(NAME-MCE) Bridging Cultures Between Home and School

[Anselmo Villanueva]

See the reply I received below this initial posting.  Looks like a
great workshop that you can have at your site.

Anselmo
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Bridging Cultures Between Home and School

Educators work across cultures every day yet few of them know how to
do so effectively. This one-day institute helps educators address the
needs of underserved cultural, linguistic, and racial groups. The
result? Improved educational outcomes.

Bridging Cultures Between Home and School Institute

http://www.wested.org/cs/we/view/serv/94

"The awareness I have experienced…is amazing!… Dialogue was a key
component. A 'comfort zone' was established early on…and barriers were
taken down, allowing for meaningful conversations to take place."

Contact Information

Noelle Caskey
415.615.3178
ncaskey at wested.org

Who Should Participate

School and district leadership, classroom teachers, counseling staff,
paraprofessionals, and school support staff who work across cultures.
Parents and community members may also wish to participate.

Goals of the Institute

Bridging Cultures is dedicated to helping policymakers,
administrators, teachers, and support staff design and implement
programs that effectively address the needs of underserved cultural,
linguistic, and racial groups in order to improve educational outcomes
for these groups. The ideas and approaches disseminated at the
institute reflect the findings of the Bridging Cultures research
project, a multi-year collaboration between classroom teachers and
professional researchers.
Format of the Institute

The one-day institute is interactive and designed to connect with
participants' personal experiences. In addition to learning a
conceptual framework that helps illuminate important cultural
differences, participants will have opportunities to work in small
groups, reflect, and explore applications to their own educational
settings.

What You Learn

Participants learn strategies to

- Support meaningful education experiences that tap the funds of
knowledge of students and families
- Carry out standards-based curricula in ways that are culturally and
linguistically appropriate
- Approach assessment in ways that take cultural and linguistic
differences into consideration
- Use effective and culturally appropriate classroom management strategies
- Support meaningful parent involvement in children's education

Who Facilitates Your Learning

The Bridging Cultures workshop team is led by WestEd staff member and
professional developer Noelle Caskey with support from the Bridging
Cultures Project research team. Project contributors include
researchers and university faculty Marlene Zepeda, Carrie
Rothstein-Fisch, and Patricia Greenfield, and teachers Amada Perez,
Giancarlo Mercado, Marie Altchech, and Catherine Daley.
What Resources Support Your Learning

Participants receive a variety of readings drawn from Bridging
Cultures publications and other sources. Participants can also
purchase Bridging Cultures publications at a 20% discount.

What the Research Says

There is no universally correct approach to child-rearing and
schooling, yet many of our institutions proceed as if that is the
case. Students benefit when home-culture practices are understood and
when families and teachers work together.

What Participants Report

"I know I've probably read things that had that title [multicultural
education], and I had a really superficial understanding of what they
meant. But it did not alter my way of being in the classroom — and
this did — I do what I do because of my culture. And this is the first
time that I really had an understanding of that."

Cost

The basic cost for a one-day institute is $2,500 at your site.
Institutes can also be arranged at WestEd's San Francisco or Oakland
offices for a minimum of 25 participants.

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From: Noelle Caskey <ncaskey at wested.org>
To:     Anselmo Villanueva <anselmo.villanueva at gmail.com>
Date:  Jun 29, 2007 8:08 PM

Dear Anselmo,

Thank you so much for your interest in Bridging Cultures.  The $2500 fee
is not for each person; it is for the whole one day workshop.  Travel
expenses are additional.  And yes, I am the person who does the
workshop, and I do travel wherever people are interested in having a
session.  Because this session is very interactive, it works best with
50 or fewer participants.  We could certainly discuss the number of
participants, but I do want people to have a high quality experience and
leave with some new ideas that will change their way of thinking.

If you would like to talk further with me about Bridging Cultures,
please feel free to give me a call at 415 615-3178.  I travel
frequently, but will be in my office frequently in the next couple of
weeks and would be delighted to hear from.

Please have a great weekend and a wonderful holiday, and thanks again
for your interest in Bridging Cultures.

Noelle Caskey
Senior Research Associate
WestEd
730 Harrison Street
San Francisco, CA 94107