When I think of diversity, I think of differences among people. The differences are very much varied. Some differences could be ethnic backgrounds, age, special needs, and even economic classes among students. When the word "diversity" comes up in Education, a person can interpret the word in many different ways. The media center should be a place that serves the needs of all their students, no matter what their "difference" may be. I believe the media specialist should be open to having different resources for all types of students, and not have personal bias in their media center collection. The media center should be a place a students can go and not feel out of place.
Technology is a great way to motivate students. Usually no matter what the "differences" are among students they all feel as though technology is exciting to use. Technology can be used to support diversity for all students. If the media center is stocked with a variety of different resources for everyone, it will provide a vast amount of knowledge for all students. Some students may not have had much exposure to different types of information. Technology can reach many different groups of students.
While completing some of my field experience hours I have noticed that Central Elementary has a collection of some books that are written in Spanish. The media center houses many different types of books that contain different cultural and religious topics for students.
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I agree that the media center should have all kinds of resources for all kinds of students. While most students will go to what they know, some will branch out and diversify themselves. Not having all types of resources would not allow this.
ReplyDeleteWe need to be able to accomplish what is best for each student whether they are gifted, special ed, do not speak English or anywhere in between. Regardless of differences, the media center should provide information accessible to and for all.
My school also has a collection of books written in Spanish. We house all of these books together in one section. Most of the books are picture books. I have noticed that many of our students who speak Spanish cannot read Spanish though. Because of this I think this section is not used as much as it should be. While they can not ready the text, their parents can. I think if our media staff and teachers would encourage these students to browse this section more we would see more check outs. I believe students and parents would enjoy having books at home that they could read to their children and their children would enjoy understanding the story.
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