After blogging about the monograph on the use of IWBs in classrooms yesterday, I was keen to watch the video about the IWB Framework on the TMERC site. As I am so often when I watch these sorts of things in workshops or online, I was once again struck with how very different the classes in the video looked from our own.
For most of my career, I have chosen to teach in fairly polychromatic schools, often in areas of high socio-economic need. At the very least, the vast majority of my classes have featured a preponderance of students whose first language was one other than English. This provides both challenges and opportunities when teaching.
I love teaching and learning in the midst of culterally diverse populations, but am frustrated that most of the professional learning resources I have seen on topics of interest to me tend to be focussed in classrooms where most if not all the students appear to share one culture and the same first language.
In addition to the many benefits that come from a multicultural classroom, there are some very real challenges, especially around language, as outlined in this monograph here. I realise that in a province as big as Ontario, not every school is going to face the same trials and tribulations. Indeed, I would guess that outside of the GTA, probably most classrooms more closely mirror those so often featured in the videos we see. But it sure would be helpful for us to see and read about the effective use (and practical ideas for getting there) of Bansho and/or IWBs in classrooms like ours!
For most of my career, I have chosen to teach in fairly polychromatic schools, often in areas of high socio-economic need. At the very least, the vast majority of my classes have featured a preponderance of students whose first language was one other than English. This provides both challenges and opportunities when teaching.
I love teaching and learning in the midst of culterally diverse populations, but am frustrated that most of the professional learning resources I have seen on topics of interest to me tend to be focussed in classrooms where most if not all the students appear to share one culture and the same first language.
In addition to the many benefits that come from a multicultural classroom, there are some very real challenges, especially around language, as outlined in this monograph here. I realise that in a province as big as Ontario, not every school is going to face the same trials and tribulations. Indeed, I would guess that outside of the GTA, probably most classrooms more closely mirror those so often featured in the videos we see. But it sure would be helpful for us to see and read about the effective use (and practical ideas for getting there) of Bansho and/or IWBs in classrooms like ours!