The HomesteadI am from St. Louis, Missouri…a Midwestern girl was raised in a home with a Georgia-born Mom and a Tennessee-born Dad. My home was different than the surrounding community. For breakfast, I ate grits with cheese, eggs, and sausage or bacon. My friends ate cream of wheat and hated grits, because they didn’t use salt or any of the other delicious things I added. For dinner, we made “tea,” but I didn’t know it was called “sweet tea” until I moved to Georgia in 2002. My friends drank KoolAid and soda. My differences didn’t stop with food and drink. I was an African American who was raised in the Roman Catholic church. That differed from the stereotypical Black who was raised in the Baptist church. Plus, I was classically trained to play piano and could read sheet music as opposed to playing by ear. Diversity is my life
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Culture in the Classroom
Have you taken the time to discover who you are? My transparent and personal reflection helped me to see that the main reason I get such fulfillment from working with ELs is I remember how it felt sitting in a class being one of the few children of color. People sought to include me so much that they failed to see what made me so different and to see that as a valuable resource.
Do your experiences as an educator, a consumer, or a citizen affect your students, staff, faculty, or community? If you would like to take the time to answer these questions and more, contact me today! I would be thrilled and honored to visit you and your organization to help you relax, refocus, and renew! |