Week+7+-+Diversity.+Who+are+your+students?

=__Week 7 - Diversity. Who are your students?__= by Janis Haymes

I know that Clare was absent from the lecture this morning due to her Mexican Swine Flu, so I'll do a quick summary of the lecture to start off with.

Who are your students and who do you know?
Professor Tanya Fitzgerald


 * Teachers**
 * do more than just teach
 * are role models for behaviour and expectations
 * must earn respect from students, colleagues and the community
 * must create and respect boundaries
 * aim to make a difference

As a teacher
 * you need to understand your students, don't make assumptions
 * understand yourself - how, what and why you teach

//"It is not our purpose to become each other; recognise each other, learn to see the other and honour him/her for what he/he is."// Herman Hesse


 * Critical questions**
 * What clues do you have to get to know/identify students?
 * What strategies might you use to get to know your students?
 * How can you identify diverse talents?
 * What is you responsibility as a teacher?
 * never judge students by the colour of their skin, background or accent etc

Why is it important?
 * because not "leaving children behind" means starting form where they are
 * some children need a particular style
 * the child's condition may be intense enough to be a matter of psychological health and positive self-esteem - it can either block or slow learning
 * intrinsic motivation is more powerful than external rewards
 * starting with individualised knowledge of learners is fundamental to good instructional practice


 * Knowing/understanding students**
 * create class slideshows
 * get students to put in information about themselves
 * every student is represented and it allows them and you to get to know everyone
 * spin a classroom web
 * create connections between children
 * displaying the web in the classroom creates a sense of place for students
 * students should feel an ownership of a room - it's not the teachers room
 * observe interactions
 * during yard duty observe your students in a different environment from the classroom
 * ask respectful questions
 * never assume
 * try not to group students inappropriately, ie. gender or ethnicity

Disrupted schooling In England, 100,000 students are not in school on any given day.
 * migrant children
 * refugees
 * chronic illness (asthma, etc)
 * children kept at home
 * children who move around families
 * children who have been removed from schools

Diversity and complexity
 * start early and get children to know and celebrate themselves
 * encourage openness about backgrounds, beliefs, families
 * discuss differences/uniqueness
 * use the curriculum and learning acitivities to emphasise and celebrate different ways of knowing and acting
 * tolerate and accept ambiguity


 * celebrate individuals
 * cultivate inclusiveness
 * plan for learning needs
 * create boundaries
 * don't make assumptions

I enjoyed Tanja's lecture today. She was very easy to listen to and easy to be drawn into what she was saying.

A lot of what she talked about was quite interesting as well. Nothing really all that surprising as a lot of it was just common sense, but it was good to be given an approach to a lot of common issues.

I liked her talking about 'have students failed at school, or are schools failing students?' I thought that was quite poignant. Schools are still creating an environment where one size fits all. I know that schools and teachers are trying harder than ever to create a more embracing environment for different cultures and abilities, but the way that schools are structured in the crux of the problem. One teacher. 30 odd kids. A large curriculum and never enough time to cover it all. Something has to give. Students do get pushed to the background.

It would be fantastic to be a teacher that is able to 'celebrate individuals' and cater for all their different needs, but I can also see just how difficult that will be. I have no idea in fact on how you go about that as a teacher. I guess that's something we'll get a taste of during our placements next month.

I like how Tanja emphasised that knowing a students name can make a big difference to that student. I know myself within this course, that when a lecturer addressed you with your name you are almost taken aback that they could possibly know it. You are so used to being 1 of 280, another face in amongst the crowd, so to feel singled out - even though you aren't really - you do feel a bit special. It does make perfect sense to me to learn students names, and quite obvious really, but when Tanja mentioned knowing how to pronounce names properly, I thought that was really important. My partner is Irish and has a lot of trouble with his name, Diarmuid, here in Australia. He gets Deeer-merd, Di-ar-moo-ed, all sorts of quirky things. Diarmuid is Ireland is as common as Matthew, so he wasn't used to it at all. He found the first year in Australia quite hard because he had a lot of trouble being understood. Like Tanja mentioned, Diarmuid looked just like a regular aussie bloke and often people would here me speak with my accent and expect the same from him. He would get very frustrated on the phone and in restaurants when he was asked to repeat himself several times before being understood. It made Diarmuid feel as though there was something wrong with him, and he started to avoid situations where he'd have to speak to strangers.

Diarmuid has now learnt to speak at a slower pace and has accepted Griff (his last name is Griffin) as an alternative to hearing people mispronounce his name. I imagine that students from different backgrounds would feel the same within a classroom environment and, like Diarmuid, they may start to withdraw from class discussions because of a fear of being misunderstood. An awareness of this and sitting down with students to learn how to say their name in the correct way is essential in gaining that student's trust and respect.

I am really looking forward to our placements, and fieldwork, to see some of the issues we've covered this semester in practice. It's all very well to state that we would never do this or that, and of course we'd behave in this way, but in reality situations come up and can really put a spanner in the works.