DIVERSITY IS ALL ABOUT LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER

By: Dr. Javier H. Arizmendi

INTRODUCTION

The demographic makeup of United States society has changed dramatically in the last 25 years, and it will continue to change: "Living and working in our society will require that each of us become increasingly aware of the challenge of cultural change". The information covered here can help you: Increase your awareness of various dimensions of diversity. Examine your own cultural identity and how that identity affects your relationships with others. Become more aware of your own attitudes, perceptions, and feelings about various aspects of diversity. Make a commitment to increase your understanding of diversity issues.

DIVERSITY

Short answer :"Differences". Human diversity means differences among people. It's all of us in our rich and infinite variety.

CULTURE

Is the totally of the values and behaviors common to a large group of people also may include shared language and folklore, communication styles, and ideas and thinking patterns. Members of a cultures have similar expectations of life.

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH

All children face some mental health problems/issues, including:

• Anxiety about school performance • Problems dealing with parents & teachers • Unhealthy peer pressure• Common developmental, adjustment problems• Fears about starting school• School phobia• Dealing with death or divorce• Feeling depressed or overwhelmed• Drug or alcohol use• Suicidal ideation• Worrying about sexuality• Facing tough decisions• Considering dropping out of school

PHYSICAL AND MENTHAL HEALTH

IMPORTANT Schools can enhance the nature and scope of

mental health interventions, fill gaps, enhance effectiveness, address problems early, and reduce stigma.

Schools can positively impact educational outcomes by ensuring that all students are mentally & physically healthy.

RACE AND EQUITY

We need to respect all differences and similarities in our students and families, and learn how to be accepted by them establishing: trust, lots of communication and learning from their culture without CURIOSITY AND JUDGING.FAMILIES must be valued and honored for sharing all their cultural values.

TEACHERS should be actively and continuously exploring cultural awareness in their classroom.

POVERTY

Condition where people's basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter are not being met. Poverty is generally of two types:

1. Absolute poverty is synonymous with destitution and occurs when people cannot obtain adequate resources (measured in terms of calories or nutrition) to support a minimum level of physical health. Absolute poverty means about the same everywhere, and can be eradicated as demonstrated by some countries.

2. Relative poverty occurs when people do not enjoy a certain minimum level of living standards as determined by a government (and enjoyed by the bulk of the population) that vary from country to country, sometimes within the same country. Relative poverty occurs everywhere, is said to be increasing, and may never be eradicated.

ENGAGEMENT

There are 10 ways to promote students engage:

1. Enhance students’ self-belief

2. Enable students to work autonomously, enjoy learning relationships with others.

3. Recognize that teaching and teachers are central to engagement.

4. Create learning that is active, collaborative, and fosters learning relationships .

5. Create educational experiences for students that are challenging and enriching and that extend their academic abilities.

6. Ensure that institutional cultures are welcoming to students from diverse backgrounds.

7. Invest in a variety of support services.

8. Adapt to changing student expectations.

9. Enable students to become active citizens.

10. Enable students to develop their social and cultural capital.

REACHING DIVERSE LEARNERS

How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms by Carol Tomlinson.

The core of differentiation is a relationship between teachers and students. The teacher's responsibility is connecting content, process, and product. Students respond to learning based on readiness, interests, and learning profile.

Content, process, and product are what teachers address all the time during lesson planning and instruction. Lesson Plans can be differentiated, meeting diverse needs of students becomes obvious and easy to do --Differentiating Content is comprised of the knowledge, concepts, and skills that students need to learn based on the curriculum.

CONT. REACHING DIVERSE LEARNERS Differentiating content includes using various delivery formats

such as video, readings, lectures, or audio. Content may be chunked, shared through graphic organizers, addressed through jigsaw groups, or used to provide different techniques for solving equations. Students may have opportunities to choose their content focus based on interests.

Differentiating Process is how students make sense of the content. They need time to reflect and digest the learning activities before moving on to the next segment of a lesson. Think of a workshop or course where, by the end of the session, you felt filled to bursting with information, perhaps even overwhelmed. Processing helps students assess what they do and don't understand. It's also a formative assessment opportunity for teachers to monitor students' progress.

CONT. REACHING DIVERSE LEARNERS Differentiating Product is probably the most common form

of differentiation. Teachers give choices where students pick from formats, or students propose their own designs. Products may range in complexity to align to a respectful level for each student. (I'll discuss readiness in my next post.) The key to product options is having clear academic criteria that students understand. When products are cleanly aligned to learning targets, student voice and choice flourish, while ensuring that significant content is addressed.

Reach Higher Content, process, and product are key elements in lesson design. Fortunately, educators have many instructional tools that can differentiate these core areas of instruction, which sets the stage for students to respond through the next three DI elements: readiness, learning profiles, and interests -- the next three blog posts.

CREATIVITY HOW TO PROMOTE CREATIVITY IN YOUR CLASSROOM?

Every child is born with the potential of being creative. Creativity is a crucial aspect of any personality. It helps to analyze things in diverse and uncommon way. Creativity does not just happen; it needs to be cultivated, and the cultivation of creativity in every kid starts from the classroom.

Creativity can be promoted or cultivated and here is the list of strategies that can help teachers to promote or cultivate creativity in the classroom.

Emotional Connection Creativity can be cultivated best through emotional contacts. For instance, if

teachers give project to the students related to community problems like domestic violence. It can help in sprouting creativity because of the human touch and hence emotional connection in it. Classroom Environment 

Classroom environment plays a crucial role in cultivating creativity and confidence in students. Teachers can make classroom environment where each student’s voice matters a lot. Getting involved with the students in the community is the best way to give push to their creativity. Here how teachers can make classroom environment more effective for their students.

Permit frequent discussion and interaction amid students in the classroom. Make time for informal class opportunity for the students. Memorize each student’s name meanwhile ensure every student knows

everyone’s name.

CONT. CREATIVITY Use Of Different Models

  You can use various models to promote creativity in the students. A perfect model

can help in:

  Establishing connection amid the students' real lives and classroom. Inspire innovation and create chances to resolve novel issues. Lookout ways to spread learning prospects at classroom and home. Risk-Taking

  Risk-taking thinking or ability automatically prompts creativity. Therefore, teachers

must encourage risk-taking approach in the students. Here some of the strategies that teacher can follow to enhance risk-taking ability in their students.

  Offer safe environment that permits risk-taking Arouse willingness in the students to try new ideas Accept the mistakes made by students while trying new things Talk to other teachers and discuss what worked and what not. Active Learning

CONT. CREATIVITY Use Of Different Models

You can use various models to promote creativity in the students. A perfect model can help in:

Establishing connection amid the students' real lives and classroom. Inspire innovation and create chances to resolve novel issues. Lookout ways to spread learning prospects at classroom and home.

Risk-Taking Risk-taking thinking or ability automatically prompts creativity.

Therefore, teachers must encourage risk-taking approach in the students. Here some of the strategies that teacher can follow to enhance risk-taking ability in their students. 

Offer safe environment that permits risk-taking Arouse willingness in the students to try new ideas Accept the mistakes made by students while trying new things Talk to other teachers and discuss what worked and what not. Active Learning