Week 9 of 15: Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher

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This week #AEE412 looked a little different than past weeks because we learned about Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) from Dr. Laura Rice! My cohort members and I now have a better idea of what CRT is exactly and how to implement CRT strategies in our classrooms. The following are some of my main takeaways from the week!



Culture Goes Beyond Where We Come From

One of the most important things I learned from this week was that culture goes beyond where we come from. Before, I thought that when talking about student culture, we were talking about where a student is from and their culture's customs. However, after this week, I know that student culture is about all the aspects of a student's life that they bring into our classrooms. From family life to experiences, languages spoken, and values, culture entails a lot more than just where a student comes from.


There is Cultural Diversity All Around Us

During part of our class on Monday, a representative from State College High School spoke about the demographics of the school. I was surprised to hear that State College had so much diversity. There is a high population of English Language Learners (ELLs) at State College High School, and the speaker was telling us about the various ways that she helps teachers in the building connect with the ELL students to maximize their learning opportunities.


It Takes Heart

This week, I also presented a PowerPoint on 7 Ways to Make your Classroom Culturally Responsive, in which I broke some of the main concepts from the week down into easy strategies that #PSUAgEd23 can implement in their classrooms as new and beginning teachers. I explained that we do not have to become culturally responsive teachers overnight, but as long as we are implementing these strategies and putting in the effort, our classrooms and our teaching will become culturally responsive over time. But Dr. Rice explained that being a culturally responsive teacher takes more than that - it takes heart. We as educators can put the effort in and implement every strategy we find, but if our heart is not in it, we are missing the point. CRT is about empathy and being an advocate for all students in our classrooms.




What Does CRT Mean to Me As I Enter my Student Teaching?

As I enter my student teaching, I want to make the effort to be culturally responsive in my teaching. I would like to find ways to celebrate all students and use every student's culture as a way to highlight them and educate the rest of the class. One way this might be possible is by talking about the Lunar New Year or Ramadan, two holidays that occur while I am student teaching. Celebrating these holidays could be a great way to connect with students, while also educating students about another culture. Then, I would like to continue throughout the year to refer back to and make connections to these holidays so that students understand the deeper significance of why we celebrated.


Overall, I feel like Dr. Rice and the other speakers dedicating the time to our class really helped us all understand what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher and how to celebrate and highlight students of all backgrounds. 



Thank you for your endless support,


Ms. Cusate





Comments

  1. AGmazing GraceNovember 20, 2022 at 3:27 PM

    Nickie, thank you so much for sharing this detailed blog about CRT! It was really helpful for me to catch-up from missing this week and you have a lot of cool and powerful takeaways and I am excited to see how you are going to implement it within student teaching!

    ReplyDelete

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