YAY for new classes!
Today was my first day in the class Diverse Populations in 21st Century School! I am so excited for what I am going to learn in this class and how I am going to grow as a person. Today was mostly an introductory day, but we got on the topic of what culture is. To me at first I felt like everyone knew what culture was. I thought that culture could be something that is easily defined and something that mostly everyone truly understood already. Today I learned that culture is SO complex. I learned that it is not something that is can be easily defined and what one person thinks culture is could be completely different than the next person.
What is culture?
After about 30 minutes of discussion, our class created a definition of what we believe culture is. Our definition is that culture is the growth/development of human characteristics and social norms through the integration of beliefs, values, and traditions based on place and time, shared by a group of people. I love this definition because it really encompasses what I believe culture is. Culture is going to have a huge influence in any classroom! It is directly related to the NCTCS Standard 2, because in order to create a safe learning environment we have to make sure that every child (and the culture that they have) feels safe to speak out and to engage in activities. Every student will have a different cultural experiences and every child will be different, making my future classroom very diverse. I will have to make sure that every single person feels safe within my classroom!
Future Classroom
While researching the topic of how culture affects the classroom I found a quote from tolerance.org. The article was about teaching with tolerance. The author stated, "To truly engage students, we must reach out to them in ways that are culturally and linguistically responsive and appropriate, and we must examine the cultural assumptions and stereotypes we bring into the classroom that may hinder interconnectedness" (https://www.tolerance.org/culture-classroom). This quote is so awesome to me! It really resonated with me, because it discusses how teachers have the power to hinder progress of students in the classroom based on our own stereotypes. I think that is something that is huge and something that I never want to happen in my future classroom. I want to make sure that every child feels safe, and that I am doing everything I possibly can to make sure that each student is receiving the best education they can possibly receive.
EDUC 410
In our first day of EDUC 410 (Integration and Assessment) we played tag! Now it was not just any specific game of tag, it was called baby blob! How you played was by having one person as "it" first, and that one person tries to tag someone, and once they tag someone they link arms. This creates a giant "blob" and that blob then goes and tries to tag another person. Everyone the blob tags someone, that person becomes apart of the blob. You do this until you have one person left and they are the baby blob! I thought this was such a fun activity to get started with. Once we were back inside, Dr. Clark asked if could connect anything to that game. I immediately thought of germs, because once one person spreads germs it just continues and spirals till the germs have reached as many people as they can. This was one example of how to use integration in the classroom. Although we were simply being active, during the game we were using teamwork and communication skills. Also, we can connect the game to different subjects like health and discuss germs. I thought this was such a great introduction into integration and assessment! This connects to NCTCS 4 and 5, which are teachers facilitate learning for their students and teachers reflect on their practice. To integrate multiple lessons into one really helps with facilitating learning in the classroom. As well as assessment can be apart of teachers reflecting on their practice. A teacher needs to make sure their teaching style is what is working for their students and they can check that by doing assessment.
It has only been one day in both classes, and I already have learned so much! I already love being in both of these classes, and they have both been so interesting already! I can not wait to see what else I learn during the semester!
I completely agree with not understanding at first how broad the topic culture actually is! This is becoming a huge debate in our country and I feel that makes our classrooms even more important. We can be the ones that teach our students that everyone's culture is important and that it's okay to have differences as long as everyone is respected.
ReplyDeleteI also thought culture was something everyone knew the definition of. I think as a class we came up with a pretty good definition of culture it encompassed some of the things that make up a persons culture. I love the quote you used it was a little enlightening because I had not thought of how my own stereotypes could affect the Students'.
ReplyDeleteI really love the quote you found. I definitely think in order to best reach our students, we must consider their culture. We have to make our content relevant to them and we simply can't accomplish his unless we truly understand the diverse cultures in our classroom.
ReplyDeleteHi Bailey! In reference to education 350, I also was shocked at how complex the word "culture" really is! I had no idea that it could be used to describe so many different aspects of life. I thought the definition our class came up with was a perfect definition to use regarding the classroom, and it made me realize how important creating a positive and nurturing culture for students really is.
ReplyDeleteIn reference to education 410, I also was amazed by the massive amount of integration that could happen due to such a simple game. Students would never realize how much they were truly learning just from simply playing tag! I thought it was not only a great example of integration, but also an example of how we can make learning truly fun and exciting for children.
Baily,
ReplyDeleteI too feel like I have already learned a tremendous just after the first week of class. I love how you connected the baby blob game to germs in class and here in your blog. It crossed my mind as well just because that was a similar concept I remember talking about in our health class last year. I also really like how you immediately picked up on the connections this all has to integration and assessment and their importance in the role of an educator.
Bailey,
ReplyDeleteYour quote: "To truly engage students, we must reach out to them in ways that are culturally and linguistically responsive and appropriate, and we must examine the cultural assumptions and stereotypes we bring into the classroom that may hinder interconnectedness" is something I hope everyone in this class gets as we go through the semester. This is vital to building good relationships with students. Your blog is well written and the connections you are making are evident. I love that you managed to connect to three NCTCS. Next time, try to connect to specific indicators within the standards. Great post!
Bailey,
ReplyDeleteIn our 410 class I think Dr. Clark was very clever in the fact that we started out class playing baby blob. Not only so we can use that game in our classrooms for "brain breaks" but so it was an intro into integration and how we can take that simple fun game and incorporate math. So far, my opinion is that integration makes school fun for not only the student but the teacher.