Classroom: A Conceptual Analysis

Teachers should advocate for all students’ backgrounds and cultures to better their students’ learning. To accomplish this, teachers should be informed about their students’ home lives, be conscious of how and what they should be taught, and ultimately make their education a priority. Students from poverty in a multicultural classroom need the correct tools and teaching approaches from their teachers.

In the 21st century, teachers will be standing in front of many more racially and culturally diverse classrooms than ever before. Teachers now need to be more aware of culture in their classrooms more than teachers before them. In light of this, it is important to be able to be sensitive and aware of the needs of such diverse students. Teachers also have to be sensitive to the social and family issues of their students. In this new age of teaching, educators now have the ability to save children from potentially harmful situations in their home life.

The benefits of promoting and valuing cultural diversity within a school setting is extremely important as children and young people will learn to understand all the different cultures and respect them. Learning about different cultures and religions helps a young mind broaden and see that no matter what culture, race or ethnicity another person is they still have equal rights and opportunities and can achieve the same goals as each other. For example, many people see all Indian/Pakistani adults as doctors, this is a common form of stereotyping and if an English child is lead to believe that this is only the case then they may not want to follow that career path due to feeling that they are not allowed. Within my setting we promote cultural diversity within our resources, this means that when we show our pupils books or home-made resources to help assist them with their learning we always try to ensure that all ethnic backgrounds and abilities are shown

The primary goal of providing cultural diversity in the classroom is to help all students become respectful of the multitudes of cultures and people that they’ll interact with once they exit the educational setting. This can be an overwhelming job for the educator, given that the world at large is substantially more diverse than their immediate learning environment. In the typical educational setting, there is a tendency for students to exhibit classic behaviors relating to their own culture and upbringing.

Culture lives within every human on earth. Societies and countries thrive off of diverse cultural and different backgrounds, working together to survive in a community. The United States is privileged to be a home that welcomes diversity and different cultures. However, with different social norms sometimes two worlds can collide, creating bigotry or unjust assumptions due to a lack of cultural competence. Education systems need to be aware and appropriately train teachers to be open minded and understanding of all ethnicities, backgrounds, and cultures.

Some teachers assume that students have been taught to respect other cultures. Educators are charged with the responsibility to explicitly teach, model, and consistently promote respect for diversity within schools. This can only be done if teachers are culturally competent, sensitive to the culture within their classrooms, and school community. There are various levels of cultural awareness and sensitivity. When teachers explore their own culture and those of others, they become more responsive towards identifying and addressing students' learning needs. Villegas and Lucas (2007) listed the following as six qualities of culturally responsive

As an educator, it is vital to either reinforce or challenge student’s beliefs, assumptions, and their stereotypes. As mentioned in EYLF (2013, pg. 21I educators awareness and cultural competence are the principals of diversity, equity, fairness, and social justice. It is able to assist

Recognition and connection with diverse cultural groups within the classroom brings understanding of similarities and differences and ensures awareness that promotes equal access to learning (Weinstein, Curran, & Tomlinson-Clarke, 2003). A working background knowledge of students from different cultural backgrounds allows us to be culturally responsive by facilitating willingness to learn about and interact with our students and develop the sense of connection and belonging for a positive learning environment (McDonald, 2010).

Having a diversified teacher and student body gives students a chance to experience different cultures first hand and create their own inclination. When I attended tucker I experienced all types of cultures first hand; I had a chance to learn what it truly meant to be Japanese, Indian, French, and so on; when I came to Miller grove, a majority black school I was asked if there was ice in Africa by a fellow peer

This Learning By Design (LBD) plan has been written for a Year 5 Class consisting of twenty-seven (27) students, fourteen (14) boys and thirteen (13) girls. The student body consists of several Year 5 prefects. Perfects are voted in students that take care of students in other younger grades and set good examples for them. This class of students is based on student data in the learning area of English. The data places students into five (5) different ability groups based on their English skills, knowledge and understandings. The focus of this assessment is structured on the learning area English based on vocabulary, decoding/word attack, fluency, comprehension of fiction/non-fiction (or informational) texts and spelling.

