Activity: Develop and implement part of a teacher induction program that examines the

needs of the diverse populations of your school and builds skills of new teachers that
support working with those families.
Description: East Brainerd Elementary School is made up of many ethnic and cultural
backgrounds. e have !" different languages spoken at our school. ith that many
different languages come many different ethnic and cultural expectations. #t is important
that new teachers understand that the cultural norms that are found within the typical
American household may not be the same for our diverse student populations. $or
example% in some cultures it is not respectful for the student to look an adult in the eye or
in other cultures teachers may not use gummy bears for treats because they do not eat
pork. &he induction program allowed us to sit down with our new teachers and to have
conversations about the cultures that are found within our building. # asked teachers who
have taught at EBE for many years to attend the meeting and # also asked our ES'
teachers and our $amily (artner Specialist to attend the meeting since they were able to
offer insight as well and since they work closely with these families and know them on a
different level than many of the classroom teachers.
hat went well)
&he discussions that were held were very good and they were very insightful for many of
our staff members. e opened this session up to new teachers% as well as to their
mentors. e started off with the ES' teachers and the $amily (artner Specialist telling
the new teachers about the various cultures that were represented at EBE. &his was great
because we were able to talk about the cultural norms associated with each culture. &he
most valuable part of this session was clarifying some of the misconceptions that some of
the teachers had about the various cultures. &he main point that was stressed throughout
the session was the important of building a relationship with the families and making
them feel welcome within the classroom. So many of our parents are still trying to find
their place within our school so this was perfect because our new teachers are trying to
find their place too. # think that this is a wonderful way to build the bridge between our
teachers and our diverse stakeholders. #t was great to reinforce the importance of
communication with all stakeholders. *verall at the end of the session% teachers seemed
to understand that they needed to treat each child as an individual and that they needed to
communicate with the parent to see how much they were will to adopt the American
cultural norms. &eachers seemed to understand that it is always better to make a phone
call home to check on something rather than to have to beg for forgiveness later on.
hat did not)
# believe that it would have been far more beneficial if we could have had a panel of
parents who represented the various cultures to give first hand accounts of their cultures.
&his would have answered all of our +uestions because there were still +uestions that
were left unanswered because even by having the ES' teachers and the $amily (artner
Specialist present there were still +uestions that were left unanswered. Another issue that
was not dealt with in its entirety was the fact that we still felt that we needed to have
some kind of program where our families were encouraged to come into our building.
e feel like our diverse populations are underrepresented in our (&A population and our
volunteer population. Again% we feel like this is a cultural thing and that they merely do
not feel welcome within the school building. At the end of the meeting we still did not
have a plan to get our diverse population into our building.
,iven the chance to do it again% how would you do it better)
#f # could do this pro-ect over again # would do things a little bit differently. # would start
off by asking various parents to come in and sit in on a panel to talk about their cultures
with our new teachers% as well as any other teacher who wanted to attend. # think this
would be very important since it would bring our diverse population into the building. #
would also work with a committee on developing activities that would encourage our
stakeholders into our building for various affairs. # would continue to follow up with new
teachers to make sure that they are reaching out to their diverse students and their
families in an appropriate way and that the relationship between teacher and diverse
families is a positive one.
orking ith Diverse $amilies
Support Session
!. #dentifying our subgroups
. /anie% Stacey% and Stephanie will share about the various cultures represented at
EBE.
0. 1ultural Awareness
. American 2orms vs. *ther 1ultures3 2orms
4. 5ow to Build 6elationships
7. 8uestions and 1oncerns