For my final blog I would like to review what I have learned this semester and how my perception has changed towards teaching and how I will view my teaching techniques in the future. In connection with EDUC 8P19, another course that I am taking right now (which focuses on classroom management) I find my perception changing on how I view myself as a future teacher. Practices and theories are becoming more relevant to the specific classroom setting. Upon doing my placement for EDUC 8P19 I found myself making a lot of connections to the theories learned in both EDUC 8P19 and EDUC 4P19. What struck me most was the amount of diversity within the classroom, not only in my placement but in my education classes was the importance of understanding your students and their different stories.
http://amsetze.wikispaces.com/file/view/embracing_diversity.jpg/105880733/embracing_diversity.jpg
During genius hour, my group chose to focus on the idea of knowing your students stories, and their cultural diversity that contributes to the overall shared classroom culture. For our project we created a “Humans of Education” blog which is based on the Humans of New York blog. Our blog displays a variety of pictures with students personal experiences in which each student gives a brief testimony about their own story. Each story described by the various students we interviewed highlights their own experience in the classroom with diversity and how their story affected their education. At the beginning of the semester Professor Drake discussed the importance of story and understanding how stories are developed and how they are continually changing. Through the genius hour project I learned in more depth the importance of story in the classroom.
Furthermore, through placement I also learned the importance of diversity and story within the classroom. I really enjoyed this because it opened my eyes to actually see how diverse the classroom environment is. It is one thing to read about diversity and another to experience it. The high school that I was in was located in a low to middle income area in which the students were not only ethnically diverse, but also economically diverse. Some students within each of the classrooms also have learning and behavioural issues which effects their educational story. One teacher expressed to me that she was dependent on doing vertical scans in order to understand what the students had learned prior to them entering her classroom in order to set up expectations. Once that was understood, the teacher created an individual classroom culture in which the students would understand the learning expectations based on their level of prior education. It would allow for them to bring in their own cultural stories to interpret their new classroom curriculum. Being in this classroom allowed me to understand how theory relates to practice and was very eye opening as to how crucial cultural diversity and stories are to the classroom learning environment.
Lastly, I wanted to discuss how my own story has changed as a result of this course. Understanding my own story towards education and further challenging notions of 21st century skills has added to how I view myself as a teacher. Before entering this class I was unaware of the concept of 21st century skills but was pleased to find out that I am a product of these teaching methods. Therefore, incorporating and being aware of these skills and understanding the importance of technology in the classroom has given me the confidence to want to create a classroom environment and culture in which technology is able to bring students together regardless of their different stories. But lastly, I also want to use technology to embrace different stories and ethnicity which will allow for my students to be proud of their own story and to use this to further their own education.
Below this video discusses how teachers can become culturally diverse educators in order to understand and capitalize on the backgrounds of their students:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV36efjBKRU
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