Community and Multicultural Resources - Pat Neff MS

Group members: Blas Treviño, Stephanie López, and Alejandra Osejo

Located at 5227 Evers Rd, and named after named after former Governor Pat Morris Neff Pat Neff MS is one block inside the I-410 Loop. Neff MS is one of the 15 Northside Independent School District's middle schools.

According to data provided by The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for the school year 2004-2005, Snoopschool.com reported Pat Neff's enrollment by ethnicity for those years. The results showed that, from the total of 997 students, 2 students were American Indian, 18 were Asian, 72 were Black, 693 Hispanic, and 212 where White.

Resources around Pat Neff MS resemble the ethic population of the school. A wide variety of multicultural resources are available to the community, especially for the Hispanic population.

We include in this report just some of the many resources available for the community around Pat Neff. We include as well some multicultural resources that will be of much help to either parents and educators to address the challenging cultural diversity in our schools and society.


COMMUNITY RESOURCES

Adult & Community Education
Northside Learning Center-Portable 8B
6632 Bandera, San Antonio, TX 78238
NISD extends its services to adults, through programs that help for non-English speakers become sufficient in speaking, writing, and reading English. ACE offers classes per semester that cost 70.00 to 90.00 dollars.


Business and Industry Customized Training
6632 Bandera Road
San Antonio, TX 78238
Phone: (210) 397-8100 ask for Anna Lisa Garcia
These training classes fulfill the specific training and educational needs of employers with individually-designed training programs taught at the employer’s place of business or in the Northside classrooms. ACE coordinates with more than 20 employers a year to set up literacy, vocational, and related training programs for their workers.


ESL Education at NISD
5651 Grissom Road, San Antonio, TX 78238
Phone: (210) 397-3500
http://www.nisd.net/bilingualesl/
Northside's Bilingual/ESL Department proudly serves a diverse part of the student population. The ESL department conducts testing to identify these students so that they may receive the most appropriate services to meet their educational needs. Each year, hundreds of students from different parts of the world come through the doors and go through the testing process for proper educational placement. The ESL department provides enriched programs in Bilingual Education, Dual Language, English as a Second Language (ESL) at the elementary level, and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) at the Middle and High School level.


Forest Hills Public Library
5245 Ingram Road, San Antonio, TX 78228
Phone: (210) 431-2544
http://www.ci.sat.tx.us/library/branch/foresthills.asp
A branch of the San Antonio Public Library, Forest Hill is open the seven days of the week. It has a wide variety of resources including books, audio books, videos, DVDs, magazines, and music CDs. It also holds several cultural events and events for children.
The catalogue can be accessed through the Library's web site and if a certain article is not in stock, it will be send to the library from other branches where the article is available.


Gregorio Exparza Accelerated Elementary School
5700 Hemphill
San Antonio, TX 78228
Phone: (210) 397-1850
Teachers in this school possess high levels of proficiency and literacy skills in the target language. bilingual instructional assistants and support staff serve as language role models.
dual language instruction differs from traditional bilingual education in its philosophy. Most bilingual programs aim for students to be exited from mainly Spanish instruction as soon as they become proficient in English. The objective of dual language instruction is for the student to become proficient in both Spanish and English. "I think it's an excellent program," states teacher Carla Rocha. "The students who speak Spanish benefit from receiving instruction in their native language, while the English speakers are quickly learning Spanish and still maintaining their English."


Islamic Center of San Antonio
8638 Fairhaven San Antonio, TX 78229
Phone: (210) 614-0989
Fax: (210) 614-2281
http://www.icsaonline.org/
The mosque is open for prayers daily. It offers other services such as classes on both English and Arabic languages on Islamic law to its 700 regular members as well as to the non-Muslim community. The expansion project will soon add to the facilities a Multipurpose Hall for different events and activities. It will be used as a community and youth center; it will have school classrooms, a gymnasium, and extra space for prayers.


