Diversity in the Classroom: A Need for Change

Teaching to a diverse range of students with different needs at times can feel overwhelming for any classroom teacher.  Students in the United States vary from cultural backgrounds, religion, social statuses and even political views. Globalization involves the transformation of our nation.  Such as, the acceptance of other citizens coming to our land, whether it being legally or illegally, and attend our schools. Although some may argue that this is a disgrace to our nation’s reputation, student diversity in the classroom can help our students accept one another, create unity in our environment, and help understand other racial point of views. Diversity in the classroom is a need and is here to stay, teachers must accept this issue we face today, and realize that we all can benefit from this change.

Teaching students from different backgrounds and cultures can alter the way teachers teach and how students learn. When students are faced with these differences in the classroom, students may believe that there are no similarities in their lifestyles. In fact, having students interact with each other can allow learners the opportunity to create meaning through conversation. According to Jerome Bruner in his book Acts of Meaning, learning is stimulated by interactions with others. “Students learn by a restatement in words …or a language systems that is transformed into words.”  He believes that learning is a process and that knowledge is learned through a variety of approaches to teaching.

As a teacher, I observed that everyone in the classroom will eventually benefited from the English language learners. I noticed my students expanded on their vocabulary and went in to deeper meanings when talking about writing topics and brainstorming for ideas. They brought different point of views during classroom discussion and helped one another understand their individual values, morals, and tradition. As an educator I have realized that there is much more to explore in order to relate to students who are coming into our nation from other countries. We as teachers are limited in the languages that we speak, uninformed about their religion, and culture. Speaking the Spanish language has been a positive advantage for me in myclassroom. I can understand the students need teachers to translate and communicate with the English language learner. However, there would be a big language barrier between me and a student that comes from India, China, or the Philippians. Given these facts, I believe that teachers would benefit from specific  trainings on ways to teach students from different cultures and also learn strategies on what we can do to meet their needs in order to leave no child behind.

I believe that teachers in the U.S. should have access to learning different languages and also have affordable classes for teachers that focus on these needs. As long as our government allows immigrants into our nation, we need to act upon the fast growing realization at hand.  Moni Basu’s states that the Asian population alone has increased from “2010, 36% of new immigrants were Asians compared to 31% for Hispanic” where as, “A decade ago when 19% of immigrants were Asian and 59% were Hispanic.” (www.cnn.com.)  America is evolving into a fast growing nation and has an increasing large population that is expected to expand and produce more and more each year. There are many expectations from teachers and the need for student success. Just as educators need to keep up with technology, teachers also need up to date information that support what we need in the classroom focusing on foreign students. Teachers need to provide the best education to all students and in doing so; together we will also provide a well rounded nation regardless of cultural backgrounds, religion, social statuses and even political views. 

Why Homework Matters

As an elementary/middle school teacher, I hear constant complaints about the issue of homework.  There are valid points against overdoing it and even studies that suggest, in some cases, it doesn’t always help.  There’s a big difference between busy work and assignments that are meaningful. Some researchers, like Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, propose that homework is a hidden cause of childhood obesity.  Others, like Alfie Kohn, believe that the quality and quantity of assignments done at home should be addressed, pronto.  So, why do students today still have to do this archaic activity?

• Although some teachers assign busy work, that is not always the case.  Often times, the assignments students bring home are not only continuations of what was done in class, but are activities that help apply the knowledge learned earlier in the day.
• Some at-home assignments are enrichment activities that will nurture the creative side of children.
• It allows parents to see firsthand what their child is doing in school, and gives them an opportunity to connect or communicate with their child on a different level, seeing where they stand academically.
• Even if it’s studying or reviewing what was covered in class, it is an important reinforcement activity.  This can eventually lead to information being stored into long-term memory.
• Research conducted by Harris Cooper (2006) suggests that students who complete homework tend to have higher scores on content related tests, than do students who have not completed content related homework.
• It can teach a child responsibility, which in turn will form into a good work ethic that will be useful for the rest of his/her life. 
• Time management skills will develop and students will learn the valuable lesson about procrastination.
• It will allow students the opportunity to teach themselves, and learn how to manage schoolwork independently.

