Diversity

Cultural Diversity and Responsiveness

As an ESL teacher, I value diversity as not only important but necessary to foster a well-rounded and productive educational environment.

Culturally Responsive School Initiatives

I have facilitated many initiatives that have helped Banaadir Academy become a more culturally responsive school.

In order to address low first-language literacy and limited background knowledge about the U.S. education system, I collaborated with students and Somali staff members to produce a series of bilingual training videos for SLIFE and their parents, detailing school procedures and norms.  An example video can be found in my at bilingual-parent-support-videos page.

In addition, I facilitated the creation and implementation of our school’s interpreting team.  Both of these initiatives led to a marked increase in parent-teacher communication.

In a similar vein, I implemented the Somali Word of the Week program, a series of linguistic and cultural lessons–co-taught by both Western and Somali teachers–designed to expand staff understanding and appreciation of Somali language and customs.

Culturally Responsive Teaching


When teaching my new-to-country Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) family vocabulary, I found that the Western-centric imagery and material for teaching family structure was not working for my students.  Part of this, is that the material in a lot of ESL texts is not representative of the cultures many students come from.

To counter this, I created some material using actual photos of Somali families as well as some graphic organizers that reflected their family structure as well as using names that were more representative of their background.  The result was telling.  Students picked up the vocabulary faster and used it more effectively.

View family vocabulary slideshow

View family tree

Bilingual Parent Support Videos

Supporting Literacy at Home | School Expectations

 

Using Technology to Support Your Child’s Literacy at Home

This initiative was a collaboration between the ELL teachers and Chinese teachers to help English and Chinese speaking parents support literacy at home in a concrete way by helping parents understand and use two of our favorite online literacy resources: Reading A-Z and Phonics Genius.  The teachers collaborated with Chinese colleagues to shoot and translate the videos. The result was a marked uptick in use of these tools with parents and students!

Using Reading A-Z at Home to Support Your Child’s Literacy

Using Technology to Support Phonics at Home

Reading With Your Child at Home Using Reading A-Z

 


Bilingual School Expectations Videos for Students and Parents

This initiative was a collaboration between students and ELL teachers in order to help all students and parents understand school expectations given that there were many new-to-country families to our school who had limited or interrupted formal schooling in the past.  The students brainstormed school norms and agreed to them through voting.  They then co-wrote the scripts and created the videos with graphics and sound.

 

Banaadir Academy Expectations: School Arrival

Banaadir Academy Expectations: Hallways

Banaadir Academy Expectations: Cafeteria

Banaadir Academy Expectations: Recess

Banaadir Academy Expectations: Bathrooms

Banaadir Academy Expectations: Dismissal and Busing

New Reading Resources

Check out these new resources for practicing reading skills.

Free Homework Help for Your Children!

Homework Help

Online help with your homework, including math, science, and writing. You can also take practice tests or receive live test tutoring.

Library Sun. Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat.
Online 1-11pm 1-11pm 1-11pm 1-11pm 1-11pm 1-11pm 1-11pm

Homework Help at the Library

  • Free in-person tutoring for K-12 students. No advance sign-up needed.
  • Open September through May. Check with your local library for start dates and holidays.
Library Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. Sun.
Augsburg Park 3-7 3-7 3-7
Brookdale 3:30- 7:30 3:30- 7:30 3:30- 7:30
Brooklyn Park 3:30-6:30 3:30-6:30 3:30-6:30 1:30- 3:30
East Lake 3:30- 7:30 3:30- 5:30 3:30- 7:30
Franklin 3:30- 7:30 3:30- 5:30 3:30- 7:30 3:30- 5:30
Hopkins 3:30- 7:30 3:30- 5:30 3:30- 7:30
Hosmer 3:30- 7:30 3:30- 7:30 1-5
Nokomis 3:30- 7 3:30- 6 3:30- 7
North Regional 3:30-7 3:30- 6 3:30-7
Northeast 3-6 3-6 3-6
Sumner 3:30- 7:30 3:30- 5:45 3:30- 7:30

Reading Buddies Wins Awards

The Reading Buddies is a literacy-based volunteer program that I started with the help of Shawn Fondow.   It pairs college students with students at Banaadir Academy in a one on one setting that fosters growth in phonetic awareness, fluency and comprehension.

Outstanding Community Partner Award

U-of-M-Outstanding-Community-Partner-Award-2013-14After its first year, the program won the Outstanding Community Partner Award from the University of Minnesota’s Community Service-Learning Center.

Criteria for this award include:

  • receives positive feedback from students about their experience at the community organization
  • excels in all aspects of partnership: consistent communication, knowledge of service-learning pedagogy, and participation in our office’s committees and events
  • has a long history of working with us in innovative ways

2016 Presidents’ Community Partner Award

Minnesota-Campus-CompactLandscapeSMThe Reading Buddies also just won the 2016 Presidents’ Community Partner Award from the  Minnesota Campus Compact.

Criteria for this award include:

  • enhances the quality of life in the community in meaningful and measurable ways
  • engages in the development of sustained, reciprocal partnerships with the college or university
  • enriches educational as well as community outcomes

See list of other recipients.

 

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