TESOL Week 7 Cross Cultural Students in the Classroom


I know I want to be the best teacher I can be for each and every student who passes through my classroom, so I googled "What makes a great teacher?" and there is a myriad of sites to visit, which list things like:
Warm
Accessible
Enthusiastic
Stay late
Start early
Available for students and parents
Involved with school committees
Committed to the school
Ability to develop relationships with their students
Patient, caring and kind
Knowledge of their learners- I found this tip on the third website I went into.
It should be one of the first things a teacher must do. You cannot provide the best learning experience for your students if you are not able to tune into the things which motivate them or the things which will have them losing interest.
You also need to understand their behaviour in the classroom and this is done by understanding their culture.
Bro Ivers, of Brigham Young University, gave a great lecture on cultural differences in the classroom and he focussed a lot on Asian students in American classrooms. They love the interactive classroom which encourages critical thinking and the relationship between students and teachers, but many are appalled by the behaviour of the American students. They specifically mention the lack of respect shown by students choosing to eat in the classroom, read newspapers, instead of listening and packing their bags while the lecturer is still engaged in the lesson. This is because of the fact that the USA is very informal and the driving decree is that "all men and woman are equal".
The youtube video I have cited under sources, I found very informative on diversity. The TED talker is Julien S Bourrelle and he is talking on how culture drives behaviours. He gives a figure of a mixed cultural board of directors as being 37% more effective than that of a non-mixed one. At the end of his fantastic talk, he says, "The key here is to benefit from diversity, everyone sees the world through cultural glasses. It's not about what you see, it's about what you perceive, and it is by taking small steps that we will one day help the world to truly benefit from diversity."
It is in our mixed classrooms that we can teach each other about our cultural norms and we can learn from others theirs.
It is in our churches, branches and wards that we come to love one another as we embrace each other by showing our respect for each other cultures, by being aware of our differences and finding compassion in our similarities.
I hope to be the best teacher my students need, by employing all the tips these great sites have given and always ensuring I am a culturally aware teacher!

Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Yy6poJ2zs

https://video.byui.edu/media/06+Cross-Cultural+Students+in+the+Classroom/0_r2lcaswt

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