Back to school 2019
Inspiring visuals to promote diversity + culture
Some of you are already back to school and others are still waiting on the floors to be ready… I know when I’m prepping for a new school year I often suffer from DESICION FATIGUE.
It’s hard making so many decisions, so when I can see a great example, copy it, and give them credit – I’m so grateful.
Maybe you could use a great idea for a bulletin board, door decoration or world language hallway now OR later in the year.
Here are 3 amazing ones and the people who shared them!
Oak Park and River Forest High school
Afro-Latinas
I love this hallway design from this Chicago area school. What a fun way to promote amazing people from the target culture and break down stereotypes of what a “latino” looks like.
I’m sure it makes students curious about these ladies.
Perhaps it’s something they’ll learn this year!
Lebanon City schools
Diversity
Hats off to this Ohio school who made sure there was a flag to represent every student’s nationality .
Do you know what nationalities are represented in YOUR school or district? This is a great talk to have with students AND a purpose for practicing nationalities and geography in the target language!
Fayette County Public Schools
Culture
Jen teaches elementary Spanish in Lexington, Kentucky and created these bulletin boards in the hall for students and parents to check out during their school’s open house. What an interesting way to get them all comparing culture and seeing some target languages. Way to go, @Senora_Kennedy!
Got my hallway bulletin board done in time for orientation tonight! Classrooms from around the world. I'm hoping to have classroom teachers add pics of their own once school starts. #earlylang #langchat pic.twitter.com/0r2FxXtqJB
— Jen Ken (@Sra_Kennedy) August 8, 2019
Have another suggestion? A question?
Love these ideas like we do?
Leave a comment below and start the conversation!
I’d first like to say that I really love these bulletin board and hallway decoration ideas! I think that promoting diversity and non-Eurocentrism in world language classrooms has really been a long time coming! As someone who is just now working towards their teaching certification in German, ideas like this make me super excited for my decoration and curriculum possibilities that await me when I start teaching for real (hopefully next year!!). I guess I’d like to ask, though, what sources you find best for researching cultures and dialects connected to the target language that you may not have practical experience with. I’d hate to misrepresent or seemingly tokenize a culture or a dialect by including it when I don’t have a solid, accurate understanding of it! As a future German teacher, I’m hoping to include various regional dialects (Schwäbisch, Plattdeutsch, Schwyzerdütsch, Austrian variants, etc) as well as languages/cultures within the German diaspora (Nigeria, Argentina, Yiddish, Pennsylvania Dutch), but I don’t want to just sort of gloss over any of these because of my lack of lived experience with them. As it stands now, Basel-Canton German and Schwäbisch are two of the only regional variants that I feel kind of comfortable discussing, since I’ve spent a few months in places where each was spoken.
Thanks again for the inspiration!
Sarah,
Thanks for your comment (and sorry for the slow reply)! I appreciate your consideration to teach less common groups from your target culture. I think the best way we do this is by letting their voice tell the stories – and not do it for them. Can you find YouTube videos? Invite native speakers through Zoom? Read from social media accounts from locals? Plus, being honest to admit to students…”I’ve never been here, but I’m curious to learn more!”
Any German teachers have any resources to share with Sarah??