Through participating in the group differences forum, I learned a lot that I did not know before. Through this forum, we took common diversity groups and went in-depth through discussion about how these topics appear in the education system and what we as educators can do to prevent certain stereotypes and misconceptions about these groups from happening. I learned that teachers and schools might be discouraging parental involvement of students from poverty backgrounds and that parental involvement in the classroom and school varies by race. This was interesting to learn because as educators we want to encourage ALL parents to be involved in their student's educational experiences. We want to provide the parents of our students a variety of ways they can be involved in the classroom. In addition, teachers also need to realize that cultural differences may play a part in the parents feeling the need to be involved in their children's education. In addition, I learned about the Christian privilege that occurs in our school systems and how this causes other students who don't relate to Christian ideas to feel isolated or secluded. For example, during Christmas time relating all the activities in each lesson to Santa Claus and Christmas trees without even considering that not all of the students in the classroom relate to these symbols. This proposed a fine line, to me, of how much a teacher is able to incorporate the cultures/religions of all of their students. I think from this discussion that it is important for teachers to find a way to incorporate the cultures and backgrounds of all of their students rather than assuming that each student in the classroom comes from the same background. By doing this, teachers are communicating to their students that they care about each student in the classroom as an individual and value their cultural background as something important.
The information presented in this forum will be very beneficial to me when I am in my own classroom. It will be beneficial in that it will make me aware of the fact that my classroom will be full of students from different backgrounds, cultures, and ability levels. The information from this forum will make me a well-rounded teacher by reminding me how vital it is to be aware of social and cultural biases that exist and how these may affect a parent's willingness to be involved or a student feeling comfortable and included in the classroom environment. It is important to make every student in the classroom a part of the classroom and incorporate their diverse backgrounds and cultures into the curriculum. In addition, as a future educator I now see the importance of not letting test results, statistics, and stereotypes define your students before they even enter your classroom. I want to start my school year off with all of my students on an equal playing field and provide all of my students with the same amount of encouragement and support to perform to the best of their ability. This group differences forum was very informative on the issues that exist in our school system and in our classrooms and allowed for us as a group to discuss how we could discourage these issues from happening in our classrooms. This information is something that I will carry with me into my own classroom and I am glad we had the opportunity to learn about and discuss these topics.
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