There are a few questions I am still struggling with as a future teacher and having students of different backgrounds and cultures in my classroom. I currently have some students who are African American and Hispanic.
Some questions are:
- What can we do to influence fellow teachers around us that may not see diversity as a positive thing?
- How do I show my students that I am not a regular White teacher that is 'superitory'?
- What impact does this have on the school is I am the only teacher willing to appreciate diversity?
To contuine my professional growth for the future, I plan on reading Lisa Delpit's book, Other people's children : Cultural conflict in the classroom. Gary Howard had talked about this book multiple times in his text and it sounds like it would be a good source to compare what Howard and Delpit have in common and their difference in diversity. I also am looking into an ESL minor. Even though I am graduating in December and will not be able to complete it before graduating, I am looking to start the program after graduating in the Adult Studies program to learn more about ESL students as that has become a huge impact on education.
It seems to me that you learned a ton from your book, maybe not so much that you did not already know about, but things that made you think. You asked a question during your blog about "What impact does this have on the school if I am the only teacher willing to appreciate diversity?" I think this is a great question to ask and I have even wondered that myself. I think our generation as upcoming teachers is especially unique. We have been taught so delicately the methods of teaching, and how to be the best most effective teacher in our school and we have even learned a ton about diversity in the classroom. The reason why I think we are unique is because we have been brought up around diversity our entire lives. We all have had neighbors and friends of different races and since we have been around that since we were born, we do not tend to be closed to diversity, but open to it. I think what you, and other teachers in our generation, bring to our schools is a new way of thinking. Many teachers today do not agree with diversity because they have had a different life perspective on it because of their generation. We bring to schools the idea that all children can learn and all children have hope. One day in the near future schools will be run by people of our generation and diversity will be welcomed. That is what we bring to schools, and that is the reason why when we get teaching jobs they will not want to let us go because we will be indispensible.
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