As an educator, my goals are to make my classroom a safe space for all children and make it a producer of curious, determined, and intelligent students. It is my job as an educator to make my class is one of diverse teaching methods and of a welcoming atmosphere to facilitate the learning, providing for everything they need. Because I encounter children with many different backgrounds, I must maintain an environment that lets students feel safe and open in my classroom. My goal is to foster a desire to learn and an overwhelming curiosity in every child.
All children learn differently and have a right to a good and useful education. Every child is unique and has a preferred method of learning in order to leave the class with a well-rounded education. I believe that a teacher must create lessons that reach to every student. For example, during the years that I was tutoring Spanish for middle school students in the homeschool co-op Northwest Mississippi Home Educators, my job was to deliver a condensed but thorough lesson plan for the semester to my students. I provided them with the content they needed, skills for practicing on their own, and experience for their academic careers. I worked with a group that knew little or no Spanish, so the classes consisted of vocabulary memorization and practice with grammatical elements. I knew the skills of the students that I was going to teach and catered activities and assessments according to the group that I had.
Deciding on the literature that will be used is key in creating a diverse curriculum. The chosen literature must be both educational and entertaining so that students may develop more interest in their work. If students are introduced to a wide variety of authors and characters, they are more likely to relate to and engage with any literary analyses. Choosing literature is important for Spanish classes as well. These classes revolve around introducing a new language and unique cultures to children, so assigning informative reading in English and in Spanish is crucial.
Katelyn Hobbs 