Welcoming Families from Around the World

 

As an educator, it is important to make your students feel safe and comfortable. In this post, I am discussing ways to make a newly immigrated child and their family feel welcome. The family is from New Guinea. In preparation of their arrival, I want to make myself culturally responsive by:

1.      Validate the cultural identities of students and encourage them to learn more about each other’s cultural identities.

2.      Assist in fostering a positive relationship among the new students, the community, and their families.

3.      Acknowledge students’ differences as well as their similarities.

4.      Educate myself and my students about diversity and the world around them.

5.      Model respect, openness, and equality amongst current students and all cultures.

It is my hope that doing the five items listed above will help not only prepare myself for the arrival of the newly transplanted family but also help prepare my current students and our social/ learning community. I want to prepare my students and our S/L community to develop a personal investment in the care and wellbeing of the new student(s) and their family.