Natalie Korus

EDU 601
Summer 15

Diversity
In my first year of teaching I was at two different schools for the first
semester and then I got a fulltime position at the other at semester. They are
on opposite sides of town in Grand Island. The school that I am fulltime at is
Shoemaker Elementary School. We have about 300 students from
Kindergarten through fifth grade. It is located at 4160 West Old Potash
Highway. In 1964, the original building consisted of an office and four
classrooms. In September 2014, we will have a multiple classroom addition
constructed to bring the facility from a three to four unit building. In addition,
new administrative area, common area, and remodeling open concept space
into modern educational learning space a new addition will be added onto
our school. Our school improvement goals is to improve all students reading
comprehension, improve all students fluency and flexibility when solving
mathematical problems, improve all students written communication,
actively promote climate/culture supporting success and high achievement
for all students, staff, and stakeholders. It is a diverse school but not as much
as my other school. The other school was 95% diverse. There are many
different cultures in both schools.
Special education students swell civil rights docket by: Caralee
J. Adams

This article states that even with all these laws of civil rights,
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Disabilities Act of 1990 they are all still be
violated. One thing that I thought was interesting was that the U.S.
Department of Education received nearly 20,000 complaints about various
discrimination in the year of 2013-2014. 46% involved students with
disabilities, 27% based on sex, 22% race and national origin, and 5% age.
This made me realize on how people can just be measured by what color
they are or how they look or if they cant do something. Which really makes
me sad that the world is coming to be very discriminating against anyone
who is different than them. Our world is becoming more and more diverse
every year and to some that makes people a little eerie about it because
they dont want their jobs gone because of these new bees to come in and
take over or over populate in our Country. When it comes to schools and
there is many diverse students, they are trying to figure out on how to
provide support these students with disabilities. They are trying to find
money to fund for these students. In my school I know that funding is low for
special education students even for general education classes. Just trying to
get things for our students has to come out of our pockets unless we fill out a
grant for what we want. My school has one with really high needs, the
student has really good parents that take really good care of her but
sometimes we wish we could help her and her family a little more. We have a
circle of friends with her, where students can come and eat with her once a
week and then we play an activity together after lunch.

Poorest students often miss out on gifted classes by: Sarah D.

Sparks
Equal talents, unequal opportunities, I like this saying because it is
true. Some students have equal talents that just go unnoticed. They test the
ones that are already doing well and performing well on achievement tests.
In school with students living in poverty, teachers and administrators may
not have time or financial resources or support to help students meet basic
standards. Or you have a poor, bright student in a wealthier school setting
and still be behind the average student due to not having home support.
They had an idea that you should recommend a child who speaks
nonstandard English but uses creative puns and other wordplay or a student
who seems disengaged but who can ask probing questions or show deep
understanding of a subject that interests him or her even if the childs grades
are mediocre. Start not with, Who qualifies for the program? but with,
What is your end goal?. This saying is so true we need to look at the overall
goal for these students and where they need to be even if they dont qualify
for the program. Where could they be in a couple of weeks, months, years?
We need to ask ourselves these questions to help our students succeed in
life and school. The other special education teacher and I try to give all of our
students an opportunity to do what the other classmates are doing. If
students cannot afford it our teachers are really good about having those
students come up to them and they usually get it for them. Our staff is really
generous and caring to all of our students.

In strategy to help English-Learners, New York Expands DualLanguage Programs By: Corey Mitchell
It is amazing on how many bilingual people you know around your
environment. What you dont see is many white Americans bilingual some
are the Native people that can speak bilingual. We need to push for Whites,
Hispanics, Asians, etc. to become bilingual and teaching it in the school
system at a young age will benefit them once they are on their own. At one
of the schools in New York 335 students alternate between Spanish and
American classrooms. It is promoting more English-learners themselves on
improving the education program for students. They are becoming more
independent and more confident in themselves as they see they can speak
two languages and do better in school then some students. They are
planning to keep investing into this program. The trouble they are having is
trying to find teachers that are bilingual and some parents are not happy
because they are Asian Americans said why they cant teach them their
language, but they are trying to meet the needs of all language-learner
children. I have many students in my class that are English-learners. It is
very hard for them to understand what I am teaching them sometimes. I
think this idea would be great for those students because sometimes they do
not even now their own language. So they could refresh their memory of
their native language and still get the English on top of that. I think Nebraska
should look into this. I thought it would be a great thing for white people to
start learning Spanish too. This would benefit all students down the road.

