Cultural Diversity

Sue Young grew up in Japan. She is a senior and a foreign exchange student in High School. She participates in all of the activities that students in her high school participate in and completes the reccomended work. Sue has trouble with speeking English because at home she speeks only Japan. Her parents both speek Japan and follow their usual traditions of eating together as a family, mending their own garden, attending festivals and drinking tea most evenings. Sue also enjoys the annual cherry blossom festivals. Sue came to America because she wanted to experience other cultures. She deos enjoy America and the High School that she attends. She enjoys physical education and doesn't have too difficult of a time understanding the tasks because she has a lot of the sports in the curriculum at home, in Japan. When she is participating in an activity that she doesn't fully understand the teacher usually has to demonstrate more and physically show her what to do. This helps Sue understand what she must do. This is not the same for every class but for other classes she does need extra help outside of the classroom. English is very difficult for her to understand and she is not yet fluent but can understand a few words. She carries around an electronic translator to type in any words that she can not understand. She has an academic tutor at her guardian's house in America to help her with homework outside of the classroom. She also takes a French class and very much enjoys it. She wishes to some day go to France to further expand her knowledge on cultural differences around the globe.

Cultural diversity can't be escaped. Whether you chose to ignore it or pursue it further into your life, it will always be involved with your life in some way. For Sue Young, exploring cultural differences is something she finds very facinating. Allowing your curriculum to explore cultural diversity shows that letting this melting pot of America into your life is a wonderful, beautiful and unique experience. Go ahead, get out there and explore the world!

Ballroom Dancing at 13

What were you doing at ages five and six? Probably playing with tonka trucks, barbies or the latest Toy's 'R' Us toy. But Anna and Patryk have been practicing their ballroom dancing skills for 8+ years. Four of which were with each other. They have mastered their art all the way to becoming Junior 1 Dance Champions at age 13. They both have their own favorite dance but no matter the style they are dancing they both enjoy what they do. They never stop having fun and they continue to allow themselves to learn as they go. They set high goals for themselves such as being world champions or to have their own school of dance. Get in the Rhythm with Anna and Partyk!





To see a quick interview on Anna and Patryk on "You've Got..." Click Here!

EKP Certification

Certifications are vital to a future physical educator, the more you have, the more marketable you are. It can make or break wether or not you get a job. This being said, racking up on certifications and staying up to date with them is great for your resume but also puts you in the position to be opened up to more opportunities in general.

On April 29th from 6pm-9pm at SUNY Cortland, students will have the opportunity to be EKP (Educational Karate Program) Certified. This certification allows these future Physical Educators to create a training program based on a curriculum developed by Hindy Ochiai. The program covers the essentials of physical and mental self-defense techniques. It also will teach the attidtudinal practices toward self, others and anti-violence tactics. Educators will teach violence prevention strategies and skills to prevent the abduction of children,

What usually will cost $900 will be offered to SUNY Cortland students at a fraction of the cost, $75. If you already have your EKP certifications, it's not a bad idea to touch up on your skills and re-cert if your certification is expiring.
Hope to see you there!

To read more about Hindy Ochiai or to get more information on EKP Certifications visit:
http://www.ekpinstitute.org/abouth.htm

Integrate Multiculturalism Into Your Curriculum TODAY!

In People for the American Way a survey conducted over 1,000 people between the ages of 15 and 24 and asked if they felt "comfortable" or "uneasy" when dealing with people of the opposite racial group. The results left 55% of African American's feeling "uneasy" rather than "comfortable" when having to deal with the other racial group. Multiculturalism education helps students to develop a more positive attitude toward different racial, ethnic, cultural and religious groups so, why not incorporate it into our curriculum as a must have for our students? It's not difficult to add to your curriculum. Take a look at James Banks, he created his own approach to this task. His approach includes four levels.

Level 1: The Contributions Approach

Include the study of ethnic heroes into your curriculum. Also focus on Holidays, discrete cultural elements and go ahead and have a creative "party" to celebrate different cultures such as Cinco de Mayo.

Level 2: The Additive Approach

When those "special" weeks or months come around try to incorporate and recognize that special time by incorporating it into your lessons for the time being. It may not be exactly what is on your agenda looking back at the curriculum you put together at the start of the year but it may be necessary to recognize and teach a little about it. This does not mean that your curriculum should be altered to fit each of these special days, months or weeks but it should have some recognition of these special dates as your curriculum goes along.

Level 3: The Transformation Approach

Allow your students to put themselves in the shoes of others of a different ethnic background. Let them to see through the eyes of someone who has different view concepts, issues, events, and themes.

Level 4: The Social Action Approach

To achieve a more vibrant democracy and multicultural goals take the transformation approach a step further and promote decision making and social action from your students. Have your students contribute to solve related problems and address social and economic needs in the community and abroad.

With James Banks' four approaches to multicultural education teachers like you can have a choice of a variety of ways to add multiculturalism into your curriculum. Remember that this benefits your students as well as the students your students may come across in the far or near future. Being a culturally responsive teacher allows you to bring your skills and insights into the classroom and encourage your students to become more "comfortable" around others of different cultures. Be a teacher, be a leader, and be an inspiration to all.

Dance like a Pro!

Video games don't always include the couch or your gaming chair anymore. Get up and move with Xbox's Dance Central Kinect!



-SuicideXSqueeze

Don't have an Xbox but you have a Wii? No problem! Try the Wii's new dancing game, Just Dance 2! Want to play with some friends? No problem because this game features up to 8 dancers at once!



-MoviemaniacsDE

7 DIVERSE Teaching Skills

Creating a climate that honors and celebrates your students diversity is a key to success with a diverse group of students. There are 7 teaching skills to help students feel safe, have their unique needs and interests recognized, and are part of a classroom discourse. Just remember DIVERSE promotes equality and good teaching!

Diverse instructional materials: Be sure that all parts of the world and it's diverse thoughts, views and people are woven into the curriculum.

Inclusive: Provide opportunities for every student to participate in classroom activities and discussions including shy or quiet students.

Variety: Use different styles of teaching to allow for all the different types of learners to be successfull.

Exploration: Encourage your students open up their minds to explore and experience or learn about other cultures and beliefs.

Reaction: All students can learn from their questions when they are given effective feedback. Teachers can make sure they give effective feedback through patience, encouragement and high expectations.

Safety: Any offensive comments and physical or verbal bullying should be stopped immediately because without safety and security, little learning is possible.

Evaluation: Consider a wide variety of evaluation strategies to assess the unique strengths of your individual students.

WRUP (what are you playing)?

The cold weather is no reason to stay indoors and not be active! This weekend I was able to travel to Pennsylvania to spend the weekend at a cottage on Lake Chautauqua. While I was there, a friend of mine and I decided to go outside to build a miniature snowman.


After putting our snowman building skills to the test, we built snow forts to protect ourselves in an epic snowball fight.


Also, while at the cottage we witnessed snowmobiles riding on the frozen lake. We also caught a glimpse of some dedicated ice fishers who spent well over 4 hours fishing on the frozen lake. If these guys can get out there why can't you? Get out and play!