In her final speech as the First Lady, Michelle Obama said this, "You see, our glorious diversity—our diversity of faiths, and colors and creeds―that is not a threat to who we are, it makes us who we are." Those words resounded deeply to me as an educator, and motivated me to share a few thoughts on diversity with you... In case you missed it during the Superbowl, this multi-lingual commercial featuring the national anthem in many different languages really struck me as a beautiful example of valuing diversity. I believe that what we do as World Language educators
is as important as any other job on the planet. We have the opportunity to help our students see through a new lens, understand new words (and therefore new worlds), experience a new culture (thereby better understanding their own culture), and embrace a new way of thinking (which challenges their current manner of thinking). Thank you for helping our students embrace diversity!
1 Comment
The more that you read, the more you will know. The more that you know, the more places you'll go." --Dr. Seuss Co-author: Jennifer Hood, PHES If you know me at all by now, you know to be careful what you share, or it might end up on VFTF for all to see! And that's exactly what happened when Jennifer Hood shared the following email from one of her K Immersion parents with me. Leaving out student names for privacy, I got permission to share the email and pictures with you too: "I wanted to show you the impact you and Sra. Gasque have had on our son and in turn, his little sister. I snuck up behind 'Little Girl' and took these pictures. She is 'teaching' her imaginary class Spanish (it is an English/Spanish book about Apple trees we checked out from the public library)." --K Immersion Mom While this might not seem like a big deal to some, let me draw your attention to the fact that this email is evidence of Communication, Connections, and Communities--three of our 5 C's. This is what I saw when Jenn invited me in to observe a literacy lesson which was grounded in the weather exploration unit. Extending the study on weather to build language skills, Srta. Hood incorporated a writing lesson based on the book, "How to Build a Snowman." With expert modeling and scaffolding, see what her young bilingual/bi-literate learners were able to do. The great news is that this type of work is happening in all of our elementary immersion classrooms in Spanish, Chinese, French and German! Where will our students go from here? The sky is the limit! |
Archives
April 2022
Categories |