Diversity in the Classroom

In my classroom that I have done my observations in, there is a bit of diversity. The students in the class come from similar lifestyles, but their backgrounds are different from each other. From what I have been able to see, without knowing too much information, there are students who have some sort of learning disability. I have been able to tell because the way that they do their assignments is a little different than the other students- namely, they are allowed more time to complete assignments.


There are also students who have living conditions, one in particular is in the foster system, so he has a hard time staying focused because he has more to worry about home than most of the other students. In this students case, sometimes his guardian comes into the classroom to make sure that he is getting the work he needs and so it can get finished and he can stay caught up in the class.


In addition, there are also a couple of students, from what I can tell, whose parents may not live together, so they move from house to house on occasion, which can make keeping track of homework more difficult and also getting it finished in a timely manner.


Overall, the diversity of the students isn't terribly broad, but there are small but important things that I have seen in the classroom that make a large impact.

Culturally Responsive Teaching

In these articles and information, I found the topic of culturally responsive teaching to be very important.

From what I read and saw, culturally responsive teaching is taking into consideration that not all students came from the same backgrounds and lifestyles. Making sure to include aspects and topics that may not have been important in the past are crucial to talk about now. Bringing many cultural perspectives into the classroom makes for a more productive learning environment for all.

One strategy of culturally responsive teaching that I saw is bringing many styles of learning into the classroom. This helps everyone have the opportunity to learn.
Another strategy is making sure that expectations of the students is clear, and with their expectations clear, they are more likely to succeed in the classroom.
Additionally, communication as whole - especially with parents, as I have been learning with my in class observation, is absolutely critical in success for students. If there are language barriers, there will need to be more work done to communicate, but having those channels open is important for the student and the teacher.

I think that preparation for teaching in a diverse classroom starts with the knowledge that there is going to be diversity in the classroom and to mentally prepare for that. Having a general idea of the diversity that can be in the classroom and having general ideas about how to deal with it can be effective int he preparation that will go into teaching those culturally diverse students. Another thing teachers can do, is to react when those diverse students are actually in the classroom.

Service Learning Connected to History of Education

In my service learning placement, I have seen some things that have come from the history of education. As I have been in the classroom, the class that I am in is predominately girls. There are definitely more girls than boys in this classroom, which would not have been the case a couple hundred years ago. In addition to this, the fact that it is an elementary school classroom is also important. These children are just getting to the most important part of schooling, where they are learning more application of the things that they are learning, which in turn will help them when they are older. So girls being able to be in school instead of just the home, and having an education as a child is a great step that was taken by brave people in the past.

Since I studies Sputnik in the past assignment, I have noticed the sciences and math aspects of the classroom. The students love to get in there and do experiments themselves instead of just having the teacher do it. Today, for example, the students got magnets and a material and used the magnet to see how many paperclips the magnet would move. They loved it. They had general instructions, then they were on their own to determine the ones that were stronger than others.

I have loved being able to see these aspects of history in the classroom, and I am definitely trying to learn from the past so that my future students are able to love learning, because it is a privilege to be able to go to school and learn as part of their daily lives.