As teachers, we need to be so aware of our students and their individual social, cultural, learning, and personal identities.  It can be very difficult to manage a classroom and meet all the needs of such complex learners.  It can also be very difficult for children with all of these varying influences to see where they “fit in”.  Children are constantly “constructing” their own learning based upon their experiences and backgrounds.  Undoubtedly, that may look very different from child to child.  How, do we as educators, make sense of all this and bring our students together into a community of learners, where they feel safe, challenged, and willing to take risks for the pursuit of learning?  It can seem like a tremendous undertaking for one teacher.  I think it all hinges on balance…just as in life.  There will be times when your lessons appeal to your kinesthetic learners, other times your auditory learners, and still other times your more abstract thinkers.  Some lessons may be culturally diverse while others teach to the mainstream population.  Group work versus individual work, centers versus teacher directed, it is not a one-size-fits-all curriculum and teaching methodology!  It sounds very cliche’, but I still believe that it is our responsibility to prepare our students to be contributing members of today’s society.  Deeply rooted in that is the ability to be able to speak, read, and write in English.  I am not suggesting that we extinguish all other cultures and languages!  We have to achieve “balance”.  We need to continue to celebrate our differences and more importantly focus on what we have in common.  “Well balanced”, successful children can reap the benefits of strong cultural, familial, religious, and learning communities.  It takes a whole village to raise a child…