Although there is an ongoing debate about the merits and necessity of homework, the bottom line is that it doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon.  Sure, parents should question teachers and make sure that the homework is relevant and not going to last five hours, but the best possible action a student can take at the elementary age is to accept its inevitability.  This will lead to time management strategies, allowing them to learn how to juggle a variety of activities on a daily basis, just like parents and all other adults do every day. 

Studies at Duke University under Harris Cooper found a positive connection between test scores and homework.  “The results of such studies suggest that homework can improve students' scores on the class tests that come at the end of a topic. Students assigned homework in 2nd grade did better on math, 3rd and 4th graders did better on English skills and vocabulary, 5th graders on social studies, 9th through 12th graders on American history, and 12th graders on Shakespeare.” Of course, when it is overloaded, there’s the case of diminishing returns.  

Life in the working world is more competitive than ever before.  Children need to learn the methods that will allow them to be successful in the life that’s just ahead.  Kohn suggests that homework doesn’t help elementary school students, when research states otherwise.  He is also a proponent of eliminating grades.  Kohn’s ideas generate excellent debate topics, but are not practical in a world that uses rankings for everything.  So, even if you don’t buy into the fact that homework will make a child a higher academic achiever in the short term (even though research states otherwise), realize that it just might create a human being with good habits, a rich work ethic, and a success later on in the world outside academia.

Effective learning patterns for successful Students

Always keep one thing in mind - “Good Leaders are Good Readers”. To become a successful student, you must have good study routine. Successful kids apply many good habits to all their classes. Read about some excellent study routine and try to develop the study pattern that you do not comprise.

Superior study practice for booming kids:

• Try not to read too much at a time: If you attempt to study to a larger extent at a time, you will get exhausted and your schoolwork will not be very effective. Distribute your work to be done in short periods. Taking short breaks will bring back your mind power.
• Map specific time period for studying: Study time is any time that you do something related to schoolwork such as completing some assignments, or preparing for an exam etc. Being punctual in life is very important. Schedule specific times throughout the day for your learning time.
• Study at the same times each day: If you can try to study at the specific time daily, set up a routine that becomes a regular habit of your life, such as eating or sleeping. When the scheduled time arrives on the day, you will be mentally prepared to begin studying.
• Set objectives for your study hours: Goals help you stay focused and observe your improvement. Only sitting down for study has slightly less value. You must be clear about what you want to achieve during your study times.
• Begin to study at the scheduled time: Can you delay your beginning time for study because you do not like an assignment or think it is very complicated. Any holdup in studying is called "leaving it for later." If you leave things for later for whatever reason, you will find it more difficult to get things done when you need to do them. You may have to hurry to make up for the time lost at the beginning, which can result in careless work and errors.
• Work first on assignment which is most difficult: Your most difficult assignment will require the most effort. Start with the most difficult assignment since at start you have the most mental energy.
• Review your notes before every assignment: The re-analysis of your notes can help you make sure you are performing properly on the assignment. Also, your notes may include information that can help you complete the assignment in effective way.
• Keep concentrated during your hours of study: Two problems may occur if someone calls you during your study times. First, interruption to your work. And not so easy to pick up the thread of what you were doing previously. Second, the other person can talk about things that can distract you from what you need to do.Simple ideas - turn off your cell phone, switch off your TV and shut the doors during your study times.
• Don’t hesitate for friends help with a difficult assignment: This is a case where "two heads are better than one." You can solve out problems effectively if you work in collaboration with your friends.
• Review your work over the weekend: Of course, weekend should be a time for entertainment. But there must be some time to review your previous work. This will help you be ready to start on Monday morning when another school week begins.

 These are some of the study habits that can help you in improving your learning skills and knowledge. Make sure they are your learning practice.

Cyber-Bully Recovery

In every classroom exists various and sometimes complicated dynamics between students.  Some students get along and others don’t.  Some students tolerate each other while others aren’t even aware of their existence.  Bullying is a growing issue in schools all over the world, but what happens when you introduce a one-to-one iPad initiative where students, some as young as eight, have control over their own cyber-worlds. 

