The Equity Observer
December 2023 - Issue 15
Our History Matters - What's on deck!
Our History Matters celebrated Native American/Alaska Native Heritage Month throughout the month of November. Our next OHM month will be February with Black History Month. In December we have have three major holidays that we'll recognize: Hanukkah will be celebrated from December 7 - December 15th; Bodhi Day will be celebrated on December 8th; and Christmas will be celebrated on December 25th. As a note - these are not holidays recognized by our Religious Observance Regulation.
Last month we notified you of two additions to the OHM calendar (Disability Awareness Month- March; and Polish American Heritage Month- October). We will also now be adding Military Child Month in April. T If you're interested in having a spotlight for for any of the upcoming months this year, please email Jennifer Santiago.
If you have resources which would be helpful to add to any of the Our History Matters websites, please send those to Jennifer Santiago.
Equity Office Hours
Mount Daniel - January 11th
Oak Street - January 18th in the Family Resource Center
Henderson - January 25th in the Family Resource Center
Meridian - February 1st
JTP - February 8th
Religious Decorations in Schools
Professional Development Corner
ELLevation Strategies
Last month we shared information about Ellevation Strategies. You can login and choose any number of self-paced PD modules to support your work with Multilingual Learners. In the new year we will begin to have some required PD from all staff via Ellevation strategies. This is two fold:
1- The division is required to provide PD on working with Multilingual Learners annually
2- There are a lot of great questions on how to support MLs in classrooms and we have an small but mighty ESOL program. These developed and vetted PD offerings are a great way to expand your toolbox.
Any PD that you complete you can submit a request to Frontline to have an hour added to your Continuing Education Credit transcript in Frontline.
Some modules that may interest you:
- Understanding Multilingual Learners (required)
- Supporting Newcomers
- Developing Academic Language
- Deepening Comprehension
- Strengthening Writing and Speaking Skills
- Fostering Interactions
- Assessing Multilingual Learners
- Building Sociocultural Competence
- Advancing Bilingualism and Biliteracy
Cultural Proficiency & Evaluation Corner!
In this edition we'll focus on Culturally Competent Pedagogy and Practice - Provide ongoing opportunities for student reflection and interpersonal interactions with diverse peers; support the development of self-regulation strategies, empathy, and civil discourse.
School & Classroom Environments
- Fostering Cultural Humility in the Classroom (long but a lot of good ideas that can be tweaked to meet each levels learners and needs).
- 10 Self- Regulation Skills and How to Effectively Teach Them
- 15+ Classroom Practices to Build Self-Regulation Skills
- Four Proven Strategies for Teaching Empathy
- Civil Discourse in the Classroom