May 12, 2020

Written Reflection #2

Observation:

Today Ms. Lina Dilov gave a virtual presentation to our ED2500 class. She has been a part of the Calgary
Board of Education for many years and has developed an inclusive learning environment in her schools.
Her son’s diagnosis with autism, ADHD, ID and Apraxia has given her a deeper connection to students
also experience similar difficulties and learns more everyday about how to interact with her son and
students alike. She is always seeking advice and keeping parents informed of how their kids are doing in
order to help the student succeed. She has a diverse background which gives her an appreciation for the
celebration of culture and diversity. Lina’s cultural background has led her to give her students a place
where they feel safe allowing their cultural roots to show and for them to become more familiar with it
themselves. She incorporates Cultural Day, dual-language books, and many other strategies to promote
this diversity. She has experience in a variety of schools which have each given her a new learning
opportunity.

Reflection:

The presentation from Ms. Lina Dilov was much more eye opening than I thought it would be. Her
experiences with the Calgary Board of Education are unique from any others that I have heard about.
Her compassion towards her students is something I strive to possess, and I feel that she has benefited
her students more than she knows. The ways in which she has developed an inclusive learning
environment in her school are admirable and I only hope to be able to offer that to my students
someday. To be a teacher with the diverse background she has can be seen to have given her a different
perspective on teaching than others. I think that helps her to better relate to her students and allows
her compassionate nature to show. Hearing her discuss how she feels she is learning more every day on
how to better interact with her son and students experiencing similar struggles showed me that you
cannot know everything. You will always find new ways to be a better teacher to different students and
you have to be openminded about that. Always making sure you treat the students’ parents as experts
on their child is also very beneficial because no one knows their child better than their parents. It is
important to listen to what the parent has to say and take any advice they can offer you to ensure the
best for their child. These techniques allow students with disabilities to feel respected in their
environment and also sets as an example for how other students should treat them as well. This will
allow them to feel included and understood, but I feel that it is also important to note that you may not
always be successful. There will be things I won’t know or times where a conflict does arise, but I think it
is an important strategy to always do my best and take everything as a learning opportunity. The dual-
language books she uses in her school are brilliant to me because it allows everyone to learn something
about each classmate and also gives the student something to feel proud of. There are many people
ashamed of their culture because being different is not something people usually want to be, but I can
see this small act of reading these books getting the student to feel like an expert and being excited to
share it with their class. This can cause a great effect for the student which can carry out throughout
their lives. I remember being fluent in my native language until kindergarten where I had to shift
everything I knew to English in order to progress in my school. Following kindergarten, I began feeling a
sort of distastefulness toward my culture and aspects of it such as language because I wanted to fit in
with the rest of my classmates. If my school had implemented more ways for my classmates to learn
about each other’s’ backgrounds and shown us how diverse we really are, I think that would have
opened my mind up at an early age to the contentment that should come with your background and
identity. Similarly, in the school where the staff embraced everyone’s culture and allowed them to
showcase them allowed the students to not only feel proud of their culture and feel excited to share it,
but also allowed their classmates to learn a bit about the diversity in their school and around the world
that they may have not yet been exposed to. For these reasons, I think implementing various strategies
to show the cultural diversity within the school is important to allow students to build their identities
and help other students be aware and inclusive of people that may not look like them. Some issues may
arise in terms of contextual variables such as the size of your classroom impacting how one-on-one you
can be with students who require that extra attention, as well as the different expectations that arise
depending on where you are located and the demographic in that area. For example, a rural school with
primarily Caucasian students may not be able to experience the same cultural events, but I still think it
should be attempted to educate the students about different cultures. It can also be difficult if there are
certain majority religious or cultural beliefs in the community that may be against teaching the students
about other cultures or religions. It may also be difficult to implement these techniques depending on
the resources available. In small schools with minimal resources, it may be more difficult to attain the
inclusive goal. In bigger schools with more resources, technology, and parental support, it may be easier
to create this inclusive environment. I feel that it is most important to always be open minded and allow
others to share their experiences with you so you can learn from it. Strategies I will implement include a
wide array of inclusive books for different cultures, religions, sexualities, ages, parental structures etc. I
will also try to implement a variety of celebrations or informative opportunities for aspects of the
students such as their cultures, heritage, things pertaining to LGTBQ+, and other factors of their identity.
I will also do my best to keep parents involved in what their kids are learning so that there are no
surprises and they can offer input about it. Having the students be aware of the diversity within each of
their classmates whether it be their family structure, disabilities, or culture can allow them to see that
they have things in common and it may spark interest in them to get to know their peers better. Lastly, I
think it is also important to maintain a level of privacy between me and the student or parent because I
would never want to share something about them that they are uncomfortable sharing. Setting that
boundary will allow them to be open with me and share their thoughts and feelings with me in a safe
environment and being in control of what they choose to have everyone aware of about themselves.

Questions:

Some questions I have are: If one or two parents are completely against one of your methods of
implementing inclusivity such as a cultural day, do you have to listen to them and shut it down, or do
you just tell their child they won’t participate? At what point would you have to have that happen and
how is it usually avoided? Same as with educating the students about the LGBTQ+ community – if the
parents are against teaching that, how do you deal with that?