The culturally competent teacher communicates...

The culturally competent teacher communicates in ways that demonstrate sensitivity to sociocultural and linguistic differences, using a variety of verbal and non-verbal communication techniques that encourage positive social interaction and support learning in their classroom.


Apparently Katrina was not feeling well today. After the short quiz, she had her head down on the desk. Mr. S. told her to pick her head up and if she did not feel good she could go down the the nurses office. So Katrina picked her head up and just sat there. She didnt take notes, she didnt do anything, just sat there. Half way through the class she gets up and goes to fill out a pass. Mr. S. says, "let me just call to make sure the nurse is down there". The nurse did not answer, so he said, " I'm sorry, shes not there, your going to have to sit back down for a little while". So Katrina huffs and puffs, and sits back down. She proceeded to put her head down a few minutes later, so Mr. S. said, "Katrina thats not acceptable in my classroom, if you really feel that sick go to the main office". So she picked her head up, and again, just sat there. With 5 minutes left of the class, Katrina gets up to right herself a pass to go to the main office, and Mr. S. said, "I'm sorry Katrina, theres only 5 minutes left of class, I can't let you go down there now." So she starts arguing with him, but walks back to her seat, takes out her cell phone, and starts texting, not trying to hide it at all. Mr. S. looks at her and says, "um excuse me, is that or is that not illegal in this school?" and she sat there texting still. He said, "Katrina, answer the question! Is that or is it not illegal to use cell phones in this school??" All she said was "okayyyy", with quite the attitude i might add. Yet, she still had the phone sitting in her hands... So Mr. S. started getting agitated because she was clearly just ignoring him. He said, "put it away right now, what are you not understanding about that?" And she went off on him. She starting yelling, "WELL I ASKED YOU THREE TIMES TO GO DOWN TO THE NURSES OFFICE AND YOU WOULDNT LET ME AND NOW YOUR YELLIN AT ME!" Mr. S. calmly said, "well I called down to the nurse and she wasnt there, I'm sorry." And he walked back up to the front of the room to proceed with the lesson for the day. She sat for about 30 morfe seconds, got up, and walked out. I was greatly bothered when she started yelling at him about asking him to go down 3 times and he "wouldnt let her". He was the one who offered for her to go downstairs and then to the main office. She was the one who decided not to go when he said she could. Then by the time she wanted to, it was too late. Not his fault she didnt want to listen. He clearly demonstrated sensitivity towards her and her feelings. But obviously, she continued to be disrespectful, and he would not tolerate it. Delpit spoke about the "culture of power" and how the misunderstanding of rules, would lead to undesirable behavior. However, it was very clear to Katrina what the rules were and what was expected of her in Mr. S's classroom, she just chose not to follow them.