Cultural Competency and Social Emotional Learning Task 3

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Western Governors University *

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Communications

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Feb 20, 2024

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1 Communication Plan Dylan Moore Department of Educational Leadership, Western Governors University D020 Cultural Competencies and Social-Emotional Learning Delmon Moore May 10, 2023 Communication Plan As a teacher, you are constantly looking for ways to improve your class. Before this course, I thought that the harder I taught, the more involved the students would be. The more involved the

2 students were, the better their test scores. I couldn’t understand why, for 7 years, I struggled with the same thing in my class. Students would walk in, put their name on their notes, and then fall asleep. As I read about culture, social and emotional learning, inclusion, I decided that there was more to create a successful classroom. If I could really dig deep, and understand the culture my students are coming from, I can create a more meaningful curriculum. As an administrator, I would create a communication plan and policy that would benefit these students. In this plan, I would first have to find the demographic I would target, and then I will come up with 4 policies to promote culture awareness, cultural inclusion, promote student success, and incorporate cultural perspectives of families and communities. Demographic for the Communication Plan When I asked the administration about the demographics of our school, something stood out and absolutely shocked me. Mr. Fletcher, a curriculum coach, advised me to look at the TPRS website. This website breaks down every school, by every demographic you could think of, African America, White, Hispanic, Indian, etc. As I scrolled to the bottom, I saw that at our school, 85% of our school is economically disadvantaged (TPRS, 2022). Economically disadvantaged simply means that the student is eligible, by income status, to receive free or reduced lunches ( Texas Education Agency - Accountability Research: Data Search , 2023). This is a staggering percentage. I thought that it was only fitting that the group of students I would highlight throughout this project would be them. After picking the students that I would communicate to, I would have to start working on my plan. Promoting Cultural Awareness

3 Cultural awareness, according to a Mississippi College article, is understanding your own culture, other’s culture, and the role of culture in education (Sindhu 2022). As I think about this definition, I need to look back on my culture and how I was raised. I was blessed to not be an economically disadvantaged student. With that blessing, however, comes some challenges. As a teacher with 85% of my students’ economically disadvantaged, I have no way to relate to them. If I am going to be culturally aware, I must go outside of my classroom to find some help with how to get these students connected. With that being said, one policy that I would promote as an administrator is implementing a mentorship program that connects economically disadvantaged kids to a mentorship program we have in the city. This is great for the city that I currently work in, because there are multiple different agencies and churches that would get on board with this practice. The program would involve partnering economically disadvantaged students with mentors who come from similar backgrounds or have overcome similar challenges. The mentors would be a wide variety of professionals across various industries. These volunteers would spend time with these students’ sharing experiences, knowledge, and communicate with multiple students. The communication style will vary depending on availability. This could be emails, phone calls, or supervised visits at the school. These economically disadvantaged students could talk to them about their career aspirations, goals, and personal challenges. By going outside of the classroom, these students can relate to their mentors where I can’t relate to them. I think this is so valuable, because mentors can explain to them how important their education is. In order to implement this policy, I want there to be other benefits other than cultural awareness. I can see three other benefits to this policy. One of those benefits is career guidance. Being with a mentor who shares a similar culture, these mentors can talk to them about how to strive for a career they’re passionate about. They can share their own journeys and tell the students what they can expect. Another benefit is networking opportunities. Without this mentorship program, who knows if

4 they would ever get connected to people in fields they aspire to be in. Lastly, this can increase their self- confidence. Seeing someone that had a similar upbringing, yet was successful in life, can bring them a sense of confidence that they can do the same thing. To ensure the success of this practice, it is crucial to establish a structured program with clear goals, guidelines and expectations for both mentors and students. I will oversee the entire thing, checking in weekly, and supporting where I can. By promoting cultural awareness through mentorship programs, economically disadvantaged students can gain valuable insight, support, and resources necessary to thrive academically and professionally. None of this would be possible, if I at first do no recognize my own culture and reach out to others for help. This will, in turn, create a desire to learn and grow in my classroom. This is a motivation that I cannot create on my own. Being culturally aware is extremely important in the education system. However, this is not the only thing that needs to be addressed. This is just a cog in the machine of education. After my students get connected with a mentor, there are other steps that need to happen so that these students feel as if they oversee their education. Promoting a Culturally Inclusive Environment In “Creating an Inclusive School”, I read about how to make a school culturally inclusive. This highlights the fact that there are multiple backgrounds, ethnicities, economic status, etc. in our schools. For our students to get excited about learning, they need to have material that is catered towards them. The book goes on to say, “Teachers use students’ culture to promote their academic achievement by investigating and promoting what issues students find meaningful, teachers empower their learners to choose academic excellence” (Villa and Thousand, 1995). I found myself very challenged by this thought.

5 As a teacher, I expect my students to pay attention, and try their best. However, looking at the way that I personally learn, I’m not going to learn about something that doesn’t pertain to me. We must get passed the fact that this can be seen as a selfish motivator, if we truly want our students to learn. We need to “get on their level” to create meaningful lessons. That is why a school needs to be culturally inclusive. One of the policies that I would promote as an administrator would be a policy of culturally responsive curriculum, especially aiming at serving economically disadvantaged students. Culturally responsive curriculum incorporates the diverse cultural backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of students into the learning materials, activities, and assessments. As a teacher, I would look at the students that I have and try to find materials that would help them out in the real world. For example, I just did a project where the students figure out what their dream job is. Then they researched how long it would take to get a degree in that field, the amount of student loans, and then, based on the average salary, they could really see what their quality of life would be. This was encouraging because I saw many students change what they wanted to be because they saw it was not financially smart. It, however, can’t be one project at the end of the year. As an administrator there are a couple of ways that I would incorporate this throughout the school. First off, I would collaborate with students and families. In order to develop a culturally responsive curriculum, it is important to involve students and families in the decision-making process. This could be accomplished by meetings, surveys, and open forums where parents feel free to talk to me, give me feedback and suggest things that I can implement in the curriculum. Economically disadvantaged students come from many different ethnicities, so finding common ground can be easier if I involve the parents. Based off their feedback, I can create lessons that address the issues that the parents want me to address. Secondly, there must be inclusive representation in the lessons. As an administrator, I would encourage my teachers to find influential figures in their subject and talk about them. This could be someone that started off poor, that went on to change the world. With 85% of the students being economically disadvantaged, this could really hit

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