Learning about a wide variety of cultures is crucial in the development of educated students. Students need to be able to look in a mirrror as well as out a window in thier educational journey. This means they need to learn about people who are similar to them as well as people who are different from them. Some ways in which we have done this in my first grade classroom are through reading a variety of books with a variety of characters. Celebrating everyone is so important in the classroom and creating a community of cullturally proficient students is a top priority of mine. To achieve this goal, it is important for me to continue my education and further my own understanding about different cultures and beleifs so that I can best serve my students.
Supporting Article: 5 Elements of Cultural Proficiency
Being an informed is a great way to be a good citizen. We can be informed by keeping up with current events and integating this news into the classoom. It is impotant to choose age appropriate topics to teach our students about. For example, in my first-grade classroom we focus on current events happening in our scchool ass well as in our Lincoln community. When I started integrating current events into the day, students went home and told thier parrents, and brought back current events happenning in our community that they learned about at home. Then, students can even get involved in their community. Being informed about what is going on around us makes us great citizens and community members.
Supporting Article: Seven Ways to Bring Current Events into the Classroom
Community involvement is one of my core values when finding a school that is right for me. The community gives schools great supports, and it is impotant for me that my students and I support our community as well. Ways in which my first grade classroom did this was through recycling, reusing paper, and learning about sustainability. As teachers, my school has fundraisers supporting different causes that are near to the staff such as Teammates and Backpack Walk. Another way in which we are good school community members are thought our buddies program with the third graders and the monster project with a nearby middle school. Collaboration across grade levels and schools gives us positive role models who are also learning how to be involved in the community!