For a classroom shows how and what the children are learning. There is many concepts that go into a children 's classroom; like the room, the objects and/or subjects, functions behind everything in the room. For Paley everything has a meaning that is in that room and it plays an important role for all the children that come into that room. The classroom and the children have a hand-in-hand process to fill the room of experiences and progress to learn more. Each teacher has a different view and goals for the classroom and the children in that classroom, then it can affect how the class learns through the experiences that they have. According to Worth and Grollman (2003), “the content areas are separated to help teachers set goals and guide children 's experiences, but in most cases, these areas will be integrated in classroom work” (p. 41) this is how I think on most classrooms where the teacher has goals and guides the experience for understanding. The classroom is focused on what the children are focused on and what is being learned throughout the year, not the focus of the teacher and what is focused on items or subjects that the children would not understand.

This individual explained how they absolutely stress cultural differences and common aspects of their students in the hopes of building a tolerance and an awareness of all cultures and backgrounds.

Alina was observed during the morning in her third grade class. At the start of the observation, Alina appeared focused and engaged as she worked independently on a math assignment. After a few minutes, Mrs. Hippchen, Alina’s third grade teacher, reviewed the math answers to the class. As Mrs. Hippchen reviewed the answers and called upon students to provide answers, Alina appeared focused as she listened and wrote on her math worksheet. She occasionally looked over at a peer’s paper during the activity. When Mrs. Hippchen asked the students to raise their hands if they obtained the correct answer to a question, Alina raised her hand. At one point, Alina was called upon to solve a math problem. She incorrectly answered the question, however, with her teacher’s feedback, she was able to correct her answer.

[Multicultural teachers]…recognize when some students are not learning, reach out to them, and try different pedagogical strategies to help them learn. They do not allow students to sit in their classroom without being engaged with the content. They do not ignore the students who are withdrawn, depressed, or resistant to classroom work. They do everything they can to help students see themselves as learners and value learning. (p.378) It is important as an educator to connect the curriculum to the student’s culture and to real world experiences because this will aid students in learning. Ladson-Billings (1995) gives an excellent example of how students from different cultures may look at a mathematics question differently. In short, the students were given a math problem asking would it be more efficient for an adult to buy a monthly pass or to pay everyday for the month. Well the African American students brought up a good point. They asked how many jobs the person is working whereas the dominant culture probably assumed that the adult was working one job. This shows the importance of knowing the different cultures your students come from. Gollnick & Chinn (2006) also points out that “teaching must start from the students’ life experiences, not the teacher’s life experiences.” Teachers must be mindful that they may have not grown up like their students have. Mathematics should also be taught democratically. I don’t believe that a teacher should stand in front of the

On May 1o of 2016 I went into room 7 at Roswell Head start to observe in the classroom. The teacher in that room was Lisa and the assistant was Jessica and a grandma in the room. The ages of the children in the class varied from three years old to five years old. I stayed in the room observing all day from 7:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. which was a good seven hours. This was a mixed classroom there. They have of classroom of 19 kids enrolled in this class. The classroom environment was secure and safe and the children seemed to be happy to come to school. The classroom was bright and had the children’s pictures hanging up the word wall had the letters and numbers and they bulletin boards had the children’s homework up on the board which was bees out of the letter B and they had lambs from the children’s hand on the grass. The room was set up with the quiet centers with the quiet and the loud with the loud. The room was cluttered with things on top of the cubbies, but everything in the room was labeled with pictures and the name on the shelves, cubbies, and all the bins. The center’s had the description on it what type of development was going to be used at each of the centers. They had a music center with a CD player and CD’s and they had an assortment of instruments that could be played. They had a housekeeping center in which had a lot of different types of dress up and different types of plastic food. They had stuffed animals, hats, plates, cups, forks, spoons, and knives for the