Teaching Tolerance & Celebrating Diversity

Teaching Tolerance & Celebrating Diversity Enriching Life Lessons with Technological Tools Click here to view an exciting introduction video! Prepared by: Kristyn Sanborn

Contents • Overview • Findings • One World Classrooms • Tolerance.org~ Fight Hate and Promote Tolerance • Kinder Art • Kids.gov: The Official Kid’s Portal for the U.S. Government • Vandergrit’s Children’s Literature Page • Practical Applications • Closing Remarks • Additional Resources

Overview • This power point focuses on how technological tools can enrich and enhance student learning of diversity and tolerance. The United States is a county of many cultures, and it is important to teach students to understand, appreciate, tolerate and celebrate all people. Technology can be used to support curriculum, reinforce teacher instruction, and enrich student learning. • In my research, I found many websites and services applicable to students, classroom teachers, school counselors, parents, and administrators. These sites come from an array of categories, including: professional organizations, community organizations, education ranging from Kindergarten through Higher Education, Government, commercial sites, and individual sites. In the following report, I will discuss five especially interesting websites I came across in my research. Please review my findings at your convenience and I will appreciate any feedback, critique, or suggestions!

Findings

One world classrooms http://www.oneworldclassrooms.org/ • Non-profit organization that connects students from around the world • Online learning labs • Language labs • Virtual pen-pals • Students will explore culture, geography, travel, food, art, dance, education and much more in a fascinatingly interactive atmosphere

The following excerpt provides a in-depth look into what this program can offer to students: • RationaleAs our world becomes more interdependent and the problems we confront more global, it is critical that our young people gain knowledge, skills and attitudes that prepare them to enjoy the benefits and accept the responsibilities of global citizenship. To do so, they must interact with and learn from their international peers; just as, as adults, they will live and work with people from different cultures in both local and global settings. • StudentsWith grounding in self-knowledge and self-respect, OneWorld Classrooms students reach out and make connections with their world neighbors. In doing so, they express who they are, cultivate cultural-awareness, and develop the capacity to collaborate across borders and foster international friendship.

Bridges of Learning • To effectively build bridges of learning, OneWorld Classrooms addresses the needs of students and teachers on both sides of cross-cultural exchange. We create dynamic learning experiences through which students: • value themselves and their own culture • recognize the similarities between cultures that make all people a human family, and • respect and appreciate the differences that make each culture unique. • At the same time, OneWorld Classrooms: • enhances the curriculum • grates technology into the classroom • uses the arts as a means to communicate and share across cultures • empowers teachers and students to make learning more interpersonal and meaningful, and • provides a means for traditional societies compromised in the wake of globalization to explore their own cultures and share them with their new world community.

Tolerance.org ~ Fight Hate and Promote Tolerancehttp://www.tolerance.org/index.jsp • Professional site that offers a wealth of information on diversity and multiculturalism • Information for all ages of students with links for kids and teens • Educators: lesson plans, activities, articles, contests, community building, links • Parents: age appropriate information for teaching your child(ren) tolerance

Here is an excerpt from a lesson plan entitled “The ABCs of Identity in the Elections”: Just months ago, the nation was patting itself on the back for our collective diversity progress — a woman (Hillary Clinton — D), a Latino (Bill Richardson — D), a Mormon (Mitt Romney — R) and an African American man (Barack Obama — D) — had all declared their candidacies to become the next President of the United States. • And then the politics got rolling, as did questions about diversity: • Is America ready for a female Commander-in-Chief? (And, by the way, is Hillary dressed for the role?) • Is America ready for a president who is Latino? (In one national poll, we actually admitted we were not ready for Bill Richardson.) • Is America ready for a Mormon president? (And, as a Mormon, does Romney qualify as Christian?) • Is America ready for a black president? (And, uh, is Obama black enough?) • Are the white male candidates at a disadvantage, given the diversity that surrounds them?

Leading into and through Super Tuesday, a new set of diversity questions emerged: • Would women —white, brown, black and "other" — voting in the Democratic primaries exercise gender allegiance and vote for the white woman? • What about the white men voting in the Democratic race? Would they choose the white woman (racial allegiance) or the black man (gender allegiance)? (We assumed black men would vote for the black man, so we didn't even ask a question as to whether they'd vote for a white woman.) • On the Republican side, could the Latter Day Saint hold onto the conservative vote, after a Baptist pastor's win in Iowa? Could he withstand the advance of John McCain, who often is perceived as a moderate, and, among other things, that means conservatives do not see him as "an evangelical"? • Everything is wrong with these lines of questioning, and everything is right about them, too. Unfairly, they set up litmus tests about voters' capacity to demonstrate "color-blindness," "gender-blindness" and an embrace of diverse faiths. They ignore the fact that some of us are many things at once — female, Hispanic and born-again, for example. The questions assume Americans don't vote "on the issues" and are compelled by identity factors alone.

