Learning & Instruction

Building a Trans Inclusive School Environment

Transphobia, or discrimination against transgender people, can and does occur in spaces where youth deserve to feel safe and included, such as school. School staff are responsible for fostering a school climate that supports learning and healthy development. Research shows that a student’s sense of belonging improves academic outcomes, increases continuing enrollment, and protects mental health.

This course provides steps you can take to help make your school more safe and inclusive.

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Making Culturally Responsive Teaching More Manageable

Zaretta Hammond explains why one of the biggest challenges teachers struggle with when first embracing this approach is trying to operationalize it in their classrooms. They worry that they have to learn 19 different cultures – their customs, holidays, foods, and language. This simply isn’t true. The other instinct is to reduce it to a set of checklists for each culture as a way to make it manageable. Cultural responsiveness is more of a process than a strategy. The process begins when a teacher recognizes the cultural capital and tools students of color bring to the classroom. She then responds positively by noticing, naming and affirming when students use them in the service of learning. The teacher is “responsive” when she is able to mirror these cultural ways of learning in her instruction, using similar strategies and tools to scaffold learning. The author offers three easy starting points to help make the process more manageable.

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Calm Down Corner

One way to help children learn how to self-regulate is by providing them with calm down corners. A calm down corner is a designated space in a home or classroom with the sole intent of being a safe space for a child to go to when they feel their emotions are running too high and they need to regain their emotional and physical control. Gain some tips for creating a calm down corner in this short article.

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42 MTSS Intervention Strategies for Your Student Support Team

Every student comes into the classroom with their own experiences and needs. As educators, we can support students by choosing intervention strategies designed to help them succeed. A strong Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) depends on individualized, research-based intervention strategies. Intervention plans must be relationship-informed as well as data-informed, building on what we know about our students and determining how best to support them. Check out these ideas for your student support team.

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Making Connections: Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain

Elena Aguliar interviews Zaretta Hammond about her book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. Read about how cultural responsiveness is more of a process than a strategy. It begins when a teacher recognizes the cultural capital and tools students of color bring to the classroom.

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Building Strong Brains: Tennessee ACE’s Initiative a Facilitator’s Guide

Tennessee ACEs Initiative is a major statewide effort to establish TN as a national model for how a state can promote culture change in early childhood based on a philosophy that preventing and mitigating adverse childhood experiences, and their impact, is the most promising approach to helping TN children lead productive, healthy lives and ensure the future prosperity of the state.

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