Diversity in the Classroom: What Teachers Can Do for Success

As an educator it is essential that we have an understanding on how to accommodate differences. While diversity is expected in a classroom, it is difficult to expect students that have cultural differences, cognitive disorders, or other challenges represented in the classroom. Most educators are not exposed to these challenges prior to entering a classroom and have high expectations of idealistic views of what their classroom composition will entail. What teacher doesn't want to speculate the perfect classroom where all students are ready to achieve greatness and they all listen perfectly without any problems? I know this is certainly an easy picture to create in my mind.

The reality of course is not the idealized view that we picture in our mind. We will have a complex array of individuals in our classrooms with a variety of challenges represented to us as well as to the students. In reviewing the readings in the Omrod readings this week, the areas of interest to address specifically here are students with emotional and behavioral disorders, giftedness, and homeless students.

Students that display emotional or behavioral disorders can be displayed in a student by low self-esteem, poor social skills, difficulty establishing interpersonal relationships, frequent absences from school, and deteriorating academic performance. (Omrod, 173). While not all students will necessarily show these characteristics, these can be tools to evaluate when a student might be having a problem with emotion or behavior. Many students that have these disorders are also exposed to a stressful living situation. (Omrod, 173). Students of any age are just as likely to be affected by their surroundings as adults, sometimes even more so, depending on their sensitivity to a subject surrounding them, as well as their ability to have resources available to help them cope.

It is important to know the children in your class so that you can gauge if a student is having emotional or behavior problems. We can address these concerns with school counselors, parents, and specialists in the field that can help determine the student's well-being. Many students don't always share personal struggles, however, their struggles can dictate their performance in the classroom. It is important to keep an eye on students, especially changes in moods and behavior that is uncommon to them.

To assist these students in the classroom, it is important to provide lessons, activities, and projects that interest them and can encourage their participation. It is important to encourage them and let them know that you are there for them. It is also important to let children know that they have some control over their surroundings. (Omrod 174). As educators we can help pinpoint the areas where a child is struggling with behavioral and emotional disorders and offer assistance.

For children that display giftedness it is important to ensure that these students are challenged. If they are so far beyond the teaching to the classroom, they might get bored and as educators we can start to introduce gifted programs or another teacher that can assist with projects or assignments that will challenge these individuals. Students that are gifted generally show a high interest and success in a particular skills and/or subject such as music, math, creative writing, or science. Students exhibit signs of the ability to learn more quickly and independently than their peers, have greater flexibility in ideas and approaches to tasks, a high standard for their performance, and more advanced vocabulary, language, and reading skills. (Omrod 184). These students can fall beneath the cracks if a teacher is teaching to the middle of the class ability and these students can become a behavior problem, or start to show disinterest in school because they are not being challenged and do not care to participate in simplistic activities.

From the Omrod readings, I believe the most important area I would address first as a teacher if I had a student I perceived as gifted is to seek outside resources. I would want to ensure that I was offering this child specialized instruction as well as opportunities for their growth, and by seeking out resources, this would allow me to provide these chances for this child or children. I would still want to challenge them with their studies, and have them engage with groups of children that were high achievers to ensure they have connections with their peers.

Working with homeless students would provide a great challenge for me. I know I would have a difficult time not doing absolutely everything I could for a family that is homeless. I would have a challenging time separating my desire to help from my teaching requirements in the classroom. I would want to do everything I could to help a student achieve their best, if it meant a shower, a warm meal, or a nice warm bed to sleep in. I know that this is a common predicament in schools. By close observation of the students in class, I would hope that I could pinpoint the differences in a child that might be homeless by their clothing, by their hygiene, and other problems they might exhibit. I would hope to change a child's attitude in regards to reluctance to attend school due to lack of housing and resources for bathing, to a healthy environment for them to adapt and be able to change for themselves in their future. This might not be an easy feat, however, I would take the challenge. I have great respect for the teacher Miss. A, listed in the readings that went out of her way to accommodate students for their success. This is often imperative to reach the total child, and not just the areas of a child's life that visit teachers in the classroom.

While students in these areas will pose challenges within a classroom, it is important to think outside the box in addressing the problems and helping to fix these problems. For students exhibiting behavior or emotional problems I would try to provide praise for these children. I would want to offer them more chances to sit down with them and engage with something of their interest to allow them to feel safe, and trust that school is a safe place. This could be by playing games, writing a story with them, or going over some of their work with them. I believe discipline is a healthy tool in the classroom that can be used to motivate students. For instance, I have a preschooler that entered my classroom with some behavior problems. I teach a short day, ending before lunchtime and our school has lunch services for parents that wish their children to have an extended day. He badly wanted to stay for lunch, but was verbal in sharing that his family couldn't afford for him to stay due to lack of employment. We created a simple model for his behavior that if he could meet, he could stay for lunch. If his behavior was lacking that day, he was unable to stay. He quickly was able to understand what is acceptable and allowed him to stay for lunch. With help from my director, his parents, and his motivation to change, we have helped him gain self-esteem.

For students with giftedness, I would try to challenge them more with special areas that interested them. I would try to fill my classroom with other games and books of their interest. I believe this would help keep them engaged and provide learning opportunities for other students in the class.

For homeless students I would also want to build their self esteem, introduce fun engaging lessons for them, and provide as much support inside and outside of the classroom as possible.

Every person has had challenges in their lives and I would hate to see these struggles affecting a students self-esteem and their ability to succeed in life. I would be diligent in providing support to these students and families and work with parents, the school system and any specialists to help these children succeed.