I started blogging when I was doing some Moocs online some years ago.
I am still blogging about education and the use of technology in my job.
I am a life-long learner and love doing what I do.
I will post my lessons and projects for the MOOC which is going to finish by 2nd October. We need to find strategies that help our learners to think about the importance of dialogue and being open to other cultures. This is really important as more and more societies do not seem to be ready to integrate and learn from other cultures. We are human beings and the recent events dealing with a huge number of refugees and immigrants moving to Europe are the biggest problems in our societies. Wars and economic problems are influencing our choices: Europe, the USA and other countries are facing such problems and the solutions are often building " walls" to stop the invasions from people who are just escaping and trying to find a place where to live. We should not be afraid . However, many people are afraid of diversity, some are old while others are very young and are against integration because they feel that people are threatening our " society" and " our way of living". I like to think of the poem by John Donne who wrote " No man is an Island": we need to design tasks, to work on projects to teach our learners that No man is an Island
You can read the poem online too:http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/no-man-is-an-island/ I have collected my favourite websites which have inspired me in designing my lessons: promoting respect for cultural diversity is one of the main objectives we should all share - seearticle online
Here is my Thinglink with the most important web links which I have used for planning and learning about best practices and tips:
Here is my learning diary where I have shared what I have done in the last two weeks:in the next post I will describe my lessons/module.
The beginning of a new school year- Learning and Sharing Ideas about the best Ways for enhancing cultural Diversity in Class
I have had a great opportunity for my CPD this month: the European platform Schooleducationgateway has presented an interesting MOOC - " Cultural Diversity in your Classroom" - just check online http://www.schooleducationgateway.eu/it/pub/teacher_academy/catalogue/detail.cfm?id=20861.
I have done it and I am going to write about it and what I have learnt.
The course is followed by thousands of teachers, most of them are European educators but we can also find teachers living in other parts of the world. It is a challenging project as teachers are guided and can learn from experts about the importance of designing lessons, modules and activities that support cultural diversity and teachers of different subjects can integrate this topic into the activities which they run in class.
In Europe we have had a lot of immigrants moving from areas where civil wars and wars have created sufferings and families and children are now trying to escape to safer places. Some of them want to live in the north of Europe, others are hoping to find home in the USA or Canada. Among the many stories I have heard about or read we have families with children and some of them will become our students.
People who are involved in education are the first ones who can meet these children and students in their classes.The problems related to the issue of migration are manifolds and involve immigrants and their children but also the students living in the richest parts of the world need to learn about the importance of Cultural Diversity and everybody should be aware of such values when meeting people from other cultures as they can be enriching. We should all be aware of the challenges but also take advantage from what these people can tell us about their culture and start meeting them and sharing ideas.
Some of the best students I have taught in my classes have also been from another country. They arrived in our primary schools and they became part of our communities. Education is therefore important for them and they can also help their families and parents to become more integrated if we are open to them.
I live in Italy and in my classes I have always taught students coming from other European countries but also a lot of immigrants ' children who tried to escape poverty and find a better world in Europe.
They came from China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, and other African countries. They wanted to find a land where to live in peace and be given more opportunities of freedom.
We have always had a " melting pot " in our classes, as teachers involved in teaching students coming from all over the world we were faced with language and cultural diversities, sometimes their families did not get in contact with the educators and needed the help of people who spoke their languages.
As a teacher I have faced a lot of difficulties but I have also realized that many of them felt they had not always been integrated and language difficulties made this a greater problem.
The Mooc has run for two weeks so far and we have had opportunities for sharing what we have done: Twitter and webinars are the main tools which we have used.
I have already seen some interesting learning diaries shared by the teachers who worked online and each learner/teacher has had to design a lesson about what we have learnt.
Twitter and FB are social media which have been used by teachers and if we check online we will see a lot of information about this interesting topic. Tweet riguardo #diversitymoocs
Ideas for educators
In a post which I wrote on a webinar online I had come across the theme of students coming from other countries- culturally responsive teaching was the title of the webinar and then I wrote about it the other blog which I keep for my personal reflections:
