My Experience At The Classroom

During my instructor led field experience, I was placed in a first grade classroom. The teacher in this classroom really had a great grasp on management in her classroom. She used the Classdojo app. The teacher had the option to award student points or take them away throughout the day. This was also an app that kept parents informed on their devices of how their child was doing throughout the day. I really enjoyed seeing this in real life. Hearing about this app in management or technology didn't do it justice. The students really were aware of the points and managed their behavior.

As we pulled up to the massive elementary school building, I begged my mom to let me stay home from school, just once. As usual, she said no. Realizing my attempt to get out of school was futile, I shouldered my backpack, swung open the door, and trudged over to the front door. I would rather be anywhere else than here. For the majority of my life, I attended public schools. It wasn’t rare for me to fail a test or even a whole class. It was because of these failures that I would get even more demotivated and threw away the idea of working hard or completing quality work altogether.

There are many ways we can reduce prejudice in a classroom and it’s important that we do that because it’s important that all students of different cultures are comfortable being in a class when getting their education. Three ideas for reducing prejudice in a classroom will be creating an inclusive environment, educate students about how prejudice is wrong, and teach students about different cultures. When it comes to creating an inclusive environment, the teacher must make sure she makes the environment of the class comfortable for students to be themselves. Teachers should make sure that classroom posters, pictures, books, music, toys, dolls, and other materials are diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, age, family situations, disabilities, and so on (“Understanding Prejudice”, 2002). In a classroom, a teacher should creative her

An anti-bias education is aligned with an ecological and sociocultural theory approach which views children’s development as being influenced by aspects of the child’s environment. Teachers creating an anti-bias classroom must teach children to accept one another regardless of their differences. In an anti-bias classroom, each individual child is unique and should feel valued and included and associate positive feelings with their differences (Wardle, 1996). It allows us to see children as a product of key factors that affect their experiences and lets each child develop to their full potential. (Wardle,

My feet hit hard on the cold cement steps as I slightly jogged up to Armstrong hall. I stepped into the old building and saw my classroom right away. No one was in the hall and all I heard was the air conditioner blowing. I entered the room at 20 minutes to six there was only one kid sitting in the back of the room. The room was tiny and plastered white without one pop of color in it. I take a seat in the middle of the desks as they were all facing the front wall that had a huge whiteboard on it. I reached down into my backpack and pulled out a notebook and pencil. As I looked back up more students are starting to fill the room, and the professor walked in. I watched as people walked past me to go sit somewhere else and wondered who it would be that would sit in the empty cold chair next to me. I heard a laptop slammed onto the counter and I looked over at the professor. He had anger written all over his face as he struggled to hook up his laptop. I was expecting him to ask a student if anyone was good with technology and could help him. He did not speak up to ask one of us and he just sat there struggling till he finally gave up.

It is crucial for educators to value, understand and incorporate every child’s cultural diversity in the classroom (The Early Years Learning Framework Professional Learning Program, 2011). This means educators needs to deal with any bias beliefs they might/may hold. For example, some children might not participate in the classroom because

Creating an environment which promotes equality, growth, and safety is important in the teaching profession. Teachers need to ensure students have opportunities to learn and use their individual abilities in the classroom. Students should be given the chance to make connections with the real-world through the given instruction and be able to see their growth as the class progresses. Two classes in which the teacher was able to implement and sustain practices of anti-bias instruction was in an upper level Spanish class and in an English class called World Literature.

Diversity in the classroom can come in many forms, these include but are not limited to differences in language, culture, social status, religion, and learning styles. As educators, it will be our job to make sure that we are able to support our diverse students in their learning, and it is also essential that we make our classroom a place where diversity is accepted and all students feel safe engaging in the learning. Not all students that we encounter will have been exposed to diversity and it is our job to help them recognize that underneath all the differences, there are so many important similarities. The best way to do this according to Matthew Lynch “is to provide students with ample evidence that people that don’t look like them are, at the core, people just like them. Such a viewpoint can be taught by promoting a culture of learning from one another rather than a culture of passing judgment on differences in values and beliefs” (2012). By teaching our students to embrace diversity, we are creating an environment where all our students can thrive.

Despite the breakdowns I would experience from not understanding what was being taught in class, I was able to improve my situation. Instead of suffering in silence with my confusion, I began asking my teacher more questions during class lectures. I would even come in at seven in the morning to discuss my problem about understanding the logic behind the math with my teacher. Not only did I speak with my teacher more, I also bought a study book for the class and began watching Chemistry videos from Bozeman and Khan Academy to teach myself any topics that were not clear to me during class.

Diversity is what makes each person in a classroom different from each other, even though you could be the same color of the person sitting next you, does not mean you are the same. The classroom environment should look and feel welcoming for all children. So it can show the diversity of the world in which we live in. Children should be provided with essential information about who they are and what is important, making an effort for this to happen creates a setting that is rich in possibilities for exploring the diversity of each student in a classroom across the world. A few of the educational practices today is geared towards supporting and eliminating ethnic differences between students in classrooms today.

Today, December 9, 2017, the date of my first ever final exam in a, full semester, college class. This marks a very exciting but stressful time for me.

I think that by teaching lessons that incorporate diversity students can identify and overcome biases, and as a teacher I will also learn about my biases from the students in my care.

Our schools are changing and becoming more diverse every year. Because of this, it is vital that all teachers learn how to design an anti-bias curriculum that works for the students and their families they see every day. However, learning how to teach young children about diversity and social justice is not something that comes naturally to many teachers nor is it something that can be learned in a one semester of school. It is an ongoing process that requires a willingness to continually revise teaching practices in response to the changing needs of the children and their families. Anti-bias education requires teachers to acknowledge and accept diversity and confront the truth that differences in background, education, and ethnicity do affect how people are treated in society.

It is important for educators to think critically about the issues and opportunities that can occur due to diversity and act to reduce discrimination and unfairness. This can be done by educators providing the children with opportunities to learn about the differences and similarities of cultures (DEEWR, 2009).

Today, I came prepared to teach my lesson as I was supposed to but times got switched up and plans got changed. In some ways I'm glad this happened because it taught me an important lesson of being flexible. As a teacher, things aren't always going to go smoothly and on track; there are always mix-ups along the way and learning how to cope with those are imperative. Although I didn't have a chance to teach today, I conducted morning meeting and read some of the book “Crenshaw” to the class. After, the class and I walked down to the computer room for coding. They just started creating different objects that preform different functions. For example, students chose between a bee, earthquake, dumpster, or car to create and make moveable. I