Each year a teacher anticipates the introduction of new students. Teachers have to get to know their students individually, as a whole, and make adjustments time and time again in the classroom. Those adjustment periods can be frequent or not depending on classroom organization. There are many aspects to organization with the obvious being time management and the layout of the room, but organization culturally is sometimes forgotten.
I believe in the future I will incorporate a lot of group work in my classroom. My wish for my students is to make connections with each other through art, discussions, and working collaboratively together on a project. Having five different minds with varying backgrounds create something has the potential to be very interesting and exciting. I would like to see my student's art create controversy, enlightenment, and open doors for others. It is like going into an ice cream parlor and having 32 flavors all being vanilla versus going into an ice cream parlor and having 32 flavors all being different.
I am also interested in having my students exhibit who they are as individuals. I want them to showcase where they come from and teach me something new about their political views, home life, family, holidays, traditions, fashion, etc. It is important to make students feel unique as an individual and not only identify with the groups in class.
I would like my class to be held as a democracy and vote on what works for our class and what does not. I want my students voices to be heard as a whole and individually. I will do my best in accommodating and understanding my students needs and various cultural backgrounds when teaching my lessons or showing them art. I recently read a story about a teacher taking her students to an art gallery where there was a picture of a dead baby wrapped in cloth. The group consisted of ESL students from South America, Asia, and Mexico. The teacher was worried about how culturally this image might negatively affect her students, but their reaction was the opposite. The group who was normally shy with using their English was drawn to the image and began asking questions and opening up more than the teacher has ever seen. I will push boundaries and ask my students to push boundaries with their art. All if not most art carries some form of cultural relevance and my classroom shall be a place that caters to that idea.
"Art lives to let us have different versions of vision and imagination, different versions of who we are, where we come from, where we are going, and what we might be."
-Rayna Green
Rothstein-Fisch, Trumbull. (2008). Managing diverse classrooms. (pp. 1-47). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Cahan, Kocur. (1996). Contemporary art and multiculturalism education. (pp. 39-45). New York, NY: The New Museum of Contemporary Art.
Your reflection is similar to mine in some ways. I enjoyed the chapters from Managing Diverse Classrooms so I decided to read your reflection. I loved your ideas about group work and encouraging creativity. I think it is so important for students to develop creativity and collaboration skills. Your ice cream analogy was very creative. I love your ideas to help students express themselves. Your ideas about incorporating art are great. At UNT they offer many classes for college students that combine art and science. I think this would be a great thing to do throughout school in many content areas.
ReplyDeleteEmily
Leigh,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your point that teachers must make adjustments time and time again in the classroom. Depending on the cultural makeup of students, adjustments may need to be made frequently. I currently have 12 ESL students in my classrooms who speak 7 different languages. In order to bridge each of us together, adjustments have to be made. As an educator, it’s imperative to build rapport with my students. Most of my students come from a different culture than me, and as much as possible I try to learn more about their culture. Before the holidays, my students completed a holiday scrapbook page about their cultural celebrations. I learned so many new faucets of their culture. The students were so excited to exhibit who they are as individuals. You made some great points about integrating culture in the classroom.