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My school name connects to the course content because it advocates for every child in every culture. I believe that every child has a right to quality education despite where they live, what they look like, or what they believe in.

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Our mission at Every Culture Every Child is to ensure that every child that works through our doors, despite what they look like, what they believe in, or what their culture is at large, is given a quality multicultural education, to understand that they are worth just as much as their counterparts, and to teach them to stand up against intolerance.

This mission statement outlines the core values and beliefs of our school.

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The key elements of our curriculum consists of culturally relevant assignments and activities in each class, incorporating materials that reflect the world's diversity, consistently incorporating and respecting minority perspectives, developing friendships across cultures, and teaching understanding and respect for varying cultures. Our focus would be integrated into all subject areas by introducing activities and assignments that are culturally relevant.

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Varied repertoire of practices: Our educators pride themselves in offering a wide variety of teaching practices to cater to the learning needs of their students. They are versed in offering cooperative learning, direct instruction, whole group discussion, independent study, visualization, inquiry-based instruction, differentiation, and interdisciplinary instruction (Heather, 2018).

Scaffolding and structured opportunities based on student readiness:
Here at Every Culture Every Child we make use of a few scaffolding techniques to ensure every student understands what he or she is expected to do and how to do it. The first strategy we use is called the fish bowl. This where a small group in the center is circled by the rest of the class; the group in the middle, or fishbowl, engages in an activity, modeling how it is done for the larger group (Alber, 2011). The second strategy we use is tapping into prior knowledge. Educators ask students to share their own experiences, hunches, and ideas about the content or concept of study and have them relate and connect it to their own lives (Alber, 2011).  The third strategy we use is giving time to talk where we structure scheduled talk times to allow our students to talk out the lesson with one another and the instructor (Alber, 2011). The fourth strategy we use is pre-teaching vocabulary. In this technique we introduce new vocabulary to students in photos or in context with things they know and are interested in (Alber, 2011). We also give time for small-group and whole-group discussions about the new words. The fifth strategy we use is using visual aids such as graphic organizers, pictures, and charts (Alber, 2011). The final strategy we use is pausing, asking questions, pausing, and reviewing during all lessons (Alber, 2011). We want to ensure that every child understands the lesson clearly.

Culturally Relevant Practices:
This is a large focus of ours at Every Culture Every Child as we teach as multicultural educators. We ensure that we incorporate assignments and activities that are culturally relevant, use materials that celebrate the world's diversity, and introduce and respect minority perspectives (Miller, 2002).

Adaptations for Diverse Learners:
Our teachers plan for diverse learners by offering differentiation in their instruction. We differentiate content by using various delivery formats such as video, readings, lectures, or audio (McCarthy, 2014). Content may be chunked, shared through graphic organizers, or addressed through jigsaw groups (McCarthy, 2014). Students have the opportunity to choose their content focus based on their interests (McCarthy, 2014). We differentiate processing by allowing students time to reflect and digest what they just learned through thirty minute processing experiences such as journaling and partner talk (McCarthy, 2014). We also differentiate the product of lessons by allowing students to propose their own designs and pick their formats (McCarthy, 2014).

Behavioral Expectations:
All students at Every Culture Every Child are expected to adhere to a strict set of behavioral expectations. These expectations are respecting others, standing up against intolerance, practicing empathy and cooperation, and not participating in bullying tactics. Discrimination is strictly prohibited.

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With an ever-advancing technological world, our school follows the Digital Literacy and Computer Science frameworks. The guiding principles are learning, teaching, equity, literacy across the content areas, assessment, planning and support (MA DOE, 2016). Our students learn about technology through practicing using data collection tools and databases and using Microsoft Office programs such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. We teach students about technology by incorporating computers and tablets into their lessons and assignments. For example, they may use a tablet to access an interactive website that aids them in learning fractions. We also teach students how to find scholarly articles with technology by showing them how to use databases. Whenever we can make use of technology to help our students, we do. Every student at our school is equipped with a Google Chromebook and an iPad in order to assist them with their studies. These are free of cost to the student to ensure that every child is given the same quality tools as the next. We include literacy across the content areas by ensuring that our teachers present data in a variety of media and help students acquire comprehension skills and strategies. At the beginning and end of each semester we provide the students with an assessment in order to discover where students are in regards to digital literacy and to understand how we can help them improve their technological skills. From K-12, Every Culture Every Child ensures that our students are on track with the digital literacy and computer science frameworks.

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At Every Culture Every Child we value connecting school and home and encourage parents to take part of their child's education. Our teachers stay connected with parents through an email, phone, and scheduled meetings basis (Waterford, 2018). We invite parents that have a background pertaining to a specific lesson that students are learning about to come in and share their knowledge and experience (Miller, 2002, 346). For example, if students are studying the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, a teacher may invite persons who took part of that movement (Miller, 2002, 346). Educators also may invite Muslim community members to talk about Ramadan, or a deaf parent to teach the class signing (Miller, 2002, 346). Tying our community together is important and teaches our students to appreciate every aspect of their families and communities at large.

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Our unique design at Every Culture Every Child serves our community in the best way possible by ensuring that multicultural education is implemented into our curriculum and sets our students up for success in the larger world they will enter once they leave school. Our community consists of many varying cultures and we want to honor, respect, and explore those cultures and create a deep appreciation for those cultures among our student body and community. Our students will have opportunities to help several different areas of our community that focus on assisting every culture around them. For example, our students will have the opportunity to not only volunteer at churches but mosques and synagogues as well to help with events. Our school will also host events that celebrate varying cultures by featuring activities that are culturally relevant. By hosting these events and inviting members of varying cultures to participate we are creating a space for our community to come together and learn and appreciate one another for who they are.

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I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the EDU130 course and I feel that I have grown exponentially and learned a vast amount about education. This was my first education course and I was anticipating it to be boring but thankfully I was wrong. I also worried that the course would not be beneficial to my career path as a child psychologist but I was wrong there as well. Through the course materials and assignments I have learned how to be an effective educator, even as a psychologist, and have a better understanding of what children are going through at their schools and how I can assist them best. The observation was my favorite part of the course which surprised me as I thought I would not enjoy it. I learned so much in that one hour at the Fowler Road preschool and I intend to perform many more observations in order to expand my knowledge about children. I am optimistic about my future and am looking forward to working with children and helping them to the best of my ability.

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Alber, R. (2011). 6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber

Heather. (2018, February 28). 7 Effective Teaching Strategies for the Classroom. Quizalize. Retrieved from https://www.quizalize.com/blog/2018/02/23/teaching-strategies/

How Two-Way Communication Can Boost Parent Encouragement. (2018, November 8). Waterford. Retrieved from https://www.waterford.org/education/two-way-communication-parent-engagement/

Massachusetts Digital Literacy and Computer Science (DLCS) Curriculum Framework. (2016, June). Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Retrieved from http://www.lenoxps.org/morris/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/06/dlcs.pdf

McCarthy, J. (2014). 3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners: What Teachers Do. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-ways-to-plan-john-mccarthy

Miller, H. M. (2002). Becoming a multicultural teacher. The Reading Teacher, 55(4), 346-347. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.baypath.idm.oclc.org/docview/203275396/fulltextPDF/2107A377A40D4438PQ/1?accountid=6226