Diversity Expectations for Early Elementary Teacher

As an early elementary school teacher I expect there to be lots of children who come from very diverse families and backgrounds, I expect this because of different factors such as race, religion, gender, geography, language, socioeconomic backgrounds, and special needs. All kids attend school, no matter their background As a teacher of many diverse children the classroom needs to reflect many backgrounds, cultures, races, religions, languages, and help those with special needs so that all the children of my classroom can learn to the best of their ability.

All children are entitled to a quality education and it is my job to provide that for them. To begin, there are many different children in a classroom and many different ways each child goes about their life. As a teacher, you have to adapt to teach all different kinds of students regardless of culture, background, or disability To do this, I would begin to educate my students on all the different kinds of cultures and backgrounds that are in the classroom, In my classroom, I would use decorations first I would put up pictures of people of different races.

This shows that not everyone looks like you, but that’s okay, Being the teacher, children look to you for guidance so if they see you accepting people who aren’t the same race or ethnicity they will be more likely too as well (Levin), In addition to decorating the classroom to be multicultural, you could also use questionnaires or getting to know you activities.

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Using these gives your students to not only get to know each other but get to know each student’s differences and backgrounds, If you have an English language learner in your classroom you could always use pictures on your questionnaires and small, easy English words to better accommodate them but not make them feel any different from their peers. Encouraging students to feel comfortable around their peers can be difficult but these getting to know you activities can promote discussion and friendship in my classroom.

Not only are their children of different backgrounds and languages but there will be students who come from different religions as well. As a teacher responding to these students needs means I will have to be very culturally responsive and use culturally responsive strategies. Culturally responsive teaching and strategies mean teaching to a child’s unique cultural strengths to promote achievement and a sense of well-being about the student’s cultural place in the world (Amatea). Knowing this, some good culturally responsive strategies are, for example, not having Christmas or Halloween decorations but rather fall and winter decorations It still looks nice and teaches the children about the season but is also sensitive to those students who do not believe in celebrating Christmas or Halloween. This also extends to school sponsored holiday parties, Calling a Halloween party Fall Fest or Autumn Day can help allow those students who engage in religions who do not celebrate holidays a chance to come to school parties.

Along with many different, diverse students you will also have many different and diverse families Being a teacher, you must be willing to work with families as partners (Amatea, 243). Being in a partnership with families means adapting to their schedule at times. For example, if your student’s parents work late or early you could hold conferences later at night, early in the morning, or even over the phone. Parents appreciate teachers who are more willing to work with them, I will extend this knowledge of cooperation to my own classroom to better help my Students learn and achieve success. Another way of helping families is using student led conferences because it turns the meaning of a conference into something celebratory. It does this because a student led conferences shows off a student’s best work but also highlights things the child may need to work on giving the parents both sides to the student’s progress throughout the year.

Community is also very important for a child to know in my classroom As a teacher, I will need to be up to date on all things happening in the general community surrounding the school and things going on in the nation as a whole, Why? You need to know these things because your student’s will be participants in things around the community and being able to say “You did such a good job at the game on Saturday!” can really impact a child’s self-esteem and mood for the rest of the day (Amatea, 167). I know as a child I loved when my teacher made an effort to not only be my academic mentor but also a member of the community that helped cheer me on. In addition to students who come from diverse backgrounds, there will eventually be a special needs child in my classroom at one point or another, As a teacher, I am responsible for teaching every student regardless of their needs to the best of my ability.

To do this I will use differentiated instruction, This means using the specific strategies and teaching skills that each child needs to learn best from. Special needs children need this more than anything because they may have individualized education plans, IEP’s, in place that I will need to follow An example of this is having assistive technology available such as a word to speech technology for non- speaking students To conclude, in my classroom I expect to have many different students of many different backgrounds As a teacher I must accommodate and teach these students to the best of my ability. To do this, I will incorporate many strategies such as differentiated instruction, culturally responsive strategies, and have lots of parent involvement in my classroom, All of these things help include students and families from every background and encourage them to be successful.