It’s a bit difficult for me to think about what my future classroom will be like. My hopes are to become an elementary French teacher; however, this position is becoming rarer as the years go on, and Spanish become more popular. In Indianapolis, I attended a private school and I know a lot about the classroom culture in private school settings. I am not at all familiar with the public school system, although I believe that some schools do offer Spanish to the elementary aged children. I know that as students enter high school, it is a requirement that they take a certain number of years in a foreign language in order to graduate.
So I will talk from my experiences and pretend that I will be an elementary school teacher at the school that I attended in elementary school in Indianapolis. The school is private, and serves the mostly higher end of the SES spectrum. Students travel from as far as 40 minutes away to attend the school. They come from the suburbs of Carmel and Zionsville, two very affluent suburbs in Hamilton County. While there is still a range within the SES of the families, it is clear that every family that attends the school is well off. Obviously, there would be a big difference in the teaching of students in private schools and public school systems. Hopefully all the students will have a desire to learn!
The school does cater to a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds. In my classroom, I will have students from different religions, who celebrate different holidays. While I would want to focus on mainly the French holidays, I know that it would be my responsibility to respect the beliefs and religions of the students within the classroom. Perhaps I could talk about the diversity of France as well and integrate that into a lesson. It’s not as if everyone in France is of the same religion and the same race, so why would I treat my French class as if it were like that?
I would teach both male and female students from the first to the fifth grade. While I have yet to experience what it is like to teach in a French classroom, I will need to take into consideration the different learning styles of each grade and gender. Perhaps one method of teaching is more effective for first graders, and would be inappropriate for the older students. There are foreign students at the school and English might be their second language. Perhaps the best method for teaching these children would be to work with them privately outside of school, because I can imagine that it would be difficult (and overwhelming) to learn English and then another language on top of that.
It will be nice to teach elementary school aged children French. I can incorporate games and stories into the lesson plan, as well as “lectures.” I can choose from a wide variety of teaching methods, some of which may be better suited to children who come from different cultures and have experienced similar methods. There are so many different aspects of culture and I cannot really prepare myself for what I’ll be faced with in the classroom. I think that my best option is to be open and willing to reflect on my teaching styles and see if they are the best option for the kids in my class. I know that I need to respect the cultural differences in the classroom, and make sure that no student feels that their culture is not as valued as another culture. While I may not be an expert on another religion or ethnicity, I still need to make sure that students in the minority do not feel like they are being left out. I will value the diversity in my classroom and try to create an environment where everyone feels welcome.
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