Diversity: What is it Really?

This week really has me thinking. Diversity will always be present in the classroom and as educators we must become experts at anti-racist teaching. As a teacher in a predominantly white school in a suburban town, I don’t have many opportunities to celebrate diversity in the classroom.. or so I thought. This week I learned that diversity does not have to center around race or ethnicity. I can celebrate diversity amongst students by allowing them to share stories about family background and core values. I celebrate diversity by having conversations about the traditions that my Jewish students have during certain holidays, and ask my Chinese student to share his family traditions for the Chinese New Year. My student from Norway shares his language and we work together to learn Norwegian while teaching him English. This type of diversity is present in our every day lives in the classroom, and it wasn’t until this week that I realized how powerful this type of classroom community can be.