Presented by Dr. Amy Heineke, IDEA and Eduplanet21 presented a webinar that takes a strengths-based approach to consider how to teach students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds upon returning to school during the COVID pandemic. Deficit-based mindsets often unknowingly guide our daily practice with emergent bilinguals and immigrant-origin students. This tendency to focus on students’ gaps or deficiencies is heightened following the COVID pandemic and related distance learning. With this webinar, we discarded deficit-based viewpoints to consider students’ experiences during the pandemic as resources for learning. We explored potential sources of background knowledge from home, community, and school and consider how to prioritize these student assets in curricular design to springboard their learning and achievement.