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Friday, April 13, 2012

Register Now For "Celebrating The Beauty Of Diversity" Conference Saturday, May 5

Prince Street Elementary School will host a conference on “Celebrating the Beauty of Diversity” on Saturday, May 5, for families and educators in the community. The Wicomico County Board of Education and Sister Cities of Salisbury Wicomico County are co-sponsoring this conference, with funding provided by the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore. This event is part of WCBOE’s continuing efforts to promote high student achievement and to close the achievement gap.

The goals of the conference are to discuss issues relating to multiculturalism/diversity and to help improve the educational experiences for English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). All families and educators are invited to attend. Participants must be preregistered for this conference. Registration fee of $5 (nonrefundable) includes lunch. Space is limited and preregistration is required.

The conference will begin at 9 a.m. with a performance by students who attend Prince Street Elementary School. Consecutive breakout sessions will follow including “Embracing and Implementing Cultural Diversity Strategies,” “Building and Sustaining Relationships,” “Making Cross Cultural Connections,” and “Culture in the Classroom vs. The Classroom of Culture.” Some of the workshop presenters include professors from Salisbury University (Dr. Anjali Pandey, Dr. Althea Pennerman, Dr. Joaquin Vila) and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore; classroom /ESOL Teachers of Wicomico County Public Schools; and Eduardo V. Gonzalez, Esq.

Lunch will be provided. Keynote speaker Nora Courtland, Vice President of the Mid Atlantic Equity Consortium and Senior Educational Equity Specialist, will speak during the luncheon. The Mid Atlantic Equity Consortium promotes academic rigor for students and supports educational opportunities to help ensure all students have equal access to a quality education. The conference will conclude at 2 p.m.

For more information and/or registration forms, please contact Dr. Judylynn Mitchell, jmitchel@wcboe.org, or Dr. George Whitehead, giwhitehead@salisbury.edu. The registration form is also posted at www.wcboe.org, under Highlights.

Please make checks payable to WCBOE and write “Diversity Conference” in the memo line. Checks should be mailed to Wicomico County Board of Education, c/o Dr. Judylynn Mitchell, PO Box 1538, Salisbury MD 21802.

4 comments:

lmclain said...

I don't wnat to freak these highly educated people out with the TRUTH, but high achievment and the "achievement gap" has absolutely NOTHING to do with "diversity". All the PhD's and "celebrations" in the world won't change that. Hold students accountable for studying, doing homework, and paying attention in class. Make parents understand that THEY have some responsibility for how their children behave and interact in school and it's NOT the teacher's fault when Johnny doesn't come to class, or spends most of the class talking to his friends and never turns in homework. Quit spending time telling kids how "valuable" they are and "celebrating" their mere existence as an "achievement". Stop teaching to the dumbest kids in class (so they don't fail and skew the "diversity/achievement" results. Stop "mainstreaming" the stupidest kids so they can "feel good" about themselves (at the learning expense of the kids who CAN and WILL learn). If your kid is so stupid or disruptive to the class that he needs two teachers aides to read to him and control his behavior, the he DOES NOT belong in an English class studying European literature. Yeah, I know --- it not politically correct to call some kids stupid (the facts are SO painful sometimes, huh?) , but it should also be very incorrect to promote Johnny through every grade even though he can't even write or spell his own name. School is for LEARNING. Not building your "self-esteem" or telling you how wonderful a person your are. Your PARENTS are in charge of THAT.

Anonymous said...

Diversity is anti-American and is destructive to any country.

Anonymous said...

Nothing will change the fact that thugs in hoods run the schools and this diversity crap is harming the only students that will amount to anything.

Anonymous said...

What a load of crap. These "educators" need to to be teaching reading and math and stop with this nonsense.