Embracing Culture

Hey everyone!

Recently, I've been talking a lot in one of my education classes about diversity. Honestly, it's something I hadn't thought about as a future public school teacher, but it's true: American public schools are very diverse. Coming from a small private high school (full of mainly Caucasian kids), I forgot just how many different kinds of people I will be teaching in the future. From Hispanics, to African American children, to children from all different parts of Asia, America truly is a melting pot.

As we discussed this further in my class, I realized that I'll need to be aware of these differing cultures in order to ensure that each of my students learns the information I'm trying to convey. I read an interesting article explaining how everyone learns differently, but if you embrace these differences as a teacher, your students will get much more out of the class. I hope I will be able to relate to all kinds of students and help my students become learners of the world and not just of America. Our country is unique in the fact that we have so many different cultures and practices within our boarders and we need to remind our students of not only where they came from, but where their fellow classmates have as well.

All this talk about culture made me think back to a project my younger sister did in 2nd grade. Each student chose a country to study. This included the common religions there, the food, the holidays, the style, and their history. It was their biggest project of the year, but I truly believe every student found it more fun than like homework. It was a great sight. All the kids were lined up outside with their own booth, poster, and knick-knacks. My sister even wore a traditional Polish outfit for her booth. They let the whole school walk through during lunch and looking back, I'm so proud of my school for coming up with such a great assignment. The students had the opportunity to not only learn about all different kinds of countries, but also looked deeper into one in particular as well as share their knowledge with other students. I hope to inspire my students someday with the same engagement in world culture.