Meghan Carpenter

 We've talked a lot this week about the ways that cultural differences might affect the classroom experience. There could be a difference in cultural paradigms. There could be a difference in how your students view time because of their culture. But what about miscommunication? Or even misinterpreting something that someone does inside the classroom?  In many Latin American countries, personal relationships are key. We've talked about that in regards to time, but it's an often used adage that, when asking for directions, you might get the wrong directions, but you'll have a nice time getting them. Someone might give you entirely wrong directions so you can have a positive conversation.  How could this translate into the classroom? Suppose you have a student who is consistently missing deadlines and not turning in work, possibly because they are from a polychronic culture. You sit down to have a conversation with the student and, rather than telling you that they don...

  In an English Learning classroom, you will have a big melting pot of people. There will be people from Europe, Asia, Latin America, among others. Something that you might run across is an issue of cultural differences regarding time.  In America, we live in a monochronic time culture. Everything about schedules. School starts at 8, it ends at 3. Work starts at 9, it ends at 5. And if you are late, you are being rude. There isn't a lot of weight placed on personal relationships. There is a lot of weight placed on deadlines and due dates.  In many other countries, including Latin America and Polynesian cultures, they live in a polychronic time culture. This is different in so many ways, but in a classroom setting, you'll see students who might be late more than you're used to. They are honestly not trying to be rude, but, to them, relationships are more important. So, if they get a call that their neighbor needs a ride to work, they will do that, even if they will be late...

 What are Cultural Paradigms? How can understanding what a cultural paradigm is help us as teachers?  A Cultural Paradigm is something that every single person is affected by but we rarely notice. To illustrate this, let me give you an example. Suppose I showed you the following picture.  What is this picture depicting? A tree, right? It's not the most detailed illustration of a tree, but no matter who you are, or where you grew up, you'd probably be able to tell that this is an illustration of a tree. But, when shown this image, your brain actually went through a series of connections before getting to the answer of a tree. It looked at the lines themselves, the shapes that the lines created, real work images of trees as well as other items, and a whole host of other, seemingly unrelated information, like that trees lose their leaves in the winter, the first time you saw a tree with with no leaves, among other things. Your brain uses this information, your specific parad...

Is the Great American Teacher Dead? That's the great question, posed by John J. Ivers in his article published in the Journal of Invitational Theory and Practice, in 2012. Here we are, 8 years later, and it's a question more important today than it was then.  In our world of Coronavirus and online learning, the ability to teach is no longer just about keeping students engaged. It's about being able to pivot and communicate. In the article, John Ivers says "Public speaking and teaching are cousins. At the core of both is communication." This is more true today than ever before. On an online platform like Zoom, being able to communicate effectively is more important than even in person teaching. This is something that I know I will need to work through as I become closer to being a teacher.  Another quote from the article struck me. "Every time a teacher walks into a classroom he or she should take their craft as seriously as a Shakespearean actor entering the ...