I believe being commited to diversity in your classroom can help you be a better and more effective teacher. There’s a wide variety of diversities that a teacher may have in their class. As a teacher, you have to adapt and modify your lessons to ensure equity for all of your students and their families. I think keeping any diverse learners in mind while lesson planning is important. I think flexible grouping can give all students a more individualized learning experience. This allows me to focus on student-specific accomidations or modification to assignments. I think making activities for each group can allow students to truly master skills at their own pace. For students who speak a different language at home, I think it is important to include their home language is some parts of their day- even when it is not a language I am not familar with. Sending home a second copy of some assignments with both their home language and english printed on it could be a good resource for students to practice language skills at home. This method could also provoke meaningful conversations at home between students and parents about their school day. Including their home language allows them to review what their child is learning independently and allows them to be involved and ask questions.

I believe the classroom enviornment is another way to show my commitment to all of my diverse learners. For example, posting signs in english and any other home langauges of that class. This also is a good way to include parents and make them feel more welcomed when they are in the classroom. When posting signs, I think including PECS around the classroom can assist speech delayed or visual learners. In my classroom, I will include a variety of diverse books- different cultures, some biligual books, books that teach about different holidays, different abilities, different family structures, etc. It is important for students to be offered books that they can make text-to-self connections with. I like to keep in mind evey child has access to different types and levels of books at home and I want to ensure my students are all being expose to rich-literature in my class.

Diverse learners doesn’t stop at just English language learners or students that have learning disabilities- it includes students who come from varying socioeconmic and family lifes. Ensuring equity for all learners means you need to addres the whole child- not just their language or academic skills. Without basic needs being met for my students students, they will struggle with focusing on school work. I want to ensure I’m including time in the beginning of the day for my students to volunteerly express their feelings. I want to bulid aa classroom enviornment of open communication. I want ensure I have extra snacks and other essential items for students to utizlize as neccessary. All families and homes are different, so I want to do my best to offer my students what they need in the classroom. I think it is also important to keep in mind- parents schedules and struggles. I don’t believe sending home long and hard homework is effective or enjoyful. I think a great amount of equity can be lost when sending home homwork. Parents are busy, all parents have different levels of understanding of what their child is learning in school and that takes a great deal of equity out of that learning experience. I want to limit any homework to hands-on intergrative activities that can review skills we’ve learnesd without make students sit down at the table for 30 minutes to an hour. I also believe students should have mulitple days to complete any homework activity. I want my homework activites to be adaptable and an effective learning expeirence for both the students and the parent; not just a worksheet that focuses on a topic that the parent has never been taught or is going to take up the only free time they have with their child. Hands-on activites can allow parents to do homework on the go in a natural enviornment while still learning about what their child is learning on a daily basis. I want my students parents to feel like their child’s education and their times is valued by me.

With that being said, D