Welcome+to+Our+Classroom+Community

"Welcome to Our Classroom Community"

1. Where do my students and their caregivers come from?

The students that are in my classroom come from a variety of places, but the majority of them come from Mexico. If the individual student is Hispanic, but was born here in the United States, then their parents are most likely from Mexico. The rest of the classroom is a mix of Polish, Arabian, and Caucasian children. All of my students might come from totally different back grounds but they all have one thing in common and that is they come to school to get the best education they can get.

2. How can I include their language/s and culture/s in my classroom?

The students in my class who are Hispanic are bilingual and do need special instruction to keep them engaged and included in classroom activities. To do so I have incorporated many posters and instructions for my lesson plans in Spanish as well as English. It is important for me to have everything labeled in my room in English and Spanish because I think it would be beneficial for all the students to know how to identify all the common things in both languages. The Spanish ELL students will benefit the most from having instructions in English and Spanish because as the year progresses the ELL students will become familiar with routines and procedures in the room. Also to have all the cultures in my room recognized and celebrated, I will have all of the flags from around the room hanging. This will honor and pay respect to all of the cultures our society is exposed to. We will also be exploring in dept the different cultures in class during Social Studies when we do our lesson on "Identity". My main goal to incorporate all of the cultures in my classroom is to make the students feel more welcomed and give them comfort that everyone is to be accepted no matter what race he/she is.

3. Where can I find resources about my students language/s and culture/s?

The greatest place at my school for resources about my students culture is the library. The librarian is my main person I go to when I need information about how to go about doing lessons and instruction when it comes to cultures. Something I may say or do while teaching might be acceptable here in the United States, but could be considered rude or ignorant in another. I will pay special attention on how to be respectful of all the many differences some cultures have. This is why I find it useful to have the librarian's assistance when exploring the cultural differences we have in our society. My students language is predominately Spanish and the best resource for me to find out more about Spanish, would be my students. As much as I am here to teach my students, they are also here to teach me. I know very little Spanish, but I learn quickly and with the help of my students I'm sure I could pick up on some Spanish.

4. What are political/economic social problems my students may have experienced in another country or in their current neighborhoods?

In the neighborhood that my students reside in, their are some, but very few crime activities that take place. The public high school has some gang related issues, but nothing that puts our students harms way. Information that I have found shows that most families live together with a mother and father and the divorce rate is not as high as other areas of the city. With a low divorce rate, the economic income for majority of the families is between $50 K-$74.9 K. Most of my students never show a struggle with having the right supplies for school or having the appropriate clothing to come to school. I am lucky to be teaching in a school where it possible to get help for students if they had any problems with supplies or clothing. We have reliable teachers and staff that would provide students in any unfortunate circumstance.

5. What are their parents' relationship to and perceptions of teachers and schools?

The parents' of the children in my class are very supportive. I have parents who care and value their child's education and show it by so many ways. I very rarely have issues with students missing school for a extensive amount of time, but if it does happen, the reasons why the student is missing is because they are really sick or have an occasional pre-planned vacation that overlaps with the school schedule. I was able to meet with the parents early on in the beginning of the year and let them know my expectations for my students and allow them to ask me any questions they might have. I find it that if parents know who exactly is teaching their child everyday, it is more comfortable to address any issue they might have regardless of what it is.

6. What kind of teaching styles are my students accustomed to?

The teaching styles that my students are accustomed to is a great deal of modeling and group activities. The students respond well if I give several examples or demonstrate what they should be doing before they do it on their own. I can not expect anything from my students if they don't have the proper background knowledge to build off from. Building background knowledge is also something that my students prefer. Doing activities and learning new material that relates to prior things we have done, makes the learning interesting and fun. All of the hard work that my students do is displayed around the room on the bulletin board and on the door to exemplify how hard work pays off. This motivates my students to try their hardest and want to achieve high expectations that they have for themselves, as well as the great expectations I have for them.

7. What word/phrases in my students' language can I learn?

I think by knowing how to greet my students when they walk in and out of my class would be a positive thing that they will appreciate from me. By showing them that I am trying to learn their language and not having fear of practicing will encourage them to come out of their shells and do the same. Along with greetings, I could learn how to ask simple everyday questions. For example, how are you, is your homework complete, did you bring money for lunch, etc,. It will then be my responsibility to learn how to listen and understand their responses. One last thing that I think I can take on the responsibility of learning how to say in Spanish would be encouraging sayings. for example, good job, keep it up, etc,.

8. How does my classroom environment celebrate my students' linguistic and cultural assets?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">As previously said, I will display the flags around the class as well as their work that they have done. Displaying their work is my main goal to do throughout the year. I want the students to know that whatever they turn in I'm going to expect that it is the best that they can do. Even if it might not be the best picture or writing, as long as I could see they tried and put forth effort, I will be happy to display their work. It also gives the ELL students to look at and be able to want to try harder to succeed if they are not 100% confident in what they did.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">9. How can I include my students' culture/s and language/s in my curriculum?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">I could include my students' culture in my lessons by doing something like my Thematic Unit. The theme is "Identity" and is designed to learn more about the cultures within our classroom. By doing interviews with each other, creating poems, and researching about different cultures, we as a class can be more aware of the diversity within the class. By doing this we can become aware of things that we have never been exposed to. When we do this we become more knowledgeable and pass on things that we have learned to other people.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">10. How can I invite my students' families and community members into my classroom?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">By having culminating celebrations as we did in our thematic units and in the school we are observing at, really gets the students, parents, and faculty involveed. This culiminting celebration could be after units that the students have done projects and created work to be proud of. Having a celebration to bring everyone together gives the children something to be proud of and promotes positivity. Having an open environment that everyone feels comfortable in, including the parents of my students will really open up the doors to many opportunties. Everyone has something to offer and if we come together to share, we can all take something from it and learn from those experiences. I hope by doing this other teachers and faculty members will feel comfortable with doing the same thing and showing the students to be proud of the work they have done.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">References: <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">[|Multicultural Classrooms]