"Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression. - Dr. Hiam Ginnot

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture



Perspectives on Diversity and Culture
An especially effective method to deepen one’s grasp of any topic is to listen to and then reflect on the ideas of others. This week, you have an opportunity to use that method and ask other people what they think about diversity and culture. You can then blog about the answers you received as well as your new insights.

Culture and diversity responses:
·         "Culture could be thought of someone's background whether it be religious, artistic, personal etc. It's how someone was brought up.   Diversity is the multiple ways and differences in every single human being. Today we live in a diverse society that bring many different cultures to the table."
·         "Culture: central concept in anthropology. A particular society at a particular time and place which can include language, manners, art, religion, etc.  Diversity - the state or quality of being different or varied. There are lots of different types of diversity and can refer to contents, communications, science, and politics and law - a few. Different elements or variety - the inclusion of different types of people."
·         "Diversity is having a mix of people from all different ethnicities and cultures. Culture is what defines your roots not your race. For example, being a hillbilly is a culture not your race"
·         "Diversity simply means many different types. It isn't exclusive to just people.  Culture refers to a certain group's set of norms. It is large in scope and can encompass things such as language, dress, rituals, foods, likes and dislikes, etc."
·         "diversity- various types/options/selections of anything Culture- the quirks, oddities, traditions, styles, habits, beliefs,...etc. that influence a people group"
·         "Culture are all of the traditional aspects of a group of people... Diversity is respecting the differences between the groups."
·         "Simply put- cultures are the ties that connect a group of people together; diversities are the distinct differences among individuals (singularly or individual groups)"
·         "Culture could be thought of as commonalities/traditions/ties that a group of people share, or the shared knowledge & art through the ages...which would also be a part of the first thought... Diversity is just having more than one type of something-from a diversity of colors of M&Ms to the diversity of languages worldwide, as well as people"

I posted on a personal social media site for some help in understanding each person's personal opinion on these two words.  I have a great group of encouragers and supporters, so I knew I would get answers quite quickly.  My anticipation upon responses were that people would be thoughtful and real with their replies.  The answers that they responded with are congruent with what we have been studying in our text.  They intertwine as we discussed on our discussion board this past week in regards to traditions and how we can bring our community of culture in the classroom that would combine things such as language, attire, and other rituals (including food).  One of my responders mentioned these exact items when they described the word "culture."  Also, one responder described diversity as simple as a bag of colored M&M's.  Sometimes, relating terminology like culture and diversity to something as simple as a bag of colored M & M's is what our families need from us.  We try so hard to be professional and use educated terminology.  I thought this was such a great example, because while we do have some families that expect more educated responses, we do also have families that need an example as simple as a bag of colored M & M's to relate to the concept being taught.

While the discussion wasn't as deep as I had hoped on this social media site in regards to this discussion, there wasn't much left out.  There were no suggestions on how to incorporate culture and diversity within a classroom setting; so I went back and asked on the same social media site "How would you incorporate a diverse culture into a classroom setting or a community of different cultures?"  Here were some of their responses:

·         "I would have a world map displayed. Using yarn and stick pins, students' names would be strung to different countries and attached to our city.  When my students were reading a story of where the character was bilingual, I had someone read the story to them in Spanish."
·         "Brown egg white egg crack them open."
·         At our center we celebrate EVERY holiday with different activities! We have guests read, dance or bring items in. We also have multicultural items in our rooms at all times...instruments, music, books, puzzles, dolls, animals, etc! In February we will have our own Olympics! Each class is a country and we decorate, learn all about that country with our kids! Each class gets medals according to how their is doing in the actual olympics!
·         Read a lot of books with the main character from different countries and with different cultures

Hearing another person's view on a topic, like culture and diversity, assist in understanding the community I am within.  When I understand this community, then I can relate and meet the needs of them more.  This discussion about culture and diversity influenced my brain to start moving in regards to how I can incorporate more diversity within my classroom setting and using some of their suggestions, tweaked a bit for my classroom age group.  I began to search on the Internet some different sites and blogs that other teachers use to share their diverse classrooms.  Here are a few of the things that I found as well as ideas that I thought would be great to incorporate and show the diversity and cultures around us.  Maybe you will like them as well.


·         What successful teachers do in classrooms, this is a book that offers 71 Research-Based Classroom Strategies for New and Veteran Teachers.  http://www.amazon.com/dp/141291616X/ref=rdr_ext_tmb



·         Family tree or family photo area.  Not only does this supply children with the comforts of seeing their loved ones when they are sad; but this will showcase their culture as each family brings in their photos.


 ·         Music Mondays, allowing each Monday music from a different country to be played and the children can dance to it or even make their own sounds from it.  You can connect this with a story (as suggested from one of my interactions above).

·         Family Fridays, showcase a family each week and let them make a poster all about their family and their culture.  How awesome would it be if we could also let them bring in their favorite snack to share during this time as well!

3 comments:

  1. Hello Shelly,

    Your blog was very insightful. You gave many wonderful ways to introduce diversity into the classroom as well as showing how social media can play a huge part in getting to know different cultures. Great blog.

    Joyce Galloway

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  2. Thank you Joyce. Blogging is a fun experience! I love the collaboration!

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  3. Hi Shelly
    You have very concrete ideas for early educators to use in their classrooms. What a great way to get families engaged without being too formal. We all learn better when we are having fun!

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