Tag: queer pedagogy

Final Teaching Reflection

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It’s the last day of school. I sent my students videos as a goodbye, making sure to place my bi pride flag and women of Wakanda poster in the background. Even though I won’t be going back to that school, I wanted to remind my students what I stand for–inside and outside of the classroom.

At this moment, I don’t have much positive to say about the education system. I’ve felt isolated and crushed over the past year as a teacher trying to connect my students to the land they live on, the places they come from, and what the world could be. I’ve been fighting a system of erasure at every step, and I’ve felt it. I believe in education as a tool now more than ever. But my hope in reform for education–as low as it was before–has all but vanished.

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Teaching Reflection: Week 7

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  1. Goals: Next year, I want to start a creative writing club. I want to start a LGBTQ+ club. I want to start a black liberation club. So, you know, realistic goals 🙃
  2. Black students & teachers: I made a list of missing/incomplete assignments for my second period class because as a group they need more attention than I can give them in 50 mins a day. I sent the lists home to their parents as well and got so much positive response from those parents! I ruined a few weekends and they’ll def be mad at me come Monday 🤣The class is also the one with the most Black students. I just keep thinking about all the research I read on how Black teachers tend to have higher expectations for Black students and how Black students tend to do better when they have teachers who look like them. I’m happy to be living that reality, even if it means they’ll be mad at me for a few days.

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Teaching Reflection: Week 6

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At the last minute I realized National Coming Out Day was Friday. So in the middle of Thursday night I was going round and round in my head about whether I would do something, the possible negative consequences, my responsibilities to do something, how I would even fit it into my classes, etc. Finally, I realized that recognizing these kinds of things in my class was kinda the whole reason I chose to teach and work in education, so like duh, I had to. Continue reading →

Teaching Reflection: Week 4

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    1. Questioning the binary/LGBTQ+ pedagogy: Pronouns. Like I’m eyeing the possibly queer (sexuality/gender) kids in my classes and the way they react when I blow up the binary. Also finding out kids who do not visually appear gender non-conforming may be/may be questioning their assigned gender. And all this from a short worksheet. No complex discussions, no debates. Just checkboxes for what pronouns they wanna go by.
    2. Current events: 6th graders watch the news. Not all of them but a lot of them. Children know what’s going on and they care.
    3. Current events & being culturally relevant: Some kids care about Antonio Brown. Some kids really want Fiji to win the rugby world cup, and are mad at how countries (USA, UK, France, etc.) can rig these types of competitions by stealing players away from their home countries. Some kids wanna rant about how the world is fucked by climate change. But you don’t know any of that if you don’t bring those topics into class, or allow for those discussions.
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