Little India Grocery
5727 Evers Road, San Antonio, TX 78238
Phone: (210) 521-4778
Little India Grocery is a supermarket whose atmosphere resembles that of India. A great variety of Indian food and spices is for sale along with Indian movies, music, and fine Indian-fashion dresses, jewelry, and other garments.


Northside Education Foundation
6632 Bandera Road, Building A, San Antonio, TX 78238
Phone: (210) 397-8599, Fax: (210) 706-8846
http://www.nisd.net/foundation/homepage.htm
An independent non-profit corporation promoting quality education in the Northside Independent School District located in San Antonio, Texas. The Foundation's mission is to foster community involvement in innovative educational programs by generating and disbursing funds and other resources to provide enrichment for Northside students. Schools and their communities can apply for grants to be disbursed to their campus in order to excel in education.


Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
Pat Neff Middle School
5227 Evers Road, San Antonio, TX 78238
Pat Neff 6
Phone: (210)397-4100, Fax: (210) 706-7235
http://www.nisd.net/neff/pta.htm
PTA parents are a special group of parents that advocate for our children. The parents promote wellness and education in their community. All PTA Meetings are held in Neff Cafeteria from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. The next PTA meeting will be on December 11, 2007 at 6:00 p.m.


Pat Neff Middle School Library
5227 Evers Road , San Antonio, TX 78238
Phone: (210) 397-4100
https://nisd.schoolnet.com/outreach/pnms/library/
The library offers over 14,000 books, a wide selection of audiovisual materials and print periodicals. The students have access to 23 networked computers, 2 scanners, and several online databases. Students can check out books and have various resources available to them to expand their knowledge in their school subjects as well as their own interests.


Regional Day School Program for the Deaf (RDSPD)
5900 Evers Road, San Antonio, TX 78238
Phone: (210) 706-8500
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/deaf/
NISD Regional Day School Program for the Deaf coordinates the services that the Texas Education Agency's Division of Services for the Deaf offers to students who are deaf or hard of hearing. The services of this program may extend to families, service providers, and educational systems and institutions. The program also provides a certificate that verifies hearing loss for applicants for tuition waiver at state supported post-secondary schools in Texas.


School Age Parenting
6632 Bandera Road, San Antonio, TX 78238
Phone: (210) 397-8111, 522-811
http://www.nisd.net/compensatory/SAP/index.htm
The Northside ISD School Age Parenting Program is a drop out recovery and prevention program that provides support services to teen parents to enable them to stay in school and obtain their high school diploma successfully. Other services that the center provides are parenting enriching classes, assistance in obtaining scholarships, and academic instruction to teen moms during their post partum period, in which students attend to classes with their babies twice a week from 9 AM to 12 PM.


Spanish, English and Foreign Languages for America Inc.
5805 Callaghan Road, Suite 304
San Antonio, TX 78228
Phone: (210) 520-5518
http://www.spanishenglishedu.com
Spanish, English and Foreign Languages (SEFLA) is a language school responding to the U.S. population increase toward the need for multilingualism. SEFLA opens its doors to serve the community in San Antonio, collaborating with the U.S. Government in its efforts to reinforce education and excellence for all citizens. Open from Monday through Saturday, it offers training in different languages such as English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic, and many more.


Summer Youth Programs: NISD Sponsored
6632 Bandera Road
San Antonio, TX 78238
Phone: (210) 397-8011
This program combines academics and recreation for elementary and middle school youth and is operational on four to six Northside campuses during the month of June. The "day camp" setting gives students a chance to build on and go beyond learning from the regular school year in their specific area of interest. Classes include science, music, writing, computers, language, math, drama, and sports.


VITA Goodwill Store
3401 Fredericksburg r Road, San Antonio, TX 78201
Phone: (210) 924-8581
http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=107626,00.html
The VITA Program offers free tax help to low- to moderate-income (generally, $39,000 and below) people who cannot prepare their own tax returns. Certified volunteers sponsored by various organizations receive training to help prepare basic tax returns in communities across the country. VITA sites are generally located at community and neighborhood centers, libraries, schools, shopping malls, and other convenient locations. Most locations also offer free electronic filing. To locate the nearest VITA site, call 1-800-829-1040.




