Prompt 6 & Dewey

Communication is without a doubt one of the more important aspects I feel in education. I think without proper communication that there are always a lot of confusions, misconceptions, and more obviously miscommunications. A culturally competent teacher I strongly believe must use a variety of verbal, as well as non verbal communication techniques that encourage their students with positive social interactions, in which are supportive learning experiences within a classroom

Personally, while tutoring my kindergarten aged children I have found a few ways of communicating non verbally that have been a positive learning experience for my children. When going over their vocabulary words I use hand or face motions/expressions that help that remember/recognize the words. For example for the number word TWO I would put two fingers up for the word up I would use a thumbs up etc. Moreover, I also had the children write words that that couldn’t remember 3x each, and have them repeat the word each time they wrote it down. I noticed that the teacher in my classroom did similar things. She would say words aloud and have a picture to correspond with it. She made sure that all of her students were focused and paying attention whenever she spoke and did an activity. To make sure they were paying attention should would ask specific questions about the lessons. I feel it is especially important for educators to be aware of the fact that learning at a young age is essential for proper development. My teacher also likes to do 90% of her class activates in groups, incorporating social activity. And according to John Dewey he also believes that education is a social function. The more group involved activities, the more learning occurs.

Having social group oriented activities allows children to get to know one another, as well as learn how to work with others. Dewey also talks about how a child’s communication also has to do with their social life outside of school. People are attracted to other people with similar interests. For example in my classroom I tutor in there is only two white students, and they are always together. The troublemakers in the classroom are two African American boys and the most talkative, outspoken children are all of Spanish descent. So following Dewey’s belief, I would have my students sit in different groups, with different groups of children every couple of weeks to change things up and give them the opportunities to get to know one another on a different level, other than what they already know. On a personal level with my students the do not really talk about their personal lives because I don’t think that most of them realizes the certain situations they are in because of their age. I think if I were to see some of these children again in a few years they would have more to say aside from their school work.