CRS 1: Culturally Responsive Classroom Communities This training helps educators become more culturally responsive and improve their classroom engagement with students from diverse backgrounds, social groups and cultures through meaningful, caring adult relationships. Objectives: • Demonstrate cultural competency - “The will and skill to create authentic and effective relationships across differences”- in the classroom. • Use the cultural competency framework of awareness, understanding, skills and advocacy to increase effectiveness with students from diverse populations including, but not limited to: socio-economic, language, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender, religion, age and ability. • Apply research about resiliency as a primary factor in closing the opportunity/achievement gap to build relational strategies that focus on asset-based instruction and develop student resiliency.