MANAGING A DIVERSE CLASSROOM, ERASMUS+ KA101 Teacher Training Activity

From 8th to 13th July, I am attending a course in Nafplio, Greece.

This teacher training activity is named "Managing a diverse classroom".

Although the contents of this course are wider, these are some of the issues, discussions and resources we have been dealing with during the first sessions:

MONDAY, 8th July 

School participants´presentations/webpages:

• HUNGARY: 
  • Music and Drama school, in Budapest
  • Bethlen Szakközépiskola
  • Pannonhalmi Bencés Gimnázium

• POLAND: Katolickie liceum ogólnokształcące

• PORTUGAL: Secondary school in Aljustrel 

• SPAIN:  
• CRA Campos Castellanos (Cantimpalos) 
• Salesianos (Alcoy) 
• IES Ángel de Saavedra (Córdoba)

 

Cultural programme in Epidauros and Ermioni:
 

 

TUESDAY, 9th July

We had the day off as the National Gallery, where this course is being held, was closed today. 

So, we have been invited by the course organizers (EUROPASS Teacher Academy) to a boat trip to the islands of Hydra and Spetses. 

Here there are some beautiful images of both islands:

WEDNESDAY, 10th July 

Discussions about what diversity is and means in the school context have been developed.

Some quotes for reflexion and common points of view:

• “Individual differences are not problems but opportunities for enriching learning” UNESCO, 2005
• Individual differences could be a problem, unless we as teachers find the ways to enrich learning. Then they are an opportunity.
• “Regular schools with inclusive orientation are the most effective means of combating discrimination, creating welcoming communities, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all” (Salamanca statement, Art. 2)

Classroom management

Definitions of classroom management:

“The actions teachers take to create a supportive environment for the academic and the social emotional learning of students” (Evertson and Weinstein, 2006)

“Classroom management refers to actions taken to create and maintain a learning environment conducive to successful instruction (arranging the physical environment, establishing agreements and procedures, maintaining students´ attention to lessons, etc…) Brophy (2006)
 

FIVE TYPES OF ACTIONS FOR CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

 1.- Develop caring supportive relationships with and among students.

2.- Organize and implement a culturally responsive instruction in ways that optimize students´ access to learning. 

3.- Encourage students´ engagement in academic tasks, which can be done by using group management methods (e.g. by establishing agreements/rules and classroom procedures)
Video on Students´ responsibility form

4. Promote the development of students´social skills and self-regulation.
Video: What is SEL and why it matters

5. Use appropriate interventions to assist students with behaviour problems. 



INCLUSION

It refers to a dynamic approach of responding positively to pupil diversity and of seeing individual differences not as a problem (UNESCO)

Video on inclusive learning: Everyone´s in

Discussions:

• Dealing with different cultures is going to be the challenge for education in the next decades.

• Culture is an iceberg (Hall, 1976 and Brenbeck, 1977)

• Video on Multicultural, intercultural societies 

WHAT KIND OF TEACHING STRATEGIES AND PRACTICES COULD ENSURE A BETTER MANAGEMENT OF OUR CLASSROOMS? 
 

Discussion on strategies and videos on some preventive strategies:  

• Rapport (Good relationship) 

• Dialogue Circles to Support Classroom Management

My cultural programme in the evening: MICENAS

THURSDAY, 11th July

Reflections and discussions: 

Video Make sure each child is known

CULTURALLY  RESPONSIVE  CLASSROOM  MANAGEMENT 

Culturally responsive classroom management (CRCM) is an approach to running classrooms with all children [not simply for racial/ethnic minority children] in a culturally responsive way. More than a set of strategies or practices, CRCM is a pedagogical approach that guides the management decisions that teachers make. It is a natural extension of culturally responsive teaching, which uses students' backgrounds, rendering of social experiences, prior knowledge, and learning styles in daily lessons. Teachers, as culturally responsive classroom managers, recognize their biases and values and reflect on how these influence their expectations for behavior and their interactions with students as well as what learning looks like.

Weinstein, Currant and Tomlinson-Clarke (2003) “Culturally responsive classroom management is an approach to running classrooms with all children, in a culturally responsive way (not simply for racial, ethnic minority children”.


"Culturally responsive classroom management helps students understand and mitigate the culture of power" (Delpit, 1995) in the classroom in the school, and in society. 

Parents and community involvement
“If kids come to us from strong, healthy functioning families it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy families, it makes our job more important” (Barbara Coloroso, 2009)


How to arrange an engagement working area?

Change the environment so that it becomes more appealing to students! HOW?

• Interactive room arrangements: combination of tables and chairs 
• Flexible classrooms 
• Strategies for student centered approach 
• Active learning

Then we have been discussing about how to deal with Cultural diversity. One of the clues is by means of fostering the sense of belonging with classroom norms

Finally, the two models (the Model of coexistence: Rules are a priori, and the Humanistic-Participative model: Rules are a posteriori) have arisen out into discussion among participants as two possible models to deal with interculturality when talking about setting rules in diverse classrooms.     

My cultural programme this evening: Mistrá

These three sessions have been taught by Dimitris Zisimopoulos, teacher trainer at EUROPASS who has provided us with useful knowledge (food for thought) and strategies to cope successfully with interculturality, focusing on classroom management and diversity. Billiant speech and use of collaborative techniques to build our knowledge in the group. 

The two last days of the course, Foteini Tsioutsia, teacher trainer at EUROPASS too, is with us.  

I feel very grateful for this opportunity to collaborate with exceptional teachers! THANKS!