Celebrate Diversity in Your Classroom!

Get that River Dance going!

I'm not really playing favorites by having the Irish first--St. Paddy's Day is coming up. This list of  ethnic choices were from a statistical study of who has come to America. Some of us are Heinz 57 and have a combination of all these flavors!
 

Speeches of JFK .

Irish Contributions to the American Culture

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/irish8.html 

Cesar Chaves Si Se Puede

National Hispanic Heritage Month and Cinco de Mayo Lesson Plans

http://lessonplanspage.com/hispanicheritagemonth-htm/ 

The Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock.

 

English American

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_American 

 

Little Italy, New York City

 

Italian Americans 

http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Ha-La/Italian-Americans.html 

The Italian Americans PBS

http://video.pbs.org/program/italian-americans/ 

Steven Spielberg--possibly the greatest filmmaker.

 

The Jewish Americans PBS

http://www.pbs.org/jewishamericans/ 

 

 

Music! Dancing! And don't forget the great Mexican food!

If you teach in a school that is ethnically isolated, by geography or by choice, I suggest finding commonality in sports, for example. Especially in baseball, you can find just about all ethnicities coming together to celebrate a fun time through sports. If you have a favorite team in the MLB, NFL, or NBA--you are celebrating diversity. The same is true of most entertainment and lists of famous inventors, performers of heroics, and remarkable accomplishments.  You can also spotlight through calendar events (St. Patrick's Day, or MLK Day, for example.) Discretion is important if your community is sensitive to discussions of diversity. But it is clear that not only tolerance is mandatory but appreciation of diversity, also. We are America, afterall.

Here are links from Edutopia, TeachThought and Edudemic to get you started on your appreciation of diversity.

Diversity 

http://www.edutopia.org/blogs/tag/diversity 

http://www.edutopia.org/search-results?search=diversity 

Vibrant art! Parades! Learn to use chipsticks!

Culturally Responsive Teaching Starts With Students

http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/culturally-respo--nsive-teaching-starts-with-students/ 

15 Resources: Prepare for Cultural Diversity in Class

http://www.edudemic.com/cultural-diversity-in-the-classroom/ 

Ballpark saurkraut hotdog!

Here are links for the major self-reported ethnicities in the USA according to census reports. I'm just following the order of the self-reporting. Sounds like fun--music, dance, food, art. Serious thoughts and inspiration. Check out American Rhetoric: The Power of Oratory in the United States http://www.americanrhetoric.com/  for speeches.

German-American Corner: History and Heritage

http://www.germanheritage.com/

Native American Resources

500 is one of my favorite resources, I have taught the info on the Aztecs to my Mexican-American students. They are also fascinated with the Mayans.

Sequoyah--created Cherokee written language

500 NATIONS a video series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZztTMhRzqlQ&list=PLCD21D8E645A7BCE0 

We Shall Remain--PBS

http://ec2-184-73-194-121.compute-1.amazonaws.com/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/

Celebrate African-American History

 http://teacher.scholastic.com/africanamericanheritage/

 Please don't neglect the arts when enjoying these lessons. And the food, if possible. Mmm, soul food.

MLK--we never needed your influence more than now!