Today teachers are not
only working with a very diverse group of students in their classroom, but are
also preparing those students to work within this vast diversity in their
adults lives. Experts have spoken to the need for teaching perspectives
and the current/future development of a global economy. To learn more
attend the upcoming Global Education Conference, a round the clock online
conference, Monday, November 16 through Thursday, November 19, 2015.
Educators from all over the globe offer and attend webinars presented around the clock and in multiple languages to discuss global issues and strategies in education.
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| Some members of our teacher class with our server, Miguel. http://www.mipatriaecuador.com/index.html |
All teachers agree it is
important to teach their students how to understand various perspectives, but
do not know how to make it happen or have to focus so much on content that it
is overwhelming to think to add more. To better prepare themselves for
teaching to a multi-cultural classroom, the best thing teachers can do is to go
experience these cultures and learn new perspectives for themselves. To
support teachers in this goal, I started teaching a new staff development class
for the West Des Moines Community Schools, called Culturally Responsive
Teaching. Teachers will spend the semester working through multi-cultural simulations, visiting with people from multi-cultural perspectives (in their homes, at festivals, and in the classroom), and experiencing various religious houses of worship. Our first experience included lunch at Mi Patria, an Ecuadorian restaurant in West Des Moines, IA. The meal was delicious and personally, I was thrilled to get a hug from a former student of mine, who was our server!! I will be sharing more of our experiences throughout the semester, as well as thoughts from the teachers in the class.
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| Ecuadorian Vegetarian Meal at Mi Patria |
To get started in your classroom, here are some resources that I have found helpful:
- Perspectives for a Diverse America--a literacy program from Teaching Tolerance (lesson plan support)
- Preparing for Cultural Diversity: Resources for Teachers --Edutopia blog post
- Diverse Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners --Chapter 2 excerpt from Educating Everybody's Children: Diverse Teaching Strategies For Diverse Learners, Revised And Expanded 2nd Edition, Robert Cole
I really love this idea. You are lucky to live in an area that has so many different cultures available. I am wondering what I could do to help my small rural school?? Any thoughts?
ReplyDeleteThank you! Does your community have any body that has immigrated in? That would be a great first step, giving them an opportunity to tell their story to their teachers or the community. You could also look into putting together a multi-cultural celebration, ask the kids to bring in food or items from their own culture to share or use a nonprofit organization, like Cultureall, to bring in people from outside your community to share with them.
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