Teaching at the Intersections:
Honor and teach about your students' multiple identities
Quotes:
- "We need your help building this house, but your probably should listen to know what to do first." This quote from the "Tips for Being an Ally" video, I feel, encompassed everything we have talked about thus far in this class. Whether it's about power, privilege, or being an ally, our first job needs to be to listen. Listening allows us to educate ourselves, so we can then educate others. We, as the ally, need to understand our privilege, and how we can use that privilege to help others. "Before I can fight for the rights of others, I need to understand the right's I have that other's don't." I really enjoyed this video and, of course, got sucked into the rabbit hole and found this one along the way and really liked it too!
- "Teaching with intersectionality in mind means “seeing your students as more than just the thing that stands out in the classroom, as far as race or their gender, and understanding that there’s a long background to all those things.” This reminded me a lot of the color blindness vs. color insight. By saying that we are color blind, we are ignoring the background and history that each individual in our classroom has. We, as teachers, need to not only see them for who they are, but also for where they come from. We need to understand that maybe our student has to make dinner and do the dishes for her family every night and that is why she can't do her homework. I had a student in my class last year who, as a second grader, had the highest IQ in his house. He had different expectations for homework because we knew that when he went home he was raising his 2 year old brother. He made his family dinner, fed the baby, put him to bed, and then took care of his house. Looking at him, this was something you would never know, but we as educators need to see past what we just "see".
(picture from here) - “Adults are responsible for helping students to have a safe space to navigate how they identify themselves and what intersections they see of themselves.” This is so important. If our students learn anything from us, it should be that our classroom is a safe space where they can just be. Whether that means in our class is the only space they feel comfortable identifying their preferred pronoun, or it's where they can talk openly and freely about their struggles, than that is all we can hope for. No matter what a student is through, I would hope that they would know that they can come to me with anything. For this reason, I have made it my mission recently to get to know more of the older kids in our building. Since my school only has 35 students, it's not a hard task. We have been inviting them to our room for reading buddies, or lunch bunch visits, and just making our classroom space an open, welcoming area, for anyone who needs it, and I take pride in that.
As a nurse, I have always said my number one priority is to advocate for my patients, to give voice to those that can't speak for themselves. And now as a school nurse I feel the same way about my students. You captured what I feel our number one job is by saying "If our students learn anything from us, it should be that our classroom is a safe space where they can just be. Whether that means in our class is the only space they feel comfortable identifying their preferred pronoun, or it's where they can talk openly and freely about their struggles, than that is all we can hope for" and I believe if you create such a space your students will know they can come to you with anything. I love how you are making a point to get to know the older students in your school and showing them a welcoming safe place. Good job Taylor! We have learned a lot in this class, haven't we?
ReplyDeleteHi Taylor! I love when you said, "If our students learn anything from us, it should be that our classroom is a safe space where they can just be." I feel like this is so important and an excellent takeaway from this class. Awesome job!
ReplyDeleteTaylor, Great post! I really appreciated how you gave yourself a goal and mission for the future. It is so important that our students feel safe and respected. I also want to make an effort to get to know the other students in my school as well as the friends of my students. Creating a safe space, as you said, can be as simple as creating a room that your students feel comfortable in. This is a goal all teachers and schools should have! Nice!
ReplyDeleteTaylor, I agree with a lot of what you discussed in your blog regarding the three quotes. It is part of our job to make students feel safe and cared about, especially since no learning can occur if students do not feel safe and accepted. I agree that I want to make it even more of a point than I already do to get to know my kids and their full background and home life in order to better understand the intersectionality that they face.
ReplyDeleteHi Taylor,
ReplyDeleteAgain, I love the way you lay out your formal Sunday posts. The quotes that you picked were definitely highly interesting and ‘hit the nail on the head’ in regard to today’s discussion. I especially like the connection you made to the color blindness vs. color insight is one that is important and adds a lot to our discussion. Simply looking at color ONLY, or ignoring it completely, wipes away the idea of intersectionality. Thanks for sharing your ideas!
SO many of your (collective) blogs this week are about the action steps. Thanks for the way you are so systematic in thinking through your own next steps. ANd I love the trans ally video -- saving it for my undergrad class!!
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