Diversity
It is my professional duty to maintain a safe, nurturing, and creative environment conducive for learning and building productive relationships without bias, while inspiring students to strive for academic success and acquire skills to be effective citizens in the communities where they live.
Today the term diversity has evolved to include several groups. As the dynamics in classrooms across the nation change so do the demographics. Educators are called to the forefront to implement strategies that include children from different backgrounds, races, ethnicities, religions, socioeconomic environments, physical and intellectual capabilities and gender orientation. One may think teachers are magicians. Surely there is a magic act to differentiating lessons to meet the needs of so many different learning dynamics in a classroom.
However, as Dr. Randall Sprick mentions in his book, it is essential that every educator get to know their students. I am happy to say that I am currently in graduate school and have taken several courses that provide recommendations for diversifying teaching strategies.
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Below are a few ways I differentiate my lessons:
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* Students with hearing impairment may use recording devices or captions
* Students with physical impairments may alter movements
* Students with ADHD are sat away from easy distractions posed by windows or doors.
* Students are given a 3-5 minute break in the middle of class to refresh and move around. This deters regular and often unnecessary restroom breaks.
* Students with mandated plans may receive additional time to complete assignments.
* Course content, field trips and guest artists allow opportunities to study different cultural arts forms.
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Sprick, R. S. (2013). Discipline in the secondary classroom: A positive approach to
behavior management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Brand.