One Child at a Time

   Over the past weeks, I have realized that it is essential for teachers to create a non-bias and culturally accepting classroom in today's diverse society. In doing so, teachers must display positive attitudes, nurture clear social values, and be role models in treating and speaking to others. Teachers should help children understand the world from different cultural perspectives. Children need to learn to respect others and their differences while at the same time recognizing similarities. Children need to create a confident self-identity, and all students should feel a sense of belonging. A person's values influence the way they see the world. Teachers should set an example for children's behavior concerning what they say and do. With all I have learned in this course, I hope to shape young minds by playing an essential role in encouraging children to treat others with kindness and be open-minded to different cultures, traditions, religions, and family structures.      

  I am a poetry enthusiast, and like all other art forms, such as painting, dance, sculpture, or music, I engage poetry as a tool to teach my students diversity and inclusion using the language they can understand. Yes, anyone can pick up a pen and write a few heartfelt lines, but much more goes into shaping a good poem. I use poems like the one I am sharing in this blog to connect their infinite imagination to see how diversity creates a colorful and complete world.  Below is one of the poems I use to teach diversity in my class:                                                           That’s Okay                                                   We are born in a different way                                                            That’s okay                                            How we look and what we say                                                             That’s okay                                       From different countries around the world                   

  Children often mock other children for the way they dress, look, eat, etc. the list is endless. We had our cultural day in the summer. We asked parents to dress their children in their traditional attire. One of the children came to school all dressed up in traditional Japanese attire- putting on a sumo-like gown. The children in my class are majorly white, so seeing this Japanese kid in a sumo gown created a lot of buzz among the kids. Arnold, who was always quick to say something, screamed, "Hey Kenji, you look funny!" The children started laughing. My assistant, Sofia, stepped in and said to Arnold, "you know today is the day we all dress funny that is why we all look funny." Arnold surprisingly went to Kenji and said, "I am sorry." The message sent by my assistant exemplifies the process of letting the child know the type of behavior that is acceptable and what type is not acceptable. The reprimand is intended to give the child the foundation to live