is important to treat each class as its own diverse community. I agree with the importance you place on understanding the diversity of not just your classroom, but the neighborhood in which it is located and the community that contribute to making this neighborhood unique and individual. I also imagine myself becoming an involved and active member of the community in which my school is located, even if I do not live in that neighborhood. As you said, it is essential in relating to your students as a real person if you see the world they live in and experience it as an insider.
ReplyDeleteI also really like your idea about providing diverse genres of books as classroom resources and materials to support different learners with various interests. When deciding which books to include in your library, I think it is equally important to consider the diversity of your classroom culture so that you can reflect your students backgrounds as well as supplement those cultures that may not be present in the make up of your classroom in order to foster an open-minded community of learners.