MULTICULTURAL RESOURCES

Achievement Trap
Wyner, J. S. (2006). “Achievement trap: How America is failing millions of high achieving
students from lower-income families.” Retrieved November 5, 2007, from http://www.civicenterprises.net/pdfs/jkc.pdf

The study analyzes national data to track the school performance of about 3.4 million K-12 children who come from households with incomes below the national median but score in the top quartile on nationally normed tests. It finds that they start school with weaker academic skills and are less likely to flourish over the years in school than their peers from better-off families. The report says that such children enter school with a disadvantage that shows up in their national test scores. More than 70 percent of 1st graders who score in the top quartile are from higher-income families, and fewer than three in 10 are from lower-income families.


Alameda National Center for Latino Arts and Culture
101 South Santa Rosa, San Antonio, TX 78207
Phone: (210)299-4300, Fax: (210) 299-4340
http://www.thealameda.org/

The mission of The Alameda is to create a cultural zone for the arts, economic development, education and entertainment in downtown San Antonio that reflects San Antonio's diverse heritage, with an emphasis on Latino arts and culture. For instance, on November 2, the center organized a public altar (after the Hispanic tradition for honoring the death) for all of our heroes: family, friends, and veterans. Some of the future events include the film screening and discussion on Celia Cruz on November 17, and a Salsa concert on December 15.


Con Respeto
Valdes, G. (1996). Con Respeto: Bridging the Distance between Culturally Diverse Families and
Schools: An Ethnographic Portrait. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
In Con Respeto, ethnographer Guadalupe Valdes gives a clear understanding of the Mexican culture. This book provides insight from eight immigrant families about their values and morals and how deep they really run. There is an explanation to why some Mexican families seem as if they do not value education. It also provides clear views of what these families consider failure and success and why they do it.

Creatively Teaching Multicultural Art
Bartel, M. (n.d.). “Creatively teaching multicultural art.” The International Education Daily.
Retrieved November 2007 from, http://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/multiculturalart.html
In his essay, Marvin Bartel questions himself how to I teach art in a way that makes the students take pride in their own culture while gaining respect and appreciation for the art and customs of other cultures. This site contains a story of how he learned to bring out the pride in his own culture using art expressions of different cultures. Art of different cultures is included so as to not leave out any one. The purpose is to develop critical thinking and creativity while making cultural and historical connections.


Online Journals and Magazines
Gorski, P.C. (2006). Online Journals and Magazines. EdChange Multicultural Pavilion
Retrieved November 2007 from, http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/sites/journals.html

Founded and still maintained by Paul C. Gorski, PhD, EdChange.org offers many links to online journals and magazines intended to develop multicultural awareness. Teachers, children, and
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teens may found it easier to read a fun online magazine with lots of illustrations and interesting and up to date facts than just letters in a piece of paper. Teachers may use these resources to illustrate themselves with multicultural issues and to help their students gain multicultural insights.


Exploring Culture: Exercises, Stories, and Synthetic Cultures
Hofstede, G. J. (2002). Exploring Culture: Exercises, Stories, and Synthetic Cultures. Maine:
Intercultural Press.

This book for educators contains exercises, dialogues, stories, and simulations that put Geert Hofstede's five dimensions of culture into action.
The activities follow the classic culture learning sequence of awareness, knowledge, and skills. The book also contains ample background information on society and culture.


From My People: 400 Years of African American Folklore
Cumber Dance, D. ed. (2002). From My People: 400 Years of African American Folklore. New
York: W. W. Norton & Company.

This anthology book promotes a better understanding of African American culture. It contains a variety of rumors, riddles, proverbs, recipes, song lyrics, sermons, photos, art objects, stories, and folk songs of African-American folklore and culture.


