EDSS 555: Sociocultural Aspects of Schooling for ELs

Students often times face several cultural issues during their academic career. Being a teacher allows me to have a platform where I can help alleviate some of the common issues that students face. One issue that I would like to bring attention to is that students need to be taught and modeled tolerance for individuals of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. I can model tolerance and acceptance in physical education by creating lessons where students can research and teach the rest of the class about different cultures. This can be done simply by organizing students into sport education teams and having them pick what country they want to represent during that particular unit of study. Students would do research about that specific country, come up with a team name, color, cheer and regalia. Students would then present what the learned about their country's sport culture and traditions. This would help educate students about other cultures, while also fostering positive social and cultural interactions within my classroom. Educating students about different cultures is the first step in creating tolerance and acceptance, and I pledge to model and educate the appropriate behavior to help abolish sociocultural stereotypes.