Culturally Relevant Pedagogy & What to Look for in a Classroom

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy & What to Look for in a Classroom by: Alfie Kohn

    After viewing the "What to Look for in a Classroom" chart made by Alfie Kohn, I have a new perspective for what I want my future classroom to look like when I become a teacher. This is something I look forward to most when I think about becoming a teacher because I want to create an inviting and positive environment for my students to be in every day. Something that stuck out to me was the "On the Walls" section that listed some helpful tips. Showcasing students' work on the walls is so important because it shows them that you as a teacher value their hard work and want to show it off. They also mention having signs that were created by the students rather than the teacher. An example of this would be to create a classroom expectation list and have each student sign the bottom to show that it was a collaboration with everyone. Additionally, something I'd like to implement in my classroom at the beginning of the year is have every student create a positive saying picture to display all over the classroom. Something like "keep on going" or "be kind" are great reminders for the students to reflect on each day. During my time as a substitute teacher, I have seen some great classrooms and some not so great classrooms. I think this really effects the way students behave in the classroom because they are going to have a negative behavior if that classroom does not make them happy. Bright colors, positive quotes, some natural light can really add to a classroom. This chart gave me some great ideas to utilize in my future classroom, and I am so excited for that day! A happy and positive classroom makes students more motivated to want to learn. 

    I found this great classroom tour of a first-year teacher's 2nd grade classroom. This video gave me a lot of great ideas for my future classroom and made me so excited! I hope to incorporate some featured from this video in my classroom someday. 

    

    The video "Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy" discussed the importance of including students' individual cultures within the classroom. I connected this video a lot with asset-based learning because they talked about making connections to lessons to the cultures in the classroom so that students can understand topics better. It is so important to include all of the cultures in the classroom because you do not want students to feel left out of lessons. This way, students can relate more to what they are learning about, and they will be more interested to learn more. This will also help with student motivation because they will be more motivated to work on things that they can relate to. As a future teacher, I want to ensure that I am including each and every one of my students' cultures in lessons because they will be able to make connections and relate more to the topics. This will boost confidence and motivation in my future students which will allow for a better overall classroom environment. Going back to the classroom topic from above, I would love to be able to incorporate students' cultures in the decor of my classroom to make everyone feel seen and welcome. 

Reflection for the class: What's one thing you definitely want to incorporate in your future classroom?