How to Teach Your Children the Importance of Diversity – Dr. Floyd Williams

Children are smart and inquisitive, and even if parents aren’t talking about race to them, psychologists say that by the age of three or four, kids are noticing it. One study showed that the more diverse friends parents had, their young kids showed less racial bias than the children of parents with less diverse friends.

There are numerous ways of teaching your children about the importance of diversity and for allowing young minds to grasp the concepts of racial and cultural differences and put them into perspective.

Behavioral experts believe that education and entertainment can go a long way in helping children learn key lessons in life. Diversity is a topic rich in value that children should be exposed to early on. Here are several ways you can show your children the value in diversity.

Practice what you preach

Parents should begin by showing their children acceptance and tolerance. Little ones like to imitate their parents, so adults should be open to new experiences and new people. Identify your own unconscious biases and work to correct them.

Show global diversity

Hanging up a colorful map of the world or buying children a globe to spin around and find different countries on is an excellent idea. Physically seeing another part of the world and how these places make newsworthy moments can expand a child’s vision of different people and cultures.

Highlight other cultures

Sampling various foods from other countries is a delicious way to learn about a unique culture, language, and traditions. Taking a family to a multicultural fair or community event to meet new people can be an effective way to teach about diversity.

Differences are okay

Children are curious and bright and will notice that someone’s skin color is darker or lighter, hair texture is different, or traditions other families practice that are unfamiliar. Parents should encourage kids to ask them questions and that there’s no embarrassment talking about it.

Read inclusive books

There are wonderful books available that discuss diversity, disability, and inclusion in simple concepts young minds can comprehend. Parents can read these stories to kids ages two to five.

Start a pen pal program

Kids enjoy writing letters or emails to other young people scattered around the globe. Having international pen pals is a fun concept many schools encourage.

How to Encourage Engagement in Your Classroom – Dr. Floyd Williams

Engagement for students is vital in order to give them a sense of connectedness to their learning. For many teachers, this goal can be a challenge, primarily because the kids may not be fully invested in the content that you are teaching them. Despite the difficulties that many teachers face to spark engagement, there are methods you can use in order to boost engagement. There is a litany of creative ways that you can spark curiosity and encourage student participation. Here are some ways that you can do just that.

Take your time

Pausing after asking a question and after subsequent answers can prove to be an effective method for getting students involved in the learning. This involvement occurs because students, especially younger kids, struggle when rushing through questions. Answers also do not help most students because they will need guidance as to how they got to that destination. The second pause after the first answer helps students reflect on the first answer and view the question from a different angle.

Ask in the form of mystery

If you want a surefire way to spark curiosity, introduce the next topic or question in the form of a mystery. It can be something along the lines of asking your kids what would happen next if something were to happen. We may all process information differently, but if there is one thing that can arouse curiosity, it is a mystery. Sometimes, conjecture is the best way to facilitate learning.

Group work

Two heads are indeed better than one. Sometimes, with the right guidance, group work can do wonders for facilitating learning while building social skills. Students may understand the value of teamwork while recognizing their own individual contributions. Using this technique with short collaboration methods can do wonders for engagement.

Understand the gap

Obviously, you cannot expect your students to be experts on topics that you have to teach them. Therefore, it may be contingent upon you to inquire about how much knowledge they have on a topic and understanding where work is needed to expedite the learning process. Once they have a better understanding of where they are weak, they will be put in a better position to participate as a result.

4 Tips for Fostering Creativity in Your Classroom

Creative methods have been proven to work quite well in the classroom. Students learn better when their lessons are interesting in interactive, so it’s important to optimize creativity as much as possible in your classroom. Of course, it can be challenging to come up with something that is creative, entertaining, and educational for all of the children in your class. Here are some ideas that have worked for others, and just might work for you, too!

Learn through music

Most children find textbooks drab and boring; they don’t want to spend all class following along, staring at a block of text. This attitude is especially true for the majority of children who don’t necessarily like reading. An alternative to reading through a textbook could be incorporating music into the classroom. Find interesting songs that help teach your current lessons. If the children enjoy it, let them use that song as a jumping point. You can find a lot of resources online, some songs that are educational and some that are just entertaining, but relevant to what you’re teaching. You can make your own songs and even encourage students to make music videos.

Ask colleagues

There’s nothing wrong with taking good ideas from other teachers. Talk to the other teachers at your school, or even simply teachers online, and ask them if they have any fun ideas. Adapt their ideas to better fit your classroom and lessons. Good ideas are meant to be shared, especially when it helps mold our future leaders.

