Principle 1 for the NYSED Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework states:
“A welcoming and affirming environment feels safe. It is a space where people can find themselves represented and reflected, and where they understand that all people are treated with respect and dignity. The environment ensures all cultural identities (i.e. race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, language, religion, socioeconomic background) are affirmed, valued, and used as vehicles for teaching and learning.”
For this activity, you will review a few of the activities from the second module. You will want to have out your Efficacy Notebook that you began in Module 5 in order to reflect, connect, and continue to brainstorm how you will instruct your students with intention in order to have a lasting, positive impact.
Skip to: A Community of Learners | A Family Gathering | Failing Forward is What Matters
The Voice of Your Classroom
Design a physical and virtual learning environment that presents a welcoming and affirming message.
Review Using Inclusive Virtual Backgrounds to Design Affirming and Welcoming Learning Environments and then complete the below in your Efficacy Notebook.
- Summarize the article presented in this activity.
- What resonated with you as you read it again?
- What key points stand out to you?
- What insights will you take away from the reading to apply to your classroom in the current or upcoming school year?
- Looking at the “Brainstorm and Design” activity, sketch out a digital background that you can use (or share) in your classroom. Be sure to include all of the elements discussed in the activity as part of your design. Share it with a colleague for feedback.
- Reflect on the impact an inclusive virtual background has on your students. What if the learning environment isn’t inclusive? Why do we need to look at our environments with intention and be purposeful?
A Community of Learners
Implement norms, protocols, and achievable expectations for individual success and mutual support, whether students are learning in school or at home.
Review Building a Belonging Classroom and then complete the below in your Efficacy Notebook.
- Summarize the video from Edutopia.
- What resonated with you as you watched the video?
- What key words, phrases, or visuals from the video stood out to you?
- What insights will you take away from the video to apply to your classroom in the current or upcoming school year?
- How will you activate all of your students so they are prepared for rigorous learning?
- The video shares some activities that you can design in order to build a belonging classroom. Brainstorm ideas in your Efficacy Notebook for activities, discussions, and more that you could design for the current or upcoming school year. Use the graphic organizer shared at the bottom of the activity, if needed, to organize your thoughts and ideas.
- Reflect on the following:
- How can you ensure that your learning environment “is a space where people can find themselves represented and reflected, and where they understand that all people are treated with respect and dignity” as shared in the Principle 1 description?
- Why is it essential that you build a belonging classroom community with intention? What happens if you don’t have a belonging classroom community?
- What is the impact for your students?
A Family Gathering
Honor and leverage parents/caregivers as powerful partners in developing a welcoming and affirming environment for learning in school and at home.
Review CR-SE Family Engagement Strategies and then complete the below in your Efficacy Notebook.
- Summarize the video presented by Holly from IDE Corp.
- What resonated with you as you watched the video?
- What key words, phrases, or visuals from the video stood out to you?
- What insights will you take away from the video to apply to your classroom in the current or upcoming school year?
- What strategies will you use to connect with the families of your students?
- Holly shared three areas of consideration for family engagement: language, community presence, and methods of communication. Brainstorm various ways to engage with the families in your school community.
- What activities can you design that can be implemented throughout the year?
- How will you continually connect with families in at least three different ways?
- How will you intentionally get families involved in the school community?
- Reflect on the following:
- How can you ensure that “The environment ensures all cultural identities (i.e. race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, language, religion, socioeconomic background) are affirmed, valued, and used as vehicles for teaching and learning” as shared in the Principle 1 description? What role do families play in creating that learning environment for students?
- Why is it essential that you intentionally connect with students’ families and communities? What do you learn about your students when you are connected to their families?
- What is the impact on your students when there is a positive connection between home and school?
Failing Forward Is What Matters
Establish structures and strategies that allow students to take learning risks without fear of failure, seeing failure as a step in the learning process.
Review Restorative Justice in Your Remote/Hybrid Learning Environment and then complete the below in your Efficacy Notebook.
- Summarize the article and video from Mindful Schools.
- What resonated with you as you watched the video and read through the article?
- What key words, phrases, or visuals stood out to you?
- What insights will you take away from the video and the article to apply to your classroom in the current or upcoming school year?
- How would define restorative justice? How would it be implemented in your learning environment?
- View and then recreate the concentric circle graphic on the website in your Efficacy Notebook. Address the questions presented in the circles and then brainstorm ideas to address any gaps. How will using restorative justice strategies support your school/district in addressing behavioral interventions?
- If you analyzed your discipline data this year (or last year), use the data trends as evidence to address the questions.
- Reflect on the following:
- How can you ensure that “A welcoming and affirming environment feels safe” as shared in the Principle 1 description? What does safety feel like? What does safety look like?
- Why is it essential that you intentionally connect with your students and have them connect with one another? What is the impact on student achievement?
- How do you differentiate between consequence and punishment? What is the ultimate goal of restorative justice? What is our intention when we are addressing student behavior?
- Based on what you have learned about bias, how can you ensure that implicit biases don’t play a role in how behavior is handled?