Diversity of Students

As a teacher you will have a lot of different types of students in your classes. No two of your students will ever be exactly the same. Language, race, culture and environment can have huge effects on a students. Different races and cultures have different customs and were brought up differently than I was when I was growing up. Americans tend to be very ethnocentric, meaning Americans believe the different things we do are the best. This can cause problems in schools and the students that are not Americans may have difficulty fitting in and becoming comfortable in school. Language may be one of the biggest barriers to success in school. Imagine moving to a country in which you do not know the language very well. Imagine having to go to class everyday and have difficulty just understanding the basic instructions for class that day, let alone succeeding at a high level. I took Spanish from 7th grade up to 11th grade. Ask me something in Spanish and chances are I will have no idea what you are saying and will be unable to respond to you. I wish I had the ability to speak another language like Spanish because it will most likely come in handy some day. I bet that one of my students in my classes over the years will speak a language other than English. I remember completing my ESL assignment for my EDU 256 notebook. In one of the sections I recall having to listen to people that spoke very broken and unclear English and having to try and understand what they were saying. In another section of that assignment I listened to more people that spoke languages other than English and read short pieces written in other languages as well. As I was completing the ESL assignment I stepped into the shoes and had the opportunity to see what ESL, English as a second language, students go through everyday. As a teacher you have to figure out ways to get through and help all of your students learn. No student should be left behind.