Thank you

This course has allowed me to confront my biases head in and allowed me better be more inclusive and understanding of ideas that used to limit my interaction with other communities. I am excited to be a better educator that is more conscious in my lessons and teachings that are true representations of what I want my kids to take away into adulthood.

I have a goal that teachers have more trainings and education that allow for more perspctive on inclusion and diversity inaide the classroom.

Thank you to all my colleagues for sharing experiences and ideas that contributed to my growth and progress as a teacher and an individual.

Diversity

To me, Diversity means a lot of things ranging from inclusivity to transparency. However, a clear reflection of diversity and what I believe ia represented in my daily life through my connections, networks, and friendships. As an educator, I have had the privledge to be surrounded by people thatrepresent a new culture unlike mine. Through these experiences, I have grown to appreciate and accept all of humanity and our diverse members despite mass media and dominant culture and stereotypes. The photo I created is a representation of the many souls I have met these past few years who have turned from colleagues to friends to family

Anti-Bias Education

Recently, my classroom gained a new student-an immigrant from Sierra Leon. This student has a thick accent, dark, beautiful skin, and hair that coils upward in strong circular waves. The student also has yellow-ish eyes due to the high-concetration of melanin in their scelera (I had to research that).

One of my students, who is a great kid and means well, pointed out his yellow eyes and hair and said "Your hair should be straight like mine and your eyes are not blue; its thr wrong color". Without me knowing this little boy or not having taking this course, I would think the worst of his parents and up bringing and assume his parents don't do enough to expose him to different cultures and experiences and they feed him with ideas of "white is right" mentality. However, through this course and my progression as an educator, I took this as a teachable moment and explained to my student that 1) they were made PERFECT exactly as they are and are beautiful in their own way and 2) Not everyone is going to look the same and thats ok. Our new friend has hair similar to your teacher and you like my hair, you can like his too.

This allowed the new student to feel positive about himself while also associating postive similarities and traits with his teacher. This, also, allowed my other student to learn power is sharing differences while appreciating other peoples individual unique qualities as a postive thing.