Increasing the School Involvement of Hispanic Parents
Inger, M. (1992). Apples for the Teacher.com. “Increasing the school involvement of Hispanic
parents.” Retrieved November 4, 2007 from: http://www.apples4theteacher.com. Path: Articles; Bilingual Education.

This article gives information about getting Hispanic parents more involved in their children's education. Some parents may be afraid to get involved because they might have had a negative
Pat Neff 12
experience in school themselves. The article gives examples of how to pull parents into the education process of their children. Morton Inger explains how schools and Hispanics are separated by social barriers and recommends strategies to improve Hispanic parent involvement in their children's education.


Introducing Mexico
(1991). Introducing Mexico. [Motion Picture]. Educational Video Network, Inc.

This video program is part of the immense catalogue of the Educational Video Network from Texas. The video focuses on both the geography of Mexico and the people who live there. The program comes with study guide questions and answers.


Multicultural Art Activities Kit: Ready-to-Use Lessons and Projects with 194 Drawings, Photos, and Color Prints
Bloom, D. (1994). Multicultural art activities kit: ready-to-use lessons and projects with 194
drawings, photos, and color prints. West Nyack, N.Y.: Center for Applied Research in Education.

This multicultural art book contains lots of art expressions from all over the world in the form of ready-to-use lessons and projects with 194 drawings, photos, and color prints. It includes the history of the particular art work, step-by-step instructions, and follow-up review questions for the students.


Multicultural Book Review
Mele, J. (1996). Multicultural Book Review. Retrieved November 2007 from,
http://www.isomedia.com/homes/jmele/homepage.html

This web site is intended for K-12 educators to place their reviews of books on multicultural topics. The books are individually graded by educators and then the site manager gives the book one average score. This site is not related to the print magazine Multicultural Book Review.


Multicultural Children’s Literature in the Elementary Classroom
Kidsource OnLine, Inc. (2007). Multicultural Children’s Literature in the Elementary
Classroom. Retrieved November 2007, from http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content5/multi.cult.lit.class.html

Children of diverse cultures can use this web site to find literature that relates to their lives. Here is a site that can help the teachers of these classrooms bring out the children’s individual culture. There are selections for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and K-12; topics such as recreation, health, and parenting are included.


Multicultural, Cross-cultural and Intercultural Games and Activities
The Wilderdom Store: Gear for Adventurous Learning. (2006). Multicultural, Cross-cultural &
Intercultural Games & Activities. Retrieved November 2007, from http://wilderdom.com/games/MulticulturalExperientialActivities.html

On this web site many games and brain teasers are available for educators to use in their classrooms. These games are fun yet relevant to multiculturalism. The site also has links to other sites’ multicultural activities.


Multicultural Heroes
Walbridge, M. (n.d.) Multicultural Heroes. Retrieved November 2007 from, http://multiculturalheroes.com/

This web site gives teachers multiples resources that can be used as role models in their classroom curriculum. Biographies of important Hispanic-American, African-American, Asian-American, and Native-American heroes in the fields of history, literature, math, and sciences can be obtained and then implemented in to the class room. The web sites listed can be used independently or in conjuncture with the biographical research activities described in the teacher’s guide of both the Latino and the African American 'Heroes of the Civil War Set' by Mike Walbridge.


Multicultural lesson plans
Sass, E. J. (2007). Multicultural Lesson Plans. Retrieved November 2007 from,
http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/edmulticult.htm
Hundreds of lesson plans and resources can be obtained by going to this web site. For teachers who want to bring out the importance of ones identity this could be a perfect place to begin. Just scroll down the page and select the topic of your choice from the alphabetic list. Topics include but are not limited to world religions, culture languages, and important issues such as tolerance, and traditional roles. Among hundreds of resources, here is a lesson plan for Sandra Cisneros’ The House of Mango Street book.


Multicultural Literature Resources
Hiden Ramsey Library. (2004) Multicultural Literature Resources. Retrieved November 2007
from, http://bullpup.lib.unca.edu/library/rr/multcultlit.html

This web site contains multicultural literature for students and young adults. Also, there are links for other web sites with more multicultural literature.


