Diversity in Lessons, Managements, Curriculums

I still remember being in the multicultural class at NMC, where we spent most of the time eating and celebrating different cultures of our island. I indeed had a lot of fun and learned a quite a few important things about merging diversity in a single classroom, but what I did not realize was the depth and variety that not just each culture, but each child brings into the classroom. It’s rather quite simple to deal with many different cultures as long as we respect each other’s cultures and learn to love any kinds of differences we may have, but the diversity that I had to deal with in facing all the distinctive characteristics, personalities, abilities, and background that each child created in the classroom was quite a challenge. This definitely was one of the toughest challenges I had to face, yet after all the hard work, I can proudly say that the different colors of our classroom is what makes us so unique and special in our own way. I love my students so much! I’d love to share some of my experiences:

•One of the greatest diversity challenges was having to work with my two autistic students. One student being a high-functioning student and the other student with at a first grade level, it was really hard at first to meet their high demanding, individual needs while not losing focus on the rest of the class. During regular class work time, I always sat one on one with the two students to ensure they were on task and had a complete understanding of the assignment. At times I had to make adjustments for them to be able to complete the assignments. I’d say that yes, it did take me longer to be closer to these students, but I can truly say that each moment that I spend with them meant so much. What I’m really grateful is that both of my students tried extra hard the more and more I tried to help them, and with each work that was completed by the students with so much effort, we shared so many proud and happy moments together.

•My boys. Wow, were they different from my dream students! Some of my boys were extremely well behaved and extremely motivated to do work, but more than half of my boys were all so different in their own ways, all asking for attention at different levels every single moment in the classroom. It was so overwhelming at first that there were couple days where I just literally shooed everyone away and hid in my teacher’s corner. But soon I was able to realize the different things that each of my boys needed at different moments and times during the day, and instead of expecting them to work like robots at my commands, I gave each of the boys enough flexibility and guidance that would allow them to finish their work with the most effort that they could put in. For example, there were couple boys that really wanted attention all the time, and on days that they did not want to do work in their desks and started to bother everyone around them, I casually invite them over to my desk in the front of the classroom where they are given enough space and full attention to do their work. To tell you the truth, I first started this as sort of a punishment for not following directions, but soon it became one of the greatest ways to motivate my boys. They loved being with me, I loved being with them, and with frequent rounds that I did around the class, my class was able to soon find peace with ourselves.

•PE was yet another great challenge for me. I’m not the PE type of person, so I was very hesitant about my abilities of being able to get my students motivated about PE everyday. There were tons of complaints about this and that, but I really wanted to ensure my students were able to get the physical exercise that they needed on a daily basis. Soon, I developed a plan where during the first half of the PE class, all the students had to join actively in group activities such as jogging and/or stretching, and for the rest of the class, I gave them the option of joining the 2~3 different activities that we had each day, as long as they were enjoying themselves and getting the exercise that they needed. This worked out fantastically with the students, and they soon wanted to take part in different activities each day, promoting group work with different classmates and mastering different skills each day.

•I’m not an artist myself, but I do know that some form of art is extremely important in providing a wide arrange of skills that needs to be mastered by students. Knowing this, I was able to incorporate different mediums of art (drawing, modeling, crafts, etc) in most of my lessons, to the extent where it wouldn’t be too much of a challenge for non-artistic students like myself, yet extremely challenging, fun and motivating for all of my students.

•Flexibility is something that I did not know I did not have until I actually started teaching the whole day. There was so much that I had planned and wanted to complete with my students, but there seemed to be at least two days in a week where something (testing, presentations, school meets, etc) came up last minute and either the whole class or part of the class had to be excused from schoolwork. This was extremely annoying at first, and I couldn’t stand the fact that everything seemed to happen all at the last minute, but I soon learned to be flexible with our daily lessons, where it wasn’t the end of the world to carry on the lessons a day longer. From then on, I was able to design an extra day into all my weekly lessons that gave enough time for me to catch up on things that I could have been behind in for whatever reasons.

•Lastly, I think the greatest diversity I was able to incorporate in the classroom was me. It all started with my students’ curiosities about my different physical characteristics, which then gradually opened opportunities for me to share all my unique experiences as a locally raised Korean girl with the students. Whether it was for Social Studies, Language Arts, Science, or Math, I shared my personal life, experience and stories with the students, allowing them to realize that anything is possible if they believe in themselves. The best part was when my mom came in to our class in celebration of Students’ Day (with Korean food!), and my students were so amazed to see the similarities between my mom and me Although there was a definite language barrier between my students and my mom, it was beautiful being able to see the connection they made from the moment they saw each other, made possible by just sheer appreciation they shared for each other. Through this whole experience and with special thanks to my students that love me just the way I am, I was able to embrace my identity as a Korean-local teacher even more.