Seminar at UNI teaches diversity

Having a mix of students in a classroom who are American, Bosnian, Mexican,and Vietnamese may be seen as a major challenge by some teachers. A seminarstarting today at the University of Northern Iowa is designed to showteachers how to make a culturally diverse classroom work to their advantage.Dr. Penny Beed is an organizer of the three-week-long U-N-I “Seminar forLiteracy and Diversity.” Dr. Beed says teachers from all over the Hawkeye State are expected in CedarFalls for this seminar, which runs through July 21st.Beed says teachers should use children’s own cultural and home experiencesas a basis for classroom learning. Keynote speakers at the seminar includenationally-known educators in the fields of multi-cultural literacy andbi-lingual education.