Sorry, I do not know why my first post was not posting correctly. I hope you can read this one.
WEEK 7 BLOG
In the next two weeks, I will have a new student from
Cyprus coming to my class. To prepare for her arrival I,
first, took the time to find out more
about their area and its culture. Just to get a feel of its location, I find
out that “Cyprus’s capital is Nicosia and has 0.8 million people. It is the
largest island in the eastern Mediterranean and is situated south of Turkey. Cyprus
has long been a crossing point between Europe, Asia and Africa and still has
many traces of successive civilizations – Roman theatres and villas, Byzantine
churches and monasteries, Crusader castles, Ottoman mosques and pre-historic habitats.
The island’s main economic
activities, like tourism, clothing and
craft exports and merchant shipping. Traditional crafts include embroidery,
pottery and copper work.
A traditional local dishes include the meze. The
Republic of Cyprus gained its independence from Britain in 1960 and is known as
the
island of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, who, according to
legend, was born here” (European Union, n.a., para. 1-5). Their
culture is
adapted toward learning Greek Cypriots but everyone speaks English, thus she
would not feel left out language-wise moving to
the United States. The religions
there are Muslim and Christian, which we have both so they would not feel left
out. Fishing and tourism
is important to their area. Most things that we would
find on their dinner tables are yogurt, bread, dips, vegetables and salads. They
do
celebrate holidays that we do not and so I would definitely take that into
consideration. Everyone is very laid back but extremely
respectful to their
elders and professional lives.
After learning all about their culture and beliefs, secondly, I would focus on their educational process. I found out
that a child’s parents
are very involved with the whole process of education. They
value it as very high. They are there to cover all expenses from early
childhood
education until they graduate from college. This area I would not have
to worry about with my new student and their parents, which will
seem to be a
very pleasant experience. YEA!!! Their educational system encourages education
all the way up into adult learning. The
European Commission stresses key
competencies, such as knowledge skills and gathering an attitude to help
learners feel fulfilled to
later get a great job. They encourage learning the
mother’s native tongue, other foreign languages, digital skills, literacy and
basic math
and science skills. They also teach horizontal skills, such as
learning to learn, social and civic responsibilities, initiative and
entrepreneurship,
cultural awareness and creativity. So, by knowing these
things, I know that the child will be very well-rounded when he or she arrives
to my
class.
Reference
Very good post! It is very important to become familiar with your future student. In order to be an effective teacher you do need to make some connection with your students and families.
ReplyDelete