In my 5th grade classroom, every student has an iPad and they bring it home with them after school.  Presumably to study and complete homework.  Our school was aware that students were also using the iPads to communicate with each other after-hours and we were doing our best to monitor and secure such conversations… but one slipped through the cracks.  A death threat.  A specific and detailed death threat sent on a Friday, after school in an e-mail from one student to another.  The student who sent the e-mail was fed up with being bullied and he wanted even. 

Amazing how recovery from such an incident takes far more time and energy than the incident itself.  I knew that if I wanted a peaceful and productive remainder of the year, I had to think fast.  I wanted the energy in our classroom to be positive as I wanted my students to continue learning in a safe environment.  While I found a lot of advice on how to prevent bullying, I wasn’t able to find much on how to recover from the inevitable.  That’s when I dug deep into my buffet table of personal life lessons, Oprah episodes and Dr. Phil analogies.  I was shocked at how helpful something like marriage advice was in the classroom.  “Would you rather be right or happy?” was a question I could carry from home to school with me, and back again.  The following are some strategies that I found helpful when trying to repair student dynamics after a serious bullying incident, but these strategies may be helpful in dealing with a varying degree of ongoing issues as well. They are meant to repair by providing a new perspective and can be implemented with just two students, a small group or the whole class.   

1.  Pre-teens and teens can be catty.  They can be rude and mean to one another with their words and body language.  Try to nip it in the bud by having a meeting with the students involved and tell them that you understand they don’t like each other.  This is natural and normal and you aren’t going to tell them they have to be friends, but what if you suggested to them that they choose a time-frame, perhaps one hour out of the school-day where they specifically don’t say anything mean to each other.  Just this one hour.  Of course this is not a free-pass to say and do whatever they want outside of the designated time-frame, but it sets the stage for what is possible.  It creates what could become a pattern.  Of course this would only work with willing participants, but is a great way to begin the change everyone wishes to see. 
2. We already explored a different time-frame, now what about a different location.  Sometimes kids get into a routine, where they know when they enter the saaame classroom, they sit in the saaame seat and pull the pigtails of the saaame girl who always sits in front of them. Try verbally problem-solving elsewhere.  If you have to stay on school grounds, go for a walk around the perimeter of the school or sit in the courtyard.  Maybe there is a bench or even another classroom where you can discuss what is going on with your students.  If you are allowed to leave school grounds, take your students to park, restaurant or other public location.  Sometimes, in the classroom where the bullying has taken place, there is negative (and contagious) energy and an already established expectation of which people play which roles.  The idea of moving to a different location attempts to neutralize the unhealthy relationship that was previously established.  
3. You’d be surprised by how much students care about extrinsic rewards.  Whether it’s a pizza party or a field trip, encouraging the class to work together towards a goal creates a team mindset.  Students shift their attitude from “It’s no longer me against you.  Now it’s us against them.”  Healthy competition and a point system where students have to work together to earn a reward can go a long way in both preventing and repairing student dynamics with regard to bullying.  
4. Literally bury the hatchet.  Of course most schools will have a rule against bringing a hatchet onto school grounds in the first place, but explaining the saying to your students and literally burying a hatchet in the school yard (of course you can dig it up later for safety) may resonate with and even humor some students.  This could be a great spring-board for some of the other strategies.
5. This activity works especially well immediately following a bullying incident, when the negative energy is still fresh in the students’ minds.  As the one of the first steps when little to no repair efforts have yet been made.  Start by discussing with students the idea that when people are no longer here (whether they moved away or died) they are remembered for specific qualities.  “Oh, she was a really sweet girl.” Or “Yea, he was an incredibly stubborn man.”  Likewise, classes are remembered when they graduate and are no longer here.  “Gee, the class of 2012 sure was a creative group of kids.” Or “The class of 2013 really was a rowdy bunch.”   On the left side of a large poster board or even bulletin board paper, write down what students say when you ask them “As of right now, how do you think we will be remembered?”  Chances are their words will reflect the negative energy that recently surrounded the bullying incident.  Circle or highlight any pessimistic answers they give.  Be sure to leave plenty of room in the middle of the paper for a question later on and now on the right side, record what students say when you ask them “How do you want to be remembered?”  Chances are they will want to be remembered for their positive character traits and abilities.  After you record their answers, draw a road from the left side of the paper to the right side and ask them one last question that you can rephrase in a variety of ways.  “How are you going to get there?” “What are you going to do to make that happen?” Or “What is your plan?  Be specific.”  This activity works well because the students are doing most, if not all of the talking.  They take ownership of this activity because it is using their words.  They key is to display it in the classroom and constantly refer back to it. 

