In my future classroom I would like to encourage children to explore one another’s cultures. Learning from each other about different cultures and people is a crucial part of making them into great individuals. I want to make sure my students know that my classroom will be a safe environment for them to freely be themselves. I believe that learning about all the different cultures of the students in the classroom is one of the major ways to build the relationships we need to have between teacher and student.

Poverty Simulation

Spring 2015 in one of my introductory education courses we had the opportunity to be involved in a poverty simulation. In this simulation we were placed in different family groups and were each given a position in the family. In my group I was a single father with three children. Every fifteen minutes would be considered a “day”. In that day I had to get my kids to school, go to work, get groceries with my minimal money, pick up my kids from school and come home to have time for dinner. It sounds fairly easy, but it was crazy. Not only were there over twenty different groups all running around to the different stations to do everything they have to do in a day, but fifteen minutes has never gone by so quickly. There were days when I forgot to pick up my kids from school, or days we did not eat.

Through this simulation I only got a glimpse in the life of families that live through this daily. It is crazy to think that people live like this. Through this experience I got a greater appreciation for the ridiculous amount of hard work these parents go through to just live, let alone take care of kids too. With this experience I will now have an understanding of some of the families that will have students in my future classrooms. I still will not be able to say I know exactly what they are living through, but I at least have an small understanding.

His Kid’s Camp

In the Spring semester of 2016, I went to His Kid’s Camp hosted by Camp Luther in Schyuler, Ne. This camp was a weekend long camp where we were buddied up with a camper with special needs and spent the whole time with them. At the camp I was buddied up with Julie Friedrichs who is another Concordia student and our camper buddy was Camille. Camille is a teen girl with Down Syndrome. Camille was a total sweetheart and was really independent. Julie and I did not have any problems with her at all. The camp was so much fun not only for the campers, but for us buddies too. We were always busy doing new activities. Camille loved to color and all of the outdoor activities we got involved in.

All in all, camp was so much fun! I have never had so much hands on experience with people with special needs before and I was nervous at first, but there was no reason to be. It went extremely well and I am glad that I had the opportunity to go and be with the campers. I would definitely suggest it for anyone that is thinking about going. It is something that you need to experience for yourself. Camp is such a great place for these people to come to and enjoy. They are not the only ones that enjoyed it either. All of the students from Concordia had a blast too!

Culler Middle School

In the Spring of 2017 I had the opportunity to go into Lincoln, Ne, every Thursday and help with an after school Homework Club program. The students were seventh graders of all different backgrounds that needed help in getting their homework from the school day done. Culler is extremely unique school because the school’s minority population is at 56%, which is 25% greater than the average. Along with that, in the school there are 25 different languages spoken! I could see first hand how hard it is to differentiate education for learners of all backgrounds. As well as, how difficult it can be to teach to ESL students.

From this experience, I earned a greater appreciation of diversity in schools. How crucial it is for young adolescence to learn to treat people of all cultures, how they want to be treated in return. I also created some great relationships with the students in the club. After this experience I want to work in a place with more of a diverse background. I want to be able to help these students from all their different cultures, feel the safety net that school should bring along with education. I am so thankful for this opportunity I had at Culler.