Welcoming Families of Different Cultures

April 01, 2006 Categories: Families / Positive Community
An adapted excerpt from Parents & Teachers Working Together One of the enduring truths about teaching is that to teach children well, we have to know them: what they’re passionate about, what worries them, where they are in their development. We also have to understand something of their family culture—that world outside the school that Read More »
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AUG
01
2005

Investing in Parents During the First Six Weeks of School

Teachers work hard during the first six weeks of school to get to know their students and to establish a safe and welcoming classroom environment. This early investment makes the whole school…
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APR
01
2005

Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences Keep the Focus on the Child

On a sunny October afternoon, kindergartner Chloe welcomes her mom into her classroom for a conference. Together they review a map Chloe had created with symbols representing the activities that the class…
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NOV
01
2004

Wonderful Wednesdays

Morning Meeting is over and writing workshop is underway. The children are scattered around the room sketching and then writing about objects that “called out to them.” Erin's dad is leaning against…
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AUG
01
2004

Bridging Home and School

Learning about patterns is one of the first things we do in math in my primary classroom. We create patterns with our bodies, sing them, build them, clap them. But I never…
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FEB
01
2004

Keeping Connected

It’s sharing time during Morning Meeting in Ms. Roberts’s first grade classroom. Jarrod is enthusiastically telling his classmates about the photos they will see when they look at his “family album.” The…
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FEB
01
2004

Child Development

Question:What are your goals in sharing knowledge about child development with students’ families, and how do you go about it?
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AUG
01
2003

Morning Meeting Begins at 7:15 p.m.!

It's back-to-school night at Flanders Elementary School in East Lyme, Connecticut. As parents and guardians arrive at Andy Dousis's fourth grade classroom, he welcomes them warmly and invites them to read the…
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AUG
01
2003

Welcoming All Families

Question:I know that it's important to have a good working relationship with the parents and care-takers of the children in my classroom. The children come from diverse backgrounds, with differences in ethnicity,…
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NOV
01
2001

Working with Families

Question:In my classroom this year, I am implementing two teaching strategies, Morning Meeting and Rules and Logical Consequences, but I’m concerned about parents’ reactions. I can imagine that they will worry that…
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AUG
01
2001

Welcoming Second Language Learners

Question:The number of students speaking English as a second language (ESL) is steadily increasing. These children come to the classroom with diverse cultural backgrounds and varying degrees of proficiency with English. We…
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