Bridging Our Differences

What happens inside the classroom can profoundly effect the lives of students outside of the classroom.  Like parents, teachers are models and exemplars.  The complexity of this role can feel daunting.

When students enter our classrooms, they bring with them different cultures, languages, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds. They possess a variety of learning styles, cognitive, and social-emotional skills.  Their families are comprised of parents, step-parents, adoptive parents, siblings, cousins, friends, and guardians.  Some students have been abused, neglected, over-indulged, entitled, criticized, adored, and violated.

As teachers, we have to consider the similarities among our students and honor their differences. In the face of the diversity of our student population, this task can seem overwhelming.

It doesn't have to be. Here are a few tips.

• Be Inquisitive.  Lead as a learner. Be willing to ask questions, when you don't know the answer. 
• Select Instructional Content that reflects Diversity.  Look for content that expresses the diversity that exists in the world.  Use the content as a springboard for meaningful discussion that raises awareness and understanding of our differences.
• Emphasize Similarities. We are all human.  Our humanity connects us.  Everyone loves a good laugh, a friendly gesture, and compassion.
• Be Human.  Remember none of us is perfect. It is ok to make mistakes.
• Set Your "Shoes" Aside.  It is easy to get entrenched in our own perspectives, backgrounds, and beliefs.  Remember to step outside yourself and practice humility.

Diversity is a beautiful thing. If we were all the same life would be uninteresting.  We would be clones. We would have no motivation to learn about or from one another.  Above all else, dare to be you and allow others to be themselves.  If you do your classroom will be an engaging place where connection between others will ignite learning.

A Letter To Parents

Growth is a jagged line. Nothing, in nature, grows in a precise manner all of the time.  Between birth and death a human being changes incessantly.  Images capture the visible changes.  Underneath the skin, change is even more rapid and complex.

As students enter our classrooms this year, we will observe their visible changes. Some students will have grown taller, or heavier.  Their skin and hair may be different.  Perhaps they are wearing new clothes or new shoes.  New binders, tablets, and phones may emerge from pockets or back packs.  

Concurrently, we will take in social and emotional impressions. We will identify which students are open and talkative.  We will look for eye contact and conversation between and among peers. We will notice the students who place their heads upon the desk, curling inward or away from their peers, school, or us.

These observations happen prior to the beginning of each class and continue every day.  We seek to connect with the person within, while trying to increase each student's skill level. Cognizant that students enter our room with varying aptitudes, different backgrounds, cultures, and socio-economic experiences. 

Sometimes we fail.  More often we provide students with sound opportunities to grow intellectually, socially, and emotionally.  We are your children's teachers. We are a team.  We have the same goal.  We want your children to succeed and most of all, to be happy.

Assessing What Matters

We do not expect the blind student to see, the deaf student to hear, or the physically disabled student to to run.  Why, then, do we require students with reading disabilities to read?  Isn't the true objective, the student's ability to digest and make sense of the material?

In this millennium,  there are many ways for the disabled reader to demonstrate his or her mastery of challenging concepts and text. Technological advancements make the delivery of auditory text instead of (or in addition to) written text a viable solution. Does the mechanism through which students' access content supersede the students ability to master the standard or learning objective in question?

Reading disabilities have yet to be acknowledged and treated in the same manner as any other human disability.  Though measures should always be taken to strengthen reading, when testing, students should be allowed to hear and read the subject matter.  This is not providing an unfair advantage, it is simply leveling the playing field and actually measuring student performance.