Culturally Responsice Teaching Strategies

One great blog that I read that incorporates culturally responsive teaching strategies and practices was the following: http://elschools.org/best-practices/more-just-motto-nobody-eats-alone-harborside . 

When harborside academy opened, the motto “Nobody eats alone at Harborside” was merely a set of words – a nice way to think about community. Five years later, the phrase has come to mean “Nobody should be left alone to solve any problem.” It stands for the value of getting to know others well and creating a school climate that celebrates both student academic growth and character development.

The school the article speaks about is located in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  The school relies on project based learning.  The students do most of their learning through doing.  Tmajor things that I read in this blog was the involvement in the community.  They organize a Alzheimer’s Walk every year, collect water and check its quality.  They plant gardens at every elementary school.  The students at this school are very involved in their community. 

The other wonderful factor that is involved in the culturally responsiveness of this school is the leadership and character building it provides.  The school reflects team building, the teachers reflect working together, and the students are soaking all of that up and reacting to eacthother in this way as well.  This is a vital issue in our schools right now.  Students are having issues interacting with eachother; and it seems socially our children are lacking in the skills they need. 

As the years have passed, we have deepened our understanding of the importance of relationship development and team building in creating a positive culture in our school. The Harborside staff with expertise in youth development, service learning, and adventure education have stepped forward to provide training and coaching. They help us to examine the parallels between the workshop model and the experiential learning cycle and to understand the intentional use of initiatives, team building challenges, protocols, and projects to facilitate deeper learning.

This school is a wonderful model of culturally responsive learning strategies.  I wish all schools had the opportunites and financial support to make this model work around the country.