Personal Narrative: Growing Up In A Diverse Community

What a difference a bridge can make! I grew up in a community that one would not call diverse. Currently, my hometown is 97% white. Driving across a 2.4-mile bridge over the Illinois River, the demographics change to 62% white, 26% black, and 4.6 Asian. Among my classmates, there were few ethnicities other than Caucasian. I did realize this difference as a child and I was extremely interested in other cultures, especially when we would go on vacation. Hearing other languages and seeing new traditions was very exciting to me. I would immediately befriend the foreign exchange students at my high school and would submerge myself in their culture as much as possible.
I spend the first half of my career teaching in non-diverse schools. After many years, I made the decision to move my career “across the bridge”. I felt a true calling to work with children who had different needs than what I was used to. The change was not easy and it took time to learn how to interact in a diverse environment. For this reason, the toolkit that seems
There are currently 1371 students. Current demographics show 48% White, 30.5% African American, 6.4% Hispanic, and 4.4% Asian. There are 27 different primary languages spoken. Using the Brown tool kit would keep me focused on all aspects of the classroom climate. Sometimes we get focused on the current trends in teaching and we forget about remembering the roots of the classroom. This year, our focus as a building has been on social and emotional needs. My personal focus has been on their cultural needs. A new ELL teacher has become my hallway neighbor and this has really made me more aware of the cultural needs. For example, a teacher was involved in a robbery. We took up a collection for her to replace the money that she was carrying. She declined this offering, and finally had to explain that it is not appropriate in her culture to accept money from