THE LEARNER & LEARNING
Standard #1: The teacher understands how learners grow and develop recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistics, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.
Standard #2: The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.
Standard #3: The teacher works with others to create environments that support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.
MULTICULTURAL CLASSROOM
As an educator it is important to make sure that all students feel that they can be their full selves. This means that educators need to create a classroom culture that embraces multiculturalism.
Throughout my many classes at Rochester University I have had opportunities to see this importance. A specific experience of this was throughout my time in Ethics and Culture, through that class I have learned several steps to present a multicultural classroom for my future students. Knowing that each student has their own unique experiences in their culture, different from their peers who may share the same cultural values, it is important not to follow the general stereotypes and to be aware what exactly is a stereotype of that specific culture. When the teacher is able to move beyond the stereotype then the educator is able to allow a classroom built on many cultures and make it feel inclusive to all students.
On my “Teacher Resources” tab you will find several resources that help create and develop a multicultural classroom to help the students in your classroom feel included in their environment and also allow students to gain a better understand of the other cultures in their classroom and the world.
MY CULTURAL MEMOIR PROJECT
V. WARDEN MEMOIR
To help my students become more aware of their own culture and those of their peers I may have the students create their own cultural memoir. For lower elementary students this may be done in common ways, for example "Star of the Week" which many classes do already. For upper elementary a power point like the one I attached is very plausible and a bit more of an age appropriate task than the “Star of the Week” poster.
READING BUDDIES
Developing the Learning Environment
My fifth—grade students have been working on identifying the theme(s) and main message(s) in their reading novels and our classroom read-aloud. However, they still had difficulty picking out a theme and the main message and not choosing plot points as their answer. Due to the difficulty, I decided to reach out to a Kindergarten teacher and see if her class and mine could pair together to read the books in her students’ book bins.
Picture books generally have an obvious main message and apparent themes. This allowed for cooperative learning and students of different age levels to have positive social interaction while learning.
When buddy reading time was over, my students shared the picture books they read with their Kindergarteners and if they found the main message or the theme(s) in those books. The outcome of this task was positive, and students were able to meet the lesson success expectations, having a proper understanding of what a theme is in a story, what the main message of the story is, and how to find them.
CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT
Classroom Constitutions
Classroom Constitutions are a great way of having students create their own classroom expectations. This allows buy-in to the classroom setting and for the students to feel that they are important to the structure of the classroom. These Classroom Constitutions have always made the transition to the start of the year an easier flow, versus “why do I have to follow these rules“ they are “oh yea, I did decide on this rule I should follow it.” Below is an example of the Classroom Constitution my class created this year (22-23 school year).
Students created the rules and we as teachers put them into a document together. Then we pass the Constitution around to every student and they sign the bottom of the document, for confidentiality purposes it has been cut off of this document. Each student gets a copy of the signed document to keep while the original hung up in our classroom.
Diverse Learners
Whenever I am met with a student who may present behaviors I find challenging or whenever I find I am a bit complacent in my teaching I watch this video. Rita Pierson hits on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the importance of human connection.
Part of my teaching philosophy is a “student first” mentality. This mentality allows a teacher to build valuable relationships with your students, allowing to meet their socio emotional needs in order to help their academic needs. Pierson’s Ted Talk furthers the power of this mindset.
Executive Function
In the class Behavior and Environment in Special Education, we talked at length about executive functioning in students and different accommodations that you could provide for students with difficulties with different skills. Below are the five resources I created for five executive functioning skills.