![\"Ohio](\"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Ohio-Humanities-Council.jpeg\")
<\/a>It will bring together teachers, neighborhood religious and cultural leaders, and humanities scholars to learn garden lore, religious traditions, food, verbal arts and music as practiced in an urban neighborhood \u2014 and to use these as the basis for lessons throughout the curriculum. <\/P><\/p>\nThere are still a few scholarships for teachers to attend the workshop thanks to the Ohio Humanities Council and the UT College of Graduate Studies. Interested teachers should contact Dr. Lynne Hamer at 419.283.8288 or lynne.hamer@utoledo.edu. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll urban neighborhoods are full of the \u2018humanities of everyday life,\u2019 and teachers can use these cultural treasures to create culturally relevant curriculum and pedagogy for teaching all subjects to neighborhood children,\u201d said Hamer, UT associate professor of foundations of education in the Judith Herb College of Education and lead teacher for the workshop.<\/p>\n
Sally Castillo, who teaches fourth grade at Old Orchard Elementary School and is an intern consultant for new teachers in Toledo Public Schools, is participating in the workshop along with several of the teachers she mentors. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am finding a larger disconnect than ever before between myself and the young students in Toledo Public Schools,\u201d Castillo said. \u201cI appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the urban neighborhoods in Toledo. It is clear that though I was born and raised in Toledo, there are many places and things that I am unfamiliar with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Castillo\u2019s situation as a teacher is the new normal. <\/p>\n
\u201cMost teachers don\u2019t teach in their own communities like they did prior to World War II,\u201d Hamer said. \u201cIt is well-researched that teachers\u2019 lack of familiarity with families and community leaders is detrimental to students\u2019 success in school \u2014 especially in urban schools. It\u2019s not the teachers\u2019 fault; it\u2019s just the historic situation we are in. We need to help teachers learn to get familiar.\u201d<\/p>\n
The workshop, which will meet in the Padua Center, 1416 Nebraska Ave., will include daily field trips to different sites within the Kwanzaa Park neighborhood of Toledo. There, teachers will interact with community leaders and parents before returning to the center to create ways to teach all subjects, including science and math, based in the cultural content they experience. <\/p>\n
\u201cToday we can have a better understanding of each other, and we have to understand each other\u2019s cultures and religious beliefs,\u201d said Oscar Shaheer, president of Kwanzaa Park Neighbors, the community organization hosting the workshop intended to increase that understanding.<\/p>\n
Joe Martin, longtime member of Paradise Baptist Church and lifelong artist, will help lead the workshop. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think teachers are always a positive influence on any project, especially projects that involve children and the community,\u201d Martin said. \u201cI learned a long time ago that children get one-third of their influence from teachers. The parents and others in the community give another third. The last third is from outsiders \u2014 peer pressure. It\u2019s very important that teachers and parents know each other and work together, and that parents let the teachers run the classroom instead of the children.\u201d <\/p>\n