Diversity in today's schools

Mrs. Cunico has a lot of things in her room that they talked about in a lot of these modules. She has a word wall to help remind students how to spell. She also has multiple libraries in her class, so there are a wide variety of topics for the students to pick to read about. So I talked to Mrs. Cunico about diversity in the classroom. She told me a story of a boy she had in her class years ago. They had just moved here. This boy, his mom, dad, little brother and sister, his aunt, uncle, and grandma were all in the same small house. The boy was going into Mrs. Cunico's then first grade class. He knew quit a bit of English but being the only one in his family he didn't practice English at home. He was put in an English learning class for 40 minutes each day. But Mrs. Cunico also wanted to be a part of it. So she would have a word or phrase, everyday to ask this boy how to say in Spanish.And they would take time out of the daily schedule for the boy to teach the class. I feel this was a great way to get this student involved in his class and get him excited to come to school rather than wanting to stay home because he was scared of failure or of not fitting in. Also it was fun for the other students to learn some Spanish too. I feel it helped them connect to him more so they also saw they were not all that different, and that being different isn't a bad thing. She also told me about how the little boy would get excited and would go home and teach his family some English. The family moved again at the end of that school year. But the little boys mother stays in contact with Mrs. Cunico, she is still working on her English. What a great story it was. That little act can make such a BIG difference in a young kids schooling experience. Now some of the other things I have seen Mrs. Cunico doing is giving clear and understandable instructions. Before they start on anything she gives them instructions on how she wants it done. Then before she dismiss them to start, she asks them if they have any questions. Making sure they completely understand how to do it before she lets them go to start on it. Another thing I like that Mrs. Cunico does is that when they do buddy work, a lot of times she lets them choice their own partner. But she also every once in a while will place certain students together so that they can help each other in different things. Such as if a student was very good at this subject she would pair them with someone that wasn't as good. Mrs. Cunico also has a student of the week. And that week they get to know this student, they see things they have in common with each other and things that they are different in. In one of the modules I remember it saying how teaching about different countries and not just around holidays. I remember one of my first days in the classroom they were being taught about around the world places. Mrs. Cunico had a packet that looked like a suitcase, and each country they visited she would have a sticker to represent that country and they would put it on there passport (that was a paper in there suit case packet) and the students LOVED this each day when they came in from lunch they would be so excited to see what country they would be visiting that day. They would have a picture of the countries flag in the packet to color, and a sheet of some questions that they wanted to find out about the country. I thought that was an awesome idea. And like I said the students LOVED it and I am sure that is something they are always going to remember.