Sarah+Milner+Elementary

= Welcome to our page! = = We began our CRLT group here at Sarah Milner during the 2010-2011 school year. We established three goals: = = 1. Improve our physical environment to reflect an emphasis on diversity and make all students and their families feel welcome at our school. = = 2. Lead professional development to raise the cultural awareness of all Sarah Milner staff. = = 3. Find ways to teach our students about cultural differences, and promote the benefits of diversity and respect for all people. =

= In 2010-2011, we began working on goal #1. Using environmental scan results that were done by Paul Hume and a group of Hispanic parents at our school, we began implementing some changes to our environment, including more bilingual signage. = = We also worked on improving the cultural awareness of our own team by reading and discussing the book __We Can't Teach What We Don't Know__ by Gary Howard. =

= In 2012, We have begun working on goal #2. We are leading the staff in exploring the resources in the Teaching Diverse Students Initiative. (Please see the "Articles" page of this wiki.) We all took "The Common Beliefs Survey" tool on the site, and are discussing each item at our morning staff meetings. Our primary goal in this undertaking is to become more aware of our own beliefs as a staff and explore how these beliefs may impact our students and their families, especially those whose cultural backgrounds differ from our own. =