These strategies are meant to be used multiple times and in conjunction with each other.  Collaborate with your colleagues and implement variations of these techniques or just use these ideas as a spring-board to think of other ways to problem-solve in the classroom.  The key here is to creatively provide our students with a new perspective so they can cope with and recover from the bullying so we can all do what we came here to do…. Learning and teaching.  

by BeccaSFriedman

Effective Teaching

A student spends most of her productive waking hours in school. Thus, teachers play a pivotal role in her life. It is very important for a teacher to assess the needs of her students. A comfortable and congenial environment is very important for effective teaching and learning.

Students will feel motivated to learn only if they understand the significance of what they are learning. A teacher knows that all the knowledge imparted in school, according to the prescribed syllabus, may not directly fulfill the needs of each of her students. However, through her teaching, she can create the need, the urge to learn by connecting the theoretical with the practical i.e. interlinking the knowledge that she wants to impart with the day-to-day relevance of such knowledge.  

It is very important for a teacher to plan her lessons in advance. However, sticking to the plan to the core is not advisable. There should be enough scope in her lesson plan to incorporate changes that make teaching and learning more effective. A teacher, who is prepared, is confident. She comes across as someone who is sure of what she is doing and this creates a degree of trust between the students and the teacher. 

If I am interested in the topic that I am teaching, students will also be interested.  People naturally feel drawn towards people who are sprightly. Stress is a part of everyone’s life these days including students. Thus, it is important for the teacher to be happy, lively and enthusiastic so that learning becomes interesting.

 As a human being I know that it is very difficult for me to pay attention to something that I am naturally not interested in.  The same applies to students. Lessons can be made interesting by involving the students in the learning process. They shouldn’t be passive listeners. Regular questioning and inviting suggestions and opinions from them, forces them to concentrate.  The teacher can quote famous personalities, use examples from popular T.V. programmes, movies, books etc. Creative association between the lesson and popular media captivates the attention of students and helps in retention. The students should know that the teacher has put in a lot of effort to make her lesson interesting. Students respect teachers who do that and try their best to please them by being more efficient themselves.

Students don’t like it if they are expected to acquire a whole lot of new skills to understand what is being taught. While delivering her lesson, a teacher should be able to utilize the existing skills of her students to the optimum. She should understand that new skills can be acquired only gradually with a lot of hand holding. Also, children shouldn’t be insulted if they don’t know the things that the teacher thought they knew.

Everyone deserves to be treated with respect. Just because a teacher is older than her students does not authorize her to be rude and insensitive towards her students. So a teacher should try her best to be likeable and approachable. It is only when you give respect that you get respect.  And If I as a teacher get respect, then, I will also feel motivated to be a good teacher.

I know it is not possible to be a perfect human being. Also, it is very difficult to be around perfectionists. When a teacher acknowledges some of her shortcomings, mistakes and choices she made in life and shares her own school life experiences, children feel more comfortable with her. They feel less pressurized.  So the aim of a teacher should not to be to become perfect but be someone who is human, humane and wants to make a positive difference in the lives of her students.   

 by Supriya Prathapan

What Really Happened To Boys?

Four years ago, psychologist Leonard Sax (MD, PhD) wrote a well-received book titled “Boys Adrift.” The doctor tried to answer the question, why have so many young males fallen into passivity and indifference?

Dr. Sax had heard more and more parents complain that their boys stayed indoors most of the time, spent hours on video games, and in general seemed to lack the confidence and esprit de corps that had characterized boys throughout history.

“Something scary is happening to boys today,” Sax concluded. “From kindergarten to college, American boys are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere twenty years ago. The gender gap in college attendance and graduation rates has widened dramatically.”