For students Kids Teens

Kinder Arthttp://www.kinderart.com/multic/ • Educational and commercial site that is a great tool for teachers and counselors to find multicultural lesson plans for art projects • Visually and tactilely enhance learning of other cultures • Diversity themed art activities • Book Recommendations

Here is an excerpt from a lesson plan for a beautiful project for Martin Luther King Day entitled “A Box of Crayons”: • A BOX OF CRAYONS • Grade: K+Age: 4+ • Submitted by: Eileen Urbanski, a teacher at Avon Village Elementary School, in Avon OH What You Need: • crayons, pencils, markers • paper • the poem A Box of Crayons • crayon pattern What You Do: • Read the poem "A Box of Crayons" to your students. It is about the different colors getting along and liking each other. • Then, children draw their portraits on a die-cut crayon pattern. • Place all the crayons into a giant box of crayons that you can create using construction paper (see photo).

Poem • Click here to find the poem: Box of Crayons. • Extra Poem to Hand Out to Students • Wouldn't it be terrible? Wouldn't it be sad? If just one single color was the color that we had? If everything was purple? Or red? Or blue? Or green? If yellow, pink, or orange was all that could be seen? Can you just imagine how dull world would be If just one single color was all we got to see? • Recommended Books: The Crayon Box That Talkedby: Shane DeRolfIn Shane DeRolf's deceptively simple poem, a child's box of crayons conveys the sublimely simple message that when we all work together, the results are much more interesting and colorful.

Kids.gov: The Official Kid's Portal for the U. S. Governmenthttp://www.kids.gov/ • Excellent government website • Students can learn about the government and laws, learn about the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, and partake in Social Studies interactive activities to explore different cultures • Many resources for educators; including lesson plans, celebrating holidays, and great ideas for class trips • Also great for supplementing a multitude of other topics including career development, and health

A peek at the site

Here is an excerpt of website resources for 6th to 8th graders studying world cultures: Government Sites • Asian Cultures - (Smithsonian) - Learn about Asian art from neolithic times to the early 20th century. • Creating French Culture - This Library of Congress page gives an overview of French history through the eyes of the art and culture of the times. • Egyptian Mummies - (Smithsonian) - Learn about how mummies were made in Ancient Egypt. • Egyptian Pyramid - (Smithsonian) - The pyramids of Egypt fascinated travellers and conquerors in ancient times and continue to inspire wonder in the tourists, mathematicians, and archeologists who visit, explore, measure and describe them. Learn more about them. • History & Archaeology - Smithsonian Magazine - (Smithsonian) - Read these interesting articles on science and technology topics. • History & Culture - Smithsonian Education - (Smithsonian) - This site has resources for both American and World History. • Kids and Families Page - (Library of Congress) - This website shares its collections, stories, online collections and more for students and teachers. • My Wonderful World - Explore the rich online resources created by Smithsonian experts for learning more about our world! • People and Places - Smithsonian Magazine - Read these interesting articles on people and culture. • Portals to the World - Portals to the World contains selective links providing authoritative, in-depth information about the nations and other areas of the world.

Other Resources • African Art: Aesthetics and Meaning - Check out the exhibit's amazing masks, headresses and wood carvings. • Civilisations - This interactive site examines key events in the development of any given ideology or religion, including Communism and its diffusion across the world. • Countries of the World - FactMonster - This site has all kinds of information about countries in the world, including: geography, maps, flags, history, and rulers. • Kids Post - Get the scoop on current events and entertainment, homework help, and have fun with games, polls, and more from The Washington Post. • Languages Around the World - Kids around the world speak thousands of different languages! In this section you can learn some new words in a different language. • Religions Around the World - Learn about the many religions around the world. • United Nations Cyberschoolbus - This great site for students has access to country profiles, a well-written introduction to the history and work of the United Nations, and some fun quizzes (such as the one on national flags) and the Urban Fact Game, which is a creative on-line quiz about cities and their populations. • World Flag Database - This sites show flags from countries around the world. Also includes basic facts on each country such as its population, capital city, languages, currency and religions

Vandergrit's Children's Literature Pagehttp://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/ChildrenLit/ • Individual and educational website that gives important information on the use of children’s literature to teach and promote diversity • Information on the use of race, class, gender, religion, and much more in regard to picture and chapter books • Resources for further exploration on teaching students about diversity through literature

Here is an excerpt giving a background of what one can find on the site: • If we are ever to achieve a culture of inclusiveness that empowers all human beings, we must begin with young people. We cannot control what goes on in individual homes, but we can, and must, actively seek to ensure that our schools and libraries respect the many peoples who share our world, regardless of national origins, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, class, race, or gender. Feminist and multicultural practices can and must make a difference. • All schooling is political. The time has come to ensure that public education represents a politics of Inclusion, not exclusion. We ought to respect young learners' abilities to think, speak, read, and act. We should respect their abilities to comprehend, construct, and communicate meanings in various communities and contexts. These need to be the aim, the process, and the result of education.

Practical Applications • Technology will enrich student’s lives in a way that could not be previously done • Students can interact with students across the world and learn about countries and cultures • Teachers and school counselors can supplement curriculum with a variety of lesson plans, classroom activities, and web resources • Administrators can research how to implement tolerance and diversity into their school district through service learning project ideas, and tips for educating faculty, parents, and students • Parents can now have a resource in aiding important conversations to have with their child(ren) in 2008

Closing Remarks Please click here to listen to a closing audio message!

Additional Resources • Kristyn Sanborn’s Personal Website • Internet Address Book • Research Excerpts • Research Report

Teaching Tolerance & Celebrating Diversity