Let the children follow their creative ambitions

Most people have some sort of creativity flowing through them, even if they don’t know it. Of course, people have different creative outlets and passions. Encourage your classroom to follow those findings and create an environment that allows for a variety of types of expression. Children won’t necessarily be creative if you sit them down and tell them that it’s time to be creative. Instead, it’s best to let them be creative when the inspiration strikes. Give your classroom the opportunity to get creative with assignments or choose their own methods of completing assignments and tasks. This might require some extra personalized attention to the students, but watching them learn independently is well worth it.

Communicate with your students

The best way to help your students be creative is to have a dialogue about the things that they like and the things that they want to do. Encourage students to speak to you. If they would prefer to be anonymous, set up a suggestion box that the classroom can use to submit fun ideas. You may get some pranksters, but it’s allowing them to be creative, too!

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3 Ways To Better Teach A Diverse Classroom

Being a teacher can be a challenging profession because you have been entrusted with the enormous task of effectively delivering education to young students. While it can be a rewarding field, a great deal of diligence is placed on the part of the educator. This responsibility is especially the case when you are tasked with a diverse classroom of students. There may be children that come from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and in a traditional English setting, the transition can be very difficult for them. However, you can help make the situation easier. Here are some better ways to teach a classroom that is ethnically diverse.

Learn about your students’ culture

Take some time to study the backgrounds of students that may be new to this environment. You can look up what their values and traditions are and help them feel more accommodated by their surrounding environment. The transition for the student can be more difficult than for the teacher. The teacher is tasked with a curriculum to teach, but the students have to absorb the information and apply it, even if there’s a barrier to clearly understanding it. This task can be difficult for those who have a different way of learning. So, be sure that you have at least a general understanding of what their needs are so they can be adequately addressed.

Let their difference influence your teaching

These new differences can be especially new to you, but understand that this can be an opportunity to positively influence the way you teach and how you can improve. If you excel at adapting to the needs of your students, you will be able to increase their engagement in the class. All children learn at different rates and in different ways, so knowing how to adjust your teaching style to fit specific learning styles makes you a better teacher. This adjustment can result in them retaining more information.

Evaluate your teaching style

Of course, if you are going to attempt to adapt to another student’s way of learning, you will first have to have a moment of self-reflection. What are your methods? What is your class environment normally like? What differences can result in new challenges for your students? Seeing as how you are responsible for their education, you will have to evaluate your own teaching style and culture to understand how these aspects affect the learning curve of the classroom.

Follow some of these tips, and you will be able to make a smooth transition in teaching no matter who your students are.

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4 Tips for Engaging Students in Their Education

Some students simply do not feel interested in education and would rather spend their time in other pursuits. For educators, it can be incredibly difficult to connect with students with this mindset, but it’s important to make the effort. While not every student will excel in school or love studying, it is possible to make a connection with every student and find a way to engage them in education in order to motivate them to try their best. Students learn in different ways and care about various topics, so find ways to connect with your students and get them engaged!

Identify their learning style

Students learn in a variety of ways. It’s up to us as educators to pinpoint how each of our students learn and adjust our teaching styles to give them the most benefit. Encourage students to take quick evaluations to see what their learning styles are and be observant to see how your students retain information. Try various teaching styles and see which ones work best with students. The best way to help students with different learning styles is to take a mixed approach in your teaching style and utilize a variety of styles to help out students. For those that you know struggle a little more, ask them how they’re doing and give them plenty of opportunities to ask you questions and get help.

Incorporate fun into the classroom

While many public school educators have to stick to strict guidelines when it comes to teaching, there are ways to make sure your classroom stays fun and exciting for students. Instead of lecturing, come up with creative lesson plans that allow students to get involved in their education. Have them pick topics and create reports on them to teach the class or come up with fun games you can play with students to help them learn the material.

Talk about a variety of topics

There are going to be specific topics you need to focus on and course material you have to cover, but there’s room to add in more variety to your curriculum. Find topics that you think would interest the students or even ask each one of them to submit something they’d like to discuss and learn about at some point throughout the school year. Allowing students to become active participants in their own education helps keep them engaged.

Communicate with them

Communication with your students is vitally important. Besides asking them their learning styles and what they want to talk about, it’s also important that they feel safe and comfortable talking to you about issues they may be having. You could be the only adult in a student’s life they feel like they can talk to, especially if they have problems at home. Make sure students feel they can talk to you if there’s something going on in their lives that’s affecting their studies.

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