Diversity in the Classroom

     Diversity is very common in today's classrooms. I think one of the biggest examples of this I have seen is how the Kindergarten teacher I observed taught writing. She not only had them write down the words, but had them draw a picture to go with their story. Everyone learns differently. Letting the children interpret the story and draw their own picture encourages them to be different and interpret the story however they please.

     Another way I have seen diversity is in the books that the teachers read. In our Intro to Education lesson it talked about reading books that involved many different cultures, ethnicity, and races of people. I noticed how the teacher had all sorts of different books that had diversity in them. Through this the kids are able to not only learn more about their culture, but also about other student's cultures that they may experience in their class. 

Diversity is an important factor in classrooms!

Historical Landmarks in Education

     Education is always changing, which means the laws are always changing as well. There are some Historical Landmarks that are really obvious in elementary classrooms. For example, Brown v. Board of Education. This case declared separate schools for blacks and whites to be unconstitutional. Because of this you don't see separate classrooms for blacks and whites. They are all joined together. I have witnessed this in the Kindergarten classroom that I did some service learning in. No matter the skin color or nationality they all interact together.

     I am not sure which Historical Landmark this falls under, but I feel that it is important to mention. When I was Service Learning in a fourth grade classroom they had a new student join this class. The teacher explained that this student sometimes had seizures. However, they didn't treat this child any differently. He was treated the same as everybody else. The teacher explained that if he did kind of slump down, that they should alert her, but then calmly get out of the way and continue with their work. This was to keep everyone calm and make sure that a big deal wasn't made about it. She didn't want him to be treated any different than any of the other students.

Everyone deserves a right to an education no matter the circumstance!