A teachers role in fighting racism By: Cary Hamilton

This article presents that teacher need to teach a lesson about love
because love goes a long ways in life. Love is a powerful thing. With love you
can listen with your heart, explore your fears, and clarify any
misunderstanding that your students may have. Race is a huge thing in the
U.S. today. We see if every day on the news, schools, colleges, workplace, or
even when your just walking in the mall. This article stated teachers hold
the key to the heart and minds of future adult who I believe can change this
country. I believe we have an impact on students to guide them into the
right path but Im not sure if we can change the country. We may have ideas
to help students on their way to a great life. We need to keep preaching
about racism and how we can prevent this from happing in schools. Schools
need to become more aware of it and put an end to it when they see it. We
as teachers, administrators, supervisors, etc. need to teacher about diversity
and how we need to become a community. I agree with this article. Teachers
need to be aware of what is going around them and they need to careful on
what they say. Teachers need to teach students about being respectful and
caring about the person next to you. We should always say the golden rule.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Such a great statement
from a great man above. These are the words we should be living by so we
dont have so much hatred.
Why are all the teachers white? By: Christina Berchini

As in class we have talked about this. Even white males in the lower
grades in the education system you dont see too many unless they are the
administrative. This article states that we only see white teachers is because
back in the day only white people went to school and white people were the
teachers. As years pass you are seeing more and more native people come
into the education system but the majority is white teachers. For use to see
more teachers of color we need to as people and teachers need to know
where we stand of being bias. One question in this article got me thinking.
Why would minority populations elect to serve a system that will continue
to underserve minority students if the current discourse of accountability
has its way? Why would they when they know they have been down that
road before. The staff in my school are for the most part white females. Our
principal is a white male and we have a Kindergarten white male teacher.
Our ELL teacher and Kindergarten teacher are another kind of race.
Action Plan
These articles where all very insightful. I picked these articles because
they dealt with something that has value to my school. All of the articles
were different but they all had great points about them. The video was very
inspirational and seeing how well that school did with their students was just
amazing. Here is my action plan to help me and my students become closer
and become more familiarized together.

Becoming aware of their background (first couple weeks of school)

o What their values are as a family (family tree)
o How they celebrate things at home (show and tell)

o What they think about school and where does it stand

(important or not important to them)

Where they are socially
o Having conversations together to better understand one another

(work on social skillstake one skill per week)

How they learn
o Maybe using the Multiple Intelligence test to see how they learn
the best and focus on their strengths and work on where they
need help in
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks
3/ict/multiple_int/index.htm (MI quiz)
Take this quiz in the first couple of weeks of school

(share it with them, teachers, principal, and parents)

Many students have different strengths and
weaknesses but we can all work together to better

ourselves and others

Make my lessons more kid friendly (more easier to understand)
Slower pace for my lessons (slow down and wait for them to finish

their thinking)
More hands on activities because most of my students cannot sit for a

very long time

o Activities will maybe help them remember the information more
I got this thing from Julie and its a story that a student is reading but
you cant tell what the words mean until you flip it over and has the
story on the other side
o I want the students to realize I know it is tough to read but with
the schools help we can achieve so much
Maybe do this in the beginning of the week.

My teaching experience is diverse in ways but when I did my experience

it was uncomfortable to be there. My school there are many students who
can speak Spanish and English but some students only know a few words in
Spanish and English. They dont even know how to speak their native tongue
and now they are trying to figure out how to speak English. It is very difficult
for them. When they hear it in English and translate it in their head to
Spanish it takes them awhile for them to respond.
When I went down to 4th street in Grand Island. We walked into a store
and thats all you heard was Spanish. The spaces in the stores were very
small and they had everything and anything in them. We went into one store
which was like a convenient store but it also had clothes and shoes in it. I
was shocked on how much stuff there was in one store. Another thing I
thought was interesting was how cheap everything was. Now I understand
when students look at you with a dumb face like really you want me to tell
you what you said. You are crazy! Their culture is so different than ours. Now
seeing how difficult it was to understand people different than I will take in
more consideration for students who dont speak English so well. Taking my
time with them during class to understand on what they are trying to say.
I also got my nails done a couple weeks ago with my sister and mother.
They were Asian ladies doing our nails. The first thing I noticed was
sometimes they would take so quiet yet another lady would answer across
the room. I was amazed. Then they start to chatter about something and
look and you and you assume that they are talking about you but probably

not. My mother and I tried to carry on a conversation with them. It was very
difficult for us to understand what they were trying to say, so they would
have to repeat it most of the time. I feel that way with some of my students
that they have to repeat something again and again for I know what they are
trying to say.