Standard One
Teaching Diverse Students
Item A: Hearing Impaired PowerPoint
| To most students, learning auditory and speech skills comes quite naturally. But for those who have hearing impairments, without aide or adaptations, these tasks can become rather challenging. We as future Special Education educators will need to learn to accommodate the diverse needs of our students like those with deafness or hearing impairments. There is no doubt that it will be rather difficult at times and I am positive that their will be many times that we become emotionally, physically, and mentally drained. We will be challenged, but as understanding teachers we should strive to differ in our approaches in order to adapt to the diverse classrooms that we will soon encounter. |
Standard 1 deals with the reality of diversity and the fact that every student learns differently and deserves to be valued. It specifically states that “The competent teacher understands the diverse characteristics and abilities of each student and how individuals develop and learn within the context of their social, economic, cultural, linguistic, and academic experiences. The teacher uses these experiences to create instructional opportunities that maximize student learning.” That is what I want to strive for. A perspective on diversity and an open willingness to accommodate all the needs of my classroom is extremely important to me. We will run into so many instances as educators, where a students language, disability, or way of learning becomes challenging to teach. But that is where we should yearn to try knew things and attempt different approaches until something sinks in and that student is able to effectively learn.
My PowerPoint presentation on hearing impairments is geared to teach college aged students how to effectively accommodate and include students with hearing impairments into the classroom. By briefly defining the disability, showing causes and other general information about hearing impairments, explaining the significant challenges and obstacles faced, and describing a real life example I feel I was able to show how to accommodate one diverse group of people into the classroom. Although different for all, there is much to be taken out of the ways in which hearing impairments cause specific challenges for teachers. The realities of integrating hearing-impaired children into a mainstream classroom prove to be a significant challenge. We as future teachers need to stand up to the challenge and be ready to overcome all the obstacles.
I know that I have much to learn about diversity in a classroom and I am anxious to learn more and more as I experience these challenges in my future. This PowerPoint presentation is just one step to gain the knowledge about certain diverse people and what to expect regarding their differences and disabilities. Presentations such as these can really only influence my classmates and me positively as we prepare for our future teaching careers. I can guarantee that in my career I will be challenged everyday and as I am challenged, I cannot wait to creatively come up with new methods of teaching. I know that I will not be perfect and I know that I will eventually work with students that test my brain and my patience to the highest level. I am not going to know how to accommodate every diverse need, but I am more than willing to put my heart into everything I do to serve and accommodate my students to the best of my ability!
Item B: Cultural Competency Paper
| In my Introduction to Education class with Professor Woo, I was able to reflect on my understanding of what it means to be a culturally competent teacher through a paper. Standard 1 states that. “Diversity is when the teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.” I chose my Cultural Competency paper to demonstrate Standard 1 because I feel it gives an adequate perspective of the importance I give to diversity in the classroom and my experiences that have led me to these views. |
Revelation 7:9 says, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” The bible talks about heaven with every race, ethnicity, denomination, gender, and age present. I believe that although people are different they are connected by the fact that they are part of the human race and more importantly, the body of Christ. As a future educator, I want to acknowledge and become sensitive to diversity in the classroom. Diversity should be accepted and I want each student in my classroom to be accepting of their peers and also have an opportunity to learn from one another.
My paper talks a lot about my personal experiences in high school and college which have led me to a passion for diverse people. It explains my openness and love for other cultures and people and defines my views on cultural competency. But something that I think I missed was my reflection on diverse learning styles and abilities which is primarily where I’ll be using diversity in my classroom in my pursuit to be a special education teacher. Teaching students with diverse needs and disabilities is what I have a passion for and as an educator I want to strive to accommodate to each and every one of my students special needs.
My philosophy of education says that all students should have the right to reach there fullest potential through education. I really believe that it is so important that all the students in my classroom are treated equally. I look at each child as an individual and as fearfully and wonderfully made by God in his image. I believe that each child should be treasured for their unique characteristics and capabilities because God loves and treasures them for who they are. Differences such as disability, skin color, ethnicity, language, and gender will not be looked down upon in my classroom but rather celebrated and accepted.
It is my job to foster my students’ growth and teach them all that I can. I am aware that no two students are the same so I need to strive to be accommodating to all diverse learners by planning lessons for all the intelligences, creating interventions for students with special needs, and becoming creative in how to engage diverse learners what they are learning.
Diversity is something that I have been immersed in throughout my life but it something that I definitely need to work on learning more about and accommodating in my future classroom. Jimmy Carter says that, “We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.” Diversity is a beautiful thing and as future teachers it’s important to understand that each child is an individual and in turn, learns differently. It’s our job to find the best way to teach them.
