![Picture](/uploads/9/8/6/4/98643104/published/cultural-competency.jpeg?1493040436)
UN Cultural Competency Seminar
The United Nation Multicultural session was as informative as it was eye opening. The exercises were mostly participation based and we shared our thoughts and ideas about various issues surrounding cultural/racial issues. It was enlightening because I was able to hear from all sides of a story. For instance, when talking about issues surrounding women of colour, we heard from men and women of different races. While talking about issues surrounding our personal cultures, we realized as a group that many people are disenfranchised in some way, shape or form. Cultural competency is vastly important; especially when teaching in a city as diverse as Windsor. Focusing on our cultural similarities made us realize how the core of most cultures promote the same concepts: peace, love, kindness, compassion, etc. As a teacher, cultural competency makes me more versatile. I will be responsible for teaching kids with diverse backgrounds as well as being responsible for integrating the students together. It is my duty to not only understand and respect my students’ culture, but to also teach them to understand and respect other peoples’ cultures as well.
![Picture](/uploads/9/8/6/4/98643104/published/cultural-competency-1.jpeg?1524448643)
Poverty Simulation
As a student, I grew up in an upper-middle class home and attended schools with small class sizes and an ample budget. Needless to say, I was not exposed to poverty in the personal sense or the institutional sense. This poverty simulation offered me a unique opportunity to visualize life for people of different economic backgrounds. The exercise comprised of many people in a very large room that was designed to emulate a city. I was assigned the lowest economic standing and very quickly realized the difficulties that it brought to day to day life. I could not afford a vehicle and it made tasks like finding/attending a job or taking my child to school. A class of students, from any area, is comprised of students who have extremely diverse lives outside of school. As an educator, this simulation helped me imagine the issues that accompany poverty and how they could easily affect a student’s quality of work/engagement at school. Having participated in this simulation, I am better suited to teach students from a diverse subset of economic situations.