Final Reflection

Final Reflection

            When I saw the course title, I immediately thought of our immigrant population but after reading the course description and getting the text for the class, I realized I was going to be delving into many other layers of diversity. 

            The chapter on race and ethnicity tied two elements that I had always thought of separately together.  I try to teach tolerance for differences in people in my classroom throughout the year.  When the opportunity and discussion comes up with my students, I encourage them to share ideas and opinions as long as they are respectful of others.  We continually talk about how we should not judge others by the color of their skin but by the content of their character and how they treat others.  I believe that this can make a difference in our children’s attitudes throughout life if they are introduced to these concepts early.

            I think that teaching tolerance laps over into the chapters on culture & language and poverty & Socioeconomic class.  We need to not only teach tolerance but compassion.  My school has many students from other lands and I usually have the ELL students for my grade level.  I always refer to my class as the “rainbow class” referring to the color, cultural, and language differences that students bring with them to school.  I think children can learn so much from each other.  My ELL parents on the other hand, have not always gotten the consideration from me that they deserve…not out of ill will but out of not realizing how important I need to view them to their child’s success.  This is one factor I will always take in consideration and make efforts to make them feel welcome and included.  I have over the years come to worry more and more about my poor students well being and always try to give them a little extra time to finish work at school or a little extra help from me or other students since they don’t always receive that at home for various reasons.  I always treat them with respect.

            The final three chapters, gender, sexual orientation, and religion, I identified with but did not find them to necessarily be things that are usually integrated much if at all in a first grade classroom.  Nonetheless, I did identify ways that they could be included if there became the need.  I will say that was one of the most difficult things that I had to accomplish thinking about but I was happy when I came up with an idea. 

            All of these items are things that need to be addressed in our schools and teachers and administrator need to constantly be thinking of new ideas and getting some outside help at times.  There always will be old practices happening in school that need to be changed as peoples attitudes and awareness are awakened.  Education before decisions are made will help people to make good choices after time for reflection. One thing that I did not see brought up was the issue of adoption and how that affects students as they go to school.  Many of these students are adapted and are from different cultures and may have different skin tones. 

Questions:  How do we help these adopted children fit in and feel included?  How do we help the other children in our class understand?