- Accommodating diversity: Creating opportunities for participation

a) bring a quote, discuss a quote

Teacher: "We will have a discussion activity at the beginning of each class and you are invited to bring your saying. If you are a quiet person, please bring a saying, help me out to better grade you:

b) foster use of flash cards (independent learning, teamwork, autonomy)

Student 1: “I like to work alone, I memorize the cards”

Student 2: “We like to quiz each other”

c) Teach others

Teacher: "Someone with good hand writing come to the black board to write down the answers”

Teacher: "We need a class assistant with good computer skills”

d) Help to solve problems

Teacher: "I need a problem solver to go downstairs and get us a fan"

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Dialogues&Stories (Life, School, Classroom)

- Admitting limits: Getting students’ help

Teacher: Despite being informed and willing to practice a better pedagogy, there is a limitation for the teacher because traditional teachers are usually left brain and verbal, linguistic so they have difficulty to reinvent themselves to fit different sensory modes and even realize the students difficulties. It is good to have students who are willing to help.

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- Fostering diversity appreciation: Peer teaching

Peer tutoring were promoted by the teacher, by the student who had strong knowledge about the class subject and by one student who invited classmates to go to her home.

At the beginning, the purpose of tutoring was to help the students to the point reach the point where they become an independent learner and no longer need a tutor. Later, some of us were helping each other as a way to retain the content and having fun together.

The teacher fostered the use of memory cards so we could train each other for the tests. We did group studies, sharing mnemonics, commenting on quotes. One student was the assistant to computer classes. Combining empathy, honest, humor, safe environment and resources like flash cards, we helped each other and better understood the teacher’s challenges of dealing with diversity. We felt that "diversity awareness" and "empathy" was more helpful than "knowledge about the class content". The stories “Boring opening page” and “Excluding the Cree culture” are examples of this.

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Dialogues&Stories (Life, School, Classroom)