Diversity Empowering Diversity in our students at this age (elementary level) is imperative due to their innocence. The classroom is one of the first stages they will encounter diversity, because not every student or teacher is the same. They will see different behaviors, attitudes, skin color, gender and even accents that are not the same as theirs. In order to have a healthier and smarter society this core disposition should be implemented in class. During my practice teaching I tried to reinforce Diversity in every possible chance I got. The students respond positively to this reality and accept all their peers as they were. But, some of the students like girls were more difficult in that area because they tend to dominate their friendship aspects as they pleased. Boys usually recognize how the other ones were and in some cases they would explain to me why one of them was mad, crying or any other tendency they had. My preoccupation is when the students go home. Usually there is no reinforcement at home of what is constructed in class. Parents, tend to demolish whatever structure we teachers have built in student’s formation (not every parent). During the readings in class diversity was identified by the students because of the characteristics and explanation of the characters. They seem to identify pretty well what was different from them and in the reading. Diversity is a concept that is being reinforced everywhere and each day is more acceptable (unfortunately there are exceptions). In the classroom diversity is always presented, but the implementation depends on the teacher. This is why empowering students into the concept and understanding of diversity
is important in order to create a healthier community. These students are our future governors, teachers, lawyers, artist and more, so we have to embrace diversity in order to live in harmony and respect one another.
Creativity Unfortunately we are living in a generation where creativity is lacking and imagination is poor. During my practice teaching experience I worried a lot about creativity, because even though concepts were given and well explained to students they seem to copy everything and didn’t gave themselves the space to create their own ideas. I don’t know if its laziness because of technology and the way they are being taught at home or is it because they lack of understanding of concepts and little experience. Creativity is not being reinforced in the class because teachers and students are getting to comfortable between handouts and visuals. In order to empower student’s creativity we have to open their mind through exploration and ideas. Students need to take ownership in their imagination. As a community we need to work as a team and start providing experience to the students where their imagination can grow freely without prejudice or critics. Embracing creativity in the classroom is imperative as well. The way we can achieve this idea of creativity is providing space for them to think, without giving them any answer or explicit example of what they can do depending the situation. Creativity is something that not everybody has. It can sound disappointing, but is true. Some people don’t seem to find the trigger when it comes to creativity therefore they need scaffolding in order to build knowledge upon knowledge and assessing through creativity.
Leadership Leadership is something that is naturally noticeable and developed at this level. Students always seem to follow particular students imitating what they do and doing as they pleased. But, leadership is not about having people do what you want, is about following towards and objective. Students at this level do not understand quite well what true leadership is. During lessons I prepared some activities that required the leading of groups, like debates and games. I didn’t place a leader at the beginning. I permitted them to follow someone in order for me to identify the natural leaders in each group. After a while I would change leaders for someone that now one followed eagerly in order to enhance that leadership. Empowering leadership in our classroom is important and a smart move. There is always a student that looks for the best interests of others and those are the ones that we need to polish in order to follow them in a future to a greater good. My preoccupation is that students confuse leadership with domination. Teachers need to be aware that when in classroom leadership is being implemented students understand the importance of the position given or acquired. Leadership should be embraced by the teacher and at home when it comes to decision making. Parents should provide the space for students to take decisions whether it affects them negatively or positively. This way, students are in charge of their own experiences and decide if they want to follow or lead. Of course, there will be moments where each of them will be followers and moments where they will be leaders. That is why implementing diversity is as important of implementing Leadership.
Social Transformation Social Transformation is presented in class in many aspects. It is important to embrace social transformation among our student and community. We see social transformation when we help each other, when we accept ideals of others and it can be used as a tool in order to empowering an individual (student). Many philosophers have explained how social transformation can contribute to the educational and personal growth in an individual. I believe students transform themselves through their own reality. Social transformation can occur when a student confronts a situation in a positive way learning from the possible mistakes he/she has committed and as well learning from other’s mistakes. Caring for other needs not necessarily theirs is social transformation. During the semester some students complain about headaches and I will tell all the students to be quiet in order to help them get better. Students seem to understand and try to help their peers by making silence or telling others to do so. We can see through that example that social transformation is anything that alters an individual’s perspective and therefore, actions in a positive way.