2/22/2011: Class Update

Today is SPED 200 we started our day by breaking into our small groups. Mrs. Johnson went over a list of five questions that we were going to be discussing in our groups. The five questions were as follows:

1.  What is Culture?
2.  What is Multi Culture?
3.  What is Diversity?
4. What is Intercultural Competencies?
5.  Define American Culture.

We talked about the questions in our small groups, Kirsten, Andrew and I, and then we discussed our answers with the rest of the class.  I thought our class had a good idea how to define these words.
We watched a video on Intercultural Competence and the IDI (Intercultural Development Inventory) by Mitch Hammer who created the IDI test. This video talked about the key concepts of Intercultural Competence, which are Diversity, Inclusion, and Intercultural Competence. He also discussed some of the things that we, as students, can do to enhance our intercultural competency. Some of his ideas to increase the development are increasing fluency in foreign language, increase cultural self-awareness, gain general knowledge and skill about other cultures, and gain culture specific knowledge and skills. I thought all of his suggestions were good ones, and it makes a lot of sense that we need to learn about different cultures to be able to teach different cultures. My plan as a SCSU student is trying to learn as much as I can about other cultures before I graduate and move into the real teaching world.  I am anxiously awaiting the results from Mrs. Johnson on the IDI (Intercultural Development Inventory) test we took last week. I am very curious where I will fall on the arrow scale, a scale from 1 that is denial, to a scale of 5 being adaptation. This is an important topic for future teachers, because we all need to learn about diversity, and other cultures, so we know how to teach to a diverse group of students.