When new aspiring teachers embark on their journey in becoming teachers through a teaching preparation program through a university they ultimate goal following No Child Left Behind is for teachers to become "Highly Qualified." We don't expect teachers to teach content or subject areas, which they do not have prior knowledge. Often teachers are not adequately prepared to teach students from various "sub-groups." However, for teachers to begin implementing "Culturally Responsive Teaching" and teach their students to be culturally sensitive toward one another, he or she needs to know and own their cultural lens.
Author Zanetta Hammond outlines a set of quick times on Culturally Responsive Teaching: 1. Build authentic relationships. They are the on-ramp to engagement and learning. 2. Use the brain's memory systems for more in-depth learning. Connecting new content through music, movement, and visuals strengthens the neural pathways for comprehension. 3. Acknowledge diverse students' stress response from everyday micro-aggressions and help calm the brain. 4. Use ritual, recitation, repetition, and rhythm as content processing power tools. 5. Create a community of learners by building on students' values of collaboration and connection. It creates intellectual safety, reducing stereotype threat. There are several important ideas I noted from the C-Content speakers; there are two that stood out for me. The first is being Culture being a Cognitive Scaffold, helps with a students ability to improve processing information. High trust, stress-free environment, information ease processing allows for learning for understanding. One of my first jobs as a teenager was working for The Chocolate Tree at Vintage 1870, located in Yountville, California. At the time I had the "Best Job" as an Ice Cream Scooper and Chocolate Customer Service Representative. Therefore, the analogy of choosing ingredients to mix into ice cream is similar to forming elaboration and how students use cultural learning tools. While completing the reading assignments or viewing the videos, I am surprised when I was reading and learn about various teaching practices concepts, mythologies, etc. and the realization that I have been implementing most throughout my teaching career. However, I didn't realize that they were research proven and/or published. An example of practices that I have utilized as a special education specialist is the four cultural learning tools: Memory, Puzzles/Patterns, Talk and Word Play, and Perspectives. I use various "out of the box" teaching practices for students with special needs; as their learning style is often visual and the use of memorization, visual puzzles, patterns, oral commutation, wordplay, and perspectives helps students to access and learn new information, and skills. I use visual images to help students remember information (i.e., story with pictures for remembering the 13 colonies). The 13 Colonies visual aides consists of a character of a Jersey (New Jersey) cow that enjoys drawing pictures of Marilyn (Maryland) Monroe, with a broken pencil (Pennsylvania) that is connected (Connecticut) together with a bandaid, and takes a road trip to New York, while signing Carols from the north and south (North and South Carolina), and so on. "Creativity is one of the most unique of Human Skills." (Onarheim, Olivarious, 2013) I can apply Mobley's 6 Insights to help my students think creatively. According to The Creativity Post, creatively will help students to be able to solve problems and help them work through various challenges. Through teaching students to utilize their "Creativity," they can foster "resolve, inquiry, new perspectives, independence, positivity, confidence, and ingenuity." These are all great skill sets, for any student, especially students with special needs as they transition from school to college or into the workforce. Although, it poses a very challenging task as a special education specialist to "teach" creativity for students with special needs, especially those with Moderate to Severe Disabilities. Through my own "Creativity" I can help students make strides in many of these skills through interventions, remediations, modifications, accommodations, repetition, and daily learning opportunities. Lastly, involving the parents and providing them with information and support to would help students to generalize these skills in various settings and environments. References: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3797545/
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