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.

Homosexual and Early Childhood

As I venture further into this course, I am combating my biases and -isms more to a point where I am forcing myaelf to ask critical and complex questions about my beliefs and opinions.

In the subject if same-sex relationships and bias in the classroom, I definitely feel strongly about the issue. Having equal representation of the families from all backgrounds is crucial to the overall development of a child. Representation leads to the validity and transparency of multi-family dynamics and units.

However, I am not a fan of promoting same-sex literature or activties inside the classroom. While we can teach children to respect all people and embody tolerance, bringing in such a controversial issue into the classroom can be problematic and raise concern to some families. I would not promote literature that had a ability to raise questions or form connections parents are not ready or willibg to discuss with their child. Emphasizing that that there are families that rather be the ones to lead the converstion of something so controversial and not be in a classroom lesson/setting.

With that, learned behaviors that promote and instill tolerance and respect are implemented so similar consequences would occur if verbal language was aggressive, threathening, and/or harmful in anyway to the children. Using derogatory remakes that breed prejudiced and srereorype would be immediately no longer recognized but also deconstructed so they losr power

Ultimately, having equal representation of ALL families is important but soIis the respect FOR FAMILIES to lend hand to one another.

Thank You

Thank you to all my colleagues for a great semester. Through this course I was able to wnhance my communication skills and grow professionally as an effective twam leader and communicator. I intend to use these practices inside as well as outside the classroom to better interact and convey/share ideas with other individuals. It was great reading all your blogs and sharing experiences.

My goal is to reach as many young hearts and minds as possible and bring change into our world to be better than it is currently. I am a huge advocate for diversity and inclusion and believe all children shoukd be celebrated and loved and the classroom is the perfect place to do that. These past few weeks have given me opportunity to learn how to be a better team player and utilize my strengths while also understanding where I lack and how others have the ability to fill in those gaps if needed.

Saying Goodbye in a Group

Leaving well-established groups can be difficult and sometimes emotional. When everyone in the group collaborates as a team and shares the same vision, magic happens and thinga run smoothly and efficiently.

There was a group I was part of that was hard to keave during my time teaching in France. We were a team of labguage counselors/teachers from all parts of The United States with a director native to France. We all had a single goal and that was to give our very best to the children we encountered in our classrooms during their time with us. Every single member if the group felt valued and felt their strengths were properly utilized in different arenas whether it be planning activities or creating daily lesson plans. Eventually, friendships formed as well and we would celebrate by taking weekend vacations to nearby cities in southern France to decompress from the crazy week.

When it was time to leave and go back to our respective states, tears were shed but not before we broke open a bottle of wine and danced the night away to celebrate a great spring season of teaching. Being part of quality groups builds professional and personal interpersonal skills that allow you the ability to communicate and interact in a clear and effective way. Sometimes its hard to adjourn from these groups because relationships, trust, and loyalty eventually are built in response to the bonds created.

Its been two years since my team and I worked together but we stay in contact via social media and make plans to try and see each other when we are in each others cities.

Being a better communicator

With me recently starting a new position as t a new company, my interactions with my new colleagues and peers have been great thus far. Everyone ia transparent, professional, and very personable in communicating with one another.

As I have continued this course, I have often reflected on my communication skills in my personal life and how I wish I knew then what I know now. In earlier posts of my blog, my child's father and ex-fiancee is iften referenced. He and I were engaged to be wed and unfortunately, we separated. Its been a rough few months of my breakup but I have been getting through. One thing I iwish he and I would have done was communicate more effectively and maybe it could have saved our relationship.

The 3 R's- Responsive, Reciprocal, and Respectful- were something we did not utilize in communicating and it wedged more distance between us. I would often give him tbe cold shoulder, yell and scream, or use vulgarities and he would either shut me out completely or lie. Neither one of us were really commited to communicating effectively because we subconsciously did not want to hear what the other was going to say from fear.

This course has taught me better forms of interacting with people while also teaching me how to use verbal and nonverbal cues to convey my message in a healthy way. My next relationship will definitely benefit from my enhanced communication efforts but I do sometimes dwell and reflect on how things would have been if we knew these skills then as opposed to now.