Throughout my time within my placements and education career at Trinity Christian College, I have understood the importance of student diversity and the abilities of each student. This has been a focal point in my education and something that I pride myself in understanding. I chose to utilize the Contextual Factors assignment to embody this standard. The assignment asked me to research the background of the demographic of my school. I conducted independent research as I had been starting my placement in the student body. I had done this to better understand the environment I had been entering. 

This project exemplifies an understanding of "the spectrum of student diversity" and explored "the assets that each student brings to learning across the curriculum." (1A). It does this by understanding the socioeconomic status of my students and the background in education they had up until the point I had been introduced to them. In addition to meeting this requirement, the contextual factors assignment also meets "the individual needs and how to locate and access technology, services, and resources to address those needs." (1G). Throughout the assignment as well as part of my research I had been able to understand that students had been able to have access to technology due to the way the school allocated their money. A large population of the students required assistive technology and due to the research done I know had been able to understand this and better prepare myself prior to my student teaching placement.  

This allowed me to learn a major skill throughout my student teaching placements. The skill that I had been able to understand and acquire from this had been a better understanding of the school environment. I was able to comprehend the demographic of the school population and dive a bit deeper into understanding the needs of my students. Taking the extra time to do some independent research to learn about my students and understand their backgrounds and where they come from allowed me to easily build up connections with them. This also allowed me to gain a better understanding of the inner workings of my school. Seeing that they are willing to allocate funds to ensure that students have assistive technology allowed me to have more confidence that the school I was at has the best interests of their students as their top priority.

After discussing the events of the Holocaust to occur during WW2, I had been looking for a way to incorporate a way to represent the diverse population of my students in an assignment. The student population of this class was very diverse. I came up with a project for the students, that granted them a little bit of freedom in incorporating their own backgrounds into it. The solution was to cover different genocides across the world. I had the students select genocides that might go based on their background. I had students come up with a list of different genocides that occurred around the world. We came up with a diverse list that included different aspects of the student's culture and backgrounds. 

This project utilizes information about students’ individual experiences, families, cultures, and communities to create meaningful learning opportunities and enrich instruction for all students. (1L). This project allowed discover more about their culture and include it in a way that allows their research to go along with their culture. They had been able to share the project with their peers and explain its significance to them. The end result was the students coming to a realization that their personal history is just as important as the history I instruct them every day. 

This project allowed me to realize the importance of culture in the classroom. If we focus and highlight the aspects of our own history that makes us different, from there we are able to understand one another better. Students will become more engaged and excited to learn when it involves something that directly affects them. A constant question I have received is "When are we going to use this information in our lives?" If we apply this question and use the information we teach them and apply it to the student's life, that is where true learning occurs. The connection between education and personal life is what the heart of learning and education is the purpose of it all.