Multicultural Resources
TeachersFirst.com. (2006). Multicultural Resources. Network for Instructional TV, Inc.
Retrieved November 2007 from, http://www.teachersfirst.com/multicult.htm

This web page lists resources from a variety of disciplines that are suitable for using in multicultural settings. While some of these resources are listed under Teachers First’s academic headings, the web site has grouped them here for added convenience in finding multicultural information and lessons. This page also contains a number of sites specifically dedicated to multicultural resources and teaching strategies.


Multicultural Teaching: A Handbook of Activities, Information, and Resources
Tiedt, P. L. Tiedt, Tiedt, I. M. (2005). Multicultural teaching: a handbook of activities,
information, and resources. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
This book explains how to bring multicultural education to the classroom. It explains different social activities in which culture is embedded, as well as many other subjects related to multicultural education. It suggests several activities to individualize multicultural instruction as much as possible.


National Education Association (NEA)
National Education Association. (2006). NEA State Affiliates Online. Retrieved November 4,
2007 from http://www.nea.org/aboutnea/affiliates.html

NEA is a volunteer-based organization supported by a network of staff at the local, state, and national levels. At the local level, more than 14,000 NEA local affiliate organizations are active in a variety of activities as determined by the local members. These may range from raising funds for scholarship programs to conducting professional workshops on issues that affect faculty and school support staff to bargaining contracts for school district employees. NEA also provides the Minority Community Outreach program which regardless of race or ethnicity every child receives the education he or she deserves.


National Latino Children's Institute (NLCI)
1115 South St. Mary's St. San Antonio, TX 78210
Phone: (210) 228-9997
http://www.nlci.org
All across the nation, young Latinos are finding their voices and speaking out what is important to them and their community. Cultural events led by youth, families, and community organizations open the doors to a new understanding and inclusion of everyone. The NLCI focuses on policies, programs, and community initiatives that lead to the full and healthy development of Latino children.


Raising Nuestros Niños
Rodriguez, G. G. (1999). Raising Nuestros Niños: Bringing Up Latino Children in a Bicultural
World. New York, NY: Fireside.
This book provides Latino parents as well as educators with ways to preserve their culture as they grow up in a homogeneous world. It provides insight on various activities that children from infancy to age 12 can do to help them understand, love, and preserve their familial and cultural heritage. The activities include Spanish songs, rhymes, recipes, and celebrations.

Religious Diversity in America
(2002). Religious diversity in America. [Motion Picture]. Educational Video Network, Inc.
This video program is part of the immense catalogue of the Educational Video Network from Texas. The video focuses in America's variety of cultures that are defined by many different
Pat Neff 17
religions such as Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. The program comes with study guide questions and answers.


School Snoop
SchoolSnoop. (2005). School details by state / county. Retrieved November 2007, from
http://www.schoolsnoop.com/
This web site presents school details by state and county such as enrollment by ethnicity and gender. The information provided by the web site represents the results of school surveys for the 2004-2005 school year made by the National Center for Education Statistics.


Turning Winds/Troubled Teens
Turning Winds. (2007). Division of Family Solutions Network, Inc. Retrieved November 2007,
from http://www.turningwinds.com/index.htm
Turning Winds Academic Institute is an industry leading therapeutic private boarding school for troubled teens in Montana. It provides a teen help program for parents of troubled teens. The web site provides useful information, resources, and links to many other resources for troubled teens and their families.


United Nations Kids Bookshop
United Nations Bookshop. (2006). Kids. Retrieved November 2007, from
https://unp.un.org/bookshop/browse.aspx?sid=2&oid=0
The Kids section of the United Nations online bookshop offers a variety of multicultural resources (videos, books, flash cards, games, and more) focused on understanding diversity, fighting hate among youngsters, promoting values and good manners, environmental sustainability, and many more.