Culturally Responsive Teaching: A Professional Development Project

Why does culture play such an important role in education? Can culturally responsive teaching positively affect elementary student behavior and academic effort? It is imperative that students and teachers know each other beyond the subjective cultural experiences that each may bring to the classroom, and that educators possess an understanding of diverse cultures but not stereotype people into a one-size-fits-all cultural mold. Students need to be related to as full, complex, multidimensional people. It is more important now than ever to focus on student culture and learning differences. The political environment has changed so drastically in the last few years and respect for differences of race and culture are at the forefront of this shift. Educators have a duty to do everything they can to empower student strengths as well as how to work with each other to make the world a better place. This professional development presentation on culturally responsive teaching will be completed in one day and will take four to five hours depending how far the presenter wishes to extend with supplemental activities including classroom observations and reflections with mentor feedback. Culturally Responsive Teaching is something that can better any teachers practice and is not something extra to do in the classroom but an all inclusive way to approach teaching with the students best inventions as the motivation. I sincerely hope that this project is valuable and gives educators inspiration and real tools to enact CRT in their classrooms! My hope is that CRT will close the gap in performance between students, gain support and participation from families, improving student academic performance and motivation, and add a feeling of mutual respect and celebration of diversity to the classroom