The book’s full title is, “Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men.” Sax lists the five factors right on the cover: “video games, teaching methods, prescription drugs, environmental toxins, devaluation of masculinity.”

It’s worrisome that he seems to like them all. That might be a clue that he has not solved this mystery. Indeed, let’s consider the possibility that none of these theories is the deep answer we want. Let’s start from scratch and consider the things we know for sure.

First of all, critics have often noted that schools seem organized more for girls than for boys. Most boys do not want to be confined to a desk; they would rather be outside playing and competing. Second, not only are boys kept passively inside, they are forced to deal almost the entire day with reading, writing, and arithmetic, probably not their own first choices.

But these factors are historically common. Boys have always been restless at their desks. They have often stared out the window and daydreamed. Furthermore, in many other cultures and ages, discipline was greater; serious academic work was demanded. So it’s not as if there were some golden age when boys had it better. No, they have it worse today, and for reasons that are new.

We are now arriving at the heart of darkness.

Consider that all school activity revolves around two basic skills, reading and arithmetic. Students spend a lot of each day on these and must learn them in order to advance to any other subjects. Failure in these two subjects virtually guarantees failure in all subjects, and in all of life.

Perversely, our public schools, for more than 50 years, have used dysfunctional methods that virtually guarantee failure for the ordinary boy (that is, a boy who will struggle to a degree but finally says, screw this.) 

To learn to read, he is told he must memorize English words as graphic designs. He fails for all the reasons that Rudolf Flesch explained in his 1955 bestseller, “Why Johnny Can’t Read.” Almost as devastating, the boy must learn arithmetic using one of the dozen curricula collectively called Reform Math. These are exceptionally cumbersome and frustrating for children, as has been amply documented.

Now imagine a boy, restless and impatient, locked in a situation he doesn’t really like, engaged in activities he might prefer to avoid. He senses that instruction is gratuitously difficult and tedious. Increasingly, he rebels. Already he glimpses a future hopeless and horrible, where he will never be allowed to succeed.

He comes to school every day depressed and is told to memorize sight-words, which is very difficult to do. If he actually does master 100, the next 100 will overwhelm his brain. Simultaneously, he is made to learn arithmetic in ways that he can’t understand. Even his parents can’t explain to him the techniques he is supposed to learn.

So every day, every week, every month, the ordinary boy stares at a sign flashing in the air: ACCESS: DENIED.

Whatever it is he is supposed to do, he can’t do it. He wants to, he really, really wants to. What else does a boy have but cockiness and confidence? Boys rule! Or they once did. But their sense of being master of any situation is no match for the dark genius of our Education Establishment.

He becomes sullen, then angry. He hears his parents whispering about him. He goes to conferences where his teacher talks about remediation and dyslexia. He’s told he has ADHD. He might need Ritalin.

Imagine when he is seven and failing. Imagine when he is eight and still failing. Imagine when he is nine and more blatantly failing. Imagine how many discussions he has had with his teacher and parents about his inability to do the simplest things. Imagine the interior collapse of confidence. If his parents and all adults in his world think, to put it bluntly, that he is retarded, then he must be.

The signs flash everywhere: SUCCESS: IMPOSSIBLE. DREAMS: CRUSHED.

Dr. Sax put a lot of emphasis on video games but perhaps he has it backwards. Consider that the school world makes boys feel helpless. But the virtual world lets many boys be the smart, extremely capable people they actually are. Which world would you choose to remain in all day?

Dr. Sax puts a lot of emphasis on early literacy instruction, as if this is a strain. Why would it be a strain if boys actually did learn to read? Reading is fun. It’s the con that is the strain. It’s adults pretending to teach children to read but not letting them learn to read that is the killer.

Dr. Sax speaks of masculinity being undervalued. Maybe it’s more directly a case of masculinity hemmed in and, as the school years pass, neutralized.

Finally. one can never escape the impression that there is premeditation in all of this. Does the Education Establishment use these methods to induce a loss of confidence? Then they are evil people. If they don’t know any better, then they are incompetent people.

BY Bruce Deitrick Price