“Great Teachers are Equal Opportunists” Chapter 4: Schmidt

Reading this chapter truly helped me better understand and learn more about being a successful teacher in a culturally diverse school. In this reading I was able to learn more about the importance of teaching strategies, eliminating bias materials, and most importantly recognize and understand that there is a cultural gap between the students, the classroom teacher, and myself. Being in a culturally diverse school, I can take and use many examples and tool presented in this chapter on multicultural classrooms to help bridge the gap of opportunities in my classroom now and in the future.

From this reading, I thought one of the most important ideas of success in a culturally diverse classroom is to recognize and except that there is a gap between my students and myself. I would be foolish to assume that my students were raised the same as myself, had similar values, or raised in a similar community. From the reading, I found that often times teachers assume and expect certain answers, opinions, or reactions similar to their own from their students because of the assumption that overall their students were brought up in a similar setting as them. That’s where I found and reflected on how my students act, think, or react the way they do at my placement.  Reflecting, I am the type of person that will talk to the students out side of class time (dismissal, practice, or lunch time) to get to know them and not talk specifically about school, but focus more on their interests, likes, dislikes, and families. At those moments I do see a culturally diverse difference between the students and myself. I feel that I have recognized the difference but I have not made the change in my teaching to connect to the diversity of my students.

I thought previously that I did recognize and become more familiar with some of my student’s background, but for some reason I never changed my teaching styles or strategies based off of what I just learned from my students. I am beginning to now question myself after reading Laurel writing on being culture-blind. Even though I listen to my students and see the difference, am I still culturally blind because I am not bridging the gap in the classroom? Yes! Not in the sense that I am completely ignorant of the fact that my students are diverse in learning and cultural backgrounds, but I am not making adjustments in my classroom. I have been teaching in a way that all my students are capable of learning and want to learn, but I was teaching in a fashion that all my students are somewhat similar to what they know and will know after each lesson.

From what I have experienced thus far in my teaching placement I have learned that I learn from my students as they learn from me.  Not so much on content or subject but I am learning about my students, who they are, and how they perceive learning and school. I am a white female teacher; teaching majority African American and Hispanic students, my experiences of life and education are much different from their experiences. It is now my job to begin to bridge the gaps in the classroom to show students in a different way that I am truly interested in the person they are and want to become.     

I feel know that my level of understanding of diversity has been heightened from Laurel suggestions and statements about teaching in a diverse classroom. I feel that I will be more successful in teaching my students since I have had the opportunity to reflect on my own beliefs, biases, expectations, and family structure. Since I have become somewhat aware of my students backgrounds, I must now take the initiative to take what I know about my students and myself to make more connections to their lives and create more opportunities for my students to express their opinions.