Diversity...Training

[PhDiva]

Here are suggestions I used when I taught jr. high in Los Angeles:

1. Organize an "Afro-Aztec" Festival which features African and Latino(Indigenous Aztec) dancers, cultural foods and interactive games.

2. Create a model UN board where each child must research information on Latin American and African countries. When I did this, we used a board in my classroom and each student had to fill in the blanks with the material they gathered from their research. They had to make flags for the particular countries, clip pictures showing cultural dress and images of the country's landscape. They also wrote a brief paragraph about the system of government, nat'l language, population and major religions.

3. Depending on their ages, I selected students to be trained as race relation ambassadors. They received training from the United Way and then met with an inter-racial group of students at lunch to talk about their culture and eventually they began to discuss their feelings about one another. I only allowed students who showed genuine interest and the maturity to handle the topics to participate.

I hope this gives you a start.

Good luck,
PhDiva