I talk to them like my parents have talked to me all my life. I stress the importance of education and going to college. I understand that it is important to share cultural experiences, using different backgrounds, values, and experiences that individual students and teachers bring to the classroom to expand our understanding of how our society works. My life experiences have always been positive. My mother is a teacher and my father is a historian. They have always provided me with culturally valid life experiences and exposed me to many different things. I keep this in mind daily in my classroom and when planning. When I plan field trips I think about the places and things I liked as an elementary school student and that I continue to like. I process these experiences with my students and there is always some type of assignment connected to the field trip. I provide students with lots of real word problems to solve and teach mini financial literacy lessons to help my students understand how important math is in everyday life as a citizen in our