My Multicultural Field Experience At Henry Thoreau Elementary School

Culture is a crucial aspect of learning. It not only shapes the thinking process of individuals but it also plays a role in how people communicate and receive information. During my multicultural field experience at Henry Thoreau Elementary School, I developed a cultural knowledge base, incorporated a culturally relevant curriculum, built a cultural learning community, acknowledged cross-cultural communication, and integrated cultural congruity in instruction, to help insure I was being a culturally responsive teacher. The experience allowed me too examine the biases and preconceptions I had about people from other cultures. It also helped me understand and appreciate individuals from different different cultural backgrounds and to think critically about the issues that are related to different cultures.By practicing culturally
Infusing multicultural education into teaching is crucial to make learning encounters more relevant and effective for all students.

Firstly, developing a culturally knowledge base, was the initial step to being a culturally responsive teacher.To obtain general information about my students culture, I started with what is known as surface culture. Some examples of surface culture that I was observing was the students ,appearance, what type of clothes they wear, and what type of language they spoke. However, I wanted to get to know the students better and show them that I cared and I wanted to learn more about them as an individual. Nevertheless, I didn’t want to rush the process of getting to know the students on a deeper level. Often, people don’t feel comfortable sharing personal information about their background and life with someone they just met. Therefore, I didn’t want to make the students feel pressured