What Am I Willing To Do To Educate All Children?

 

As teachers, our job is to educate our students, but as individuals we have to be willing to educate all of our students no matter their race, beliefs, or gender. I want my students to feel welcomed in my classroom and not feel like they do not belong or are insignificant. In one of the videos I watched in this week’s module, the speaker presented a rap that a student had created and the student speaks about sitting in the back of the class waiting to escape, and that even when he does want to raise his hand in class, he knows it will go unseen. I believe that should never be case, a student should not want to raise their but shy away because the teacher does not acknowledge their hand. In order to help every student feel recognized, I will try and call on different students all the time and not call on the same hands. I will also occasionally call on students who do not have their hands raised because I know from personal experience that sometimes you have the right answer, but you do not feel confident enough to share it with the class. I also know that I may run into the problem of time and calling on each raised hand so my solution is to vocally acknowledge and thank them for raising their hands and ask if they have anything important to add before we move on since we have already answered the question. I will also mimic students’ own personal and cultural learning tools. In order to do this, I need to build a connection with each of my student so I can give them the kind of education they deserve. To make connections with my students, I can have my students create an “All About Me,” poster that will include insight on their home life and who they are and then be presented to the class. I could also send an iPad home each week with a different student and they will be tasked with recording a weekend in their life. By recording their weekend I can get a sense of their family structure and what they may deal with outside of school. I will also simply talk to my students and let them know I care for them and only want what is best for them. If the child feel cared for, they will feel safe and want to participate in the classroom. Another way of educating all my students is using parent involvement. Parent involvement helps me as the teacher get to know they family better and also builds a teacher-parent support system. Most importantly, classrooms should not be a place where discrimination occurs, every child deserves to be educated, and educated correctly based off each individual.

Until our next post readers,

 Holly.