Learning about different cultures though literature helps us paint a picture of what these people went through and helps us become more mindful that we are all different and willing to accept change.

Learning about more current events like the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter, and ICE raids lets them know that injustice still occurs and we are the next generation to make changes.

When these events occur people tend to avoid these conversations but it’s important that we discuss them.

When having these discussions it’s important to remind students to be respectful and open minded. Just because they have never experienced a certain event, doesn’t mean the same applies to the whole class. By normalizing these conversations students are aware of the negativity that is happening around us.

Students can learn empathy hearing from their peers and what they have experienced.

No answer is right or wrong when journaling it is just another method to us when you are learning a lot of information and you want to write down events that occurred and how you responded to them or how you can improve.

Students are allowed to share their journal entries but are not mandated.

Students might change another’s viewpoint with what they right about, but if they don’t at least they know what the other student is going through or has experienced.

Listening to music or poetry can take us to a place where we can feel the pain, struggle, and fear that they endured. It can also bring us joy and and happiness though the upbeat music. Music and poetry has a power to make us feel what they feel.

As the teacher you can have the class listen to a poem or music, and then you can ask them to write about how it made them feel. Once they are done you can explain the meaning behind it.

By learning the different cultures you are able to find out an tailored your lesson plans in how certain lessons are taught based on culture.

Students also learn that not everyone is raised the same way as they were and they learn to respect and value what they have where others may not have ever experienced.

In some cultures respect can have different meanings. In some cultures making eye contact is a sign of disrespect or asking questions like why is a sign of disobedience and opposition.

You need to break down what respect is to you in the class so they understand and if they don’t they can ask questions.

Teaching students about empathy is important as well because you don’t know what kind of emotional relationship they have at home. Some students may have never experienced empathy, so explaining what it is and how important it is can change a persons perspective.

Lastly, being open minded is when you are open to anything different from what they know. It doesn’t mean you will agree with everyone but you are understanding and accept that everyone has different experiences.

For some of us we don’t realize we have unconscious biases until we learn what it is.

Some biases may be from experiences, from their religion, familia values, or from what they have seen.

Its important to recognize what your unconscious biases are because they may offend others.

We all have unconscious biases and that is okay as long as we try and work on them if we see it hurts people around us.

This is important because you are one, letting students know that some classmates may be behind in some lessons, and second, that you do not accept teasing and bullying because not everyone is learning at the same rate and others may need additional support.

Being mindful that some living arrangements are different remind students not every family tree will look different and if they have a hard time with this they can simply add what is important to the student and their family.

This helps the teacher and students understand what their family and values.

Families can help students with adding pictures and creating a beautiful representation of their family.

Some families may not be able to attend certain events so teachers can always send home all the work students are completing. They can also send parents and families pictures of the students during these events so that they don’t feel like they missed out on everything.

When having these family involvements you could also see if you could get a translator if families need one. This shows you care about communicating with them.

Jobs that can be seen are, firefighter, police, nurses, military, chiefs, librarians, and construction workers. All jobs are important and students can see that anyone can be any of those jobs is inspiring. This is also an opportunity for students to introduce their family.

Including families to the school learning environment is important because you build a bond with families and students see that trust in both.

You can then have a second cultural day where students present something different from their culture s they can see a different perspective from the one they have lived.

This will be interactive and we can incorporate family involvement. Where they can present a dance, activity, music.

You are also introducing students to new languages that may benefit them later on and you are immersing them in different culture and bringing a sense of connectedness.

Including classroom rules for all students to see is important becase they can always go back to them.

Displaying positivity posters are also good ways to make the classroom feel like a safe environment.

After looking at the different demographics of the students teachers could include labels in every language for the different languages students speak on certain objects. This shows you care about all different languages and you are trying to get students familiar with the English word while looking at that word in their language.

This will also benefit students by learning new words.