My beliefs in what being not only a good but effective teacher can be broken down into three main categories: diversity, student health, and student choice. These three categories help establish rapport, norms, and a trust between not only teacher and student, but also between students in the classroom. My standings regarding each category are written below.
1. Diversity:
- Reading should show a range of race, gender, sexuality, and beliefs. Students deserve to see not only themselves in their reading, but their classmates as well.
- I believe, as a teacher, it is my responsibility to bring awareness to the variety of people in the world through my language (for example, eliminating the binary of “guys/girls”), class examples (avoiding only traditionally white names), and work provided (authors who are non-white, non-straight, and disabled).
- Student safety starts with the understanding that their identity is valid, and while teachers should never put a student on the spot through language that makes their identity a tool to the class, teachers should bring examples of multiple identities to their classroom to show this acceptance.
- Teachers should be willing to constantly learn new aspects of diversity and different identities so as not to silence any voice in the classroom.
- I believe it is the teacher’s job to learn about different identities but never the students responsibility to teach how to interact with their identity.
2. Student Health:
- I believe students deserve to not only have each of their personal needs met, but also to understand those needs in order to articulate what is wrong.
- Students deserve a space that is safe for growth, learning, and work. I believe the teacher is vital to setting an example of how differences in opinion and belief are expressed in a way that is both respectful and true.
- Equity in the classroom dictates not only changes made to wide groups of students with specific needs, but to individual student accommodation that is essential for a teacher to recognize and allow.
- I believe that it is more important for a student to know they are cared for than to worry about whether a student is taking advantage of a situation. A teacher can prevent such actions if they spend time building trust and care with their students.
- Students deserve to be heard when they speak, even if their thoughts and opinions seem difficult to follow or accept. The only time a student’s voice is considered unacceptable is when they are using it to harm another’s identity.
3. Student Choice:
- Students deserve the chance to choose their own reading materials, topics to write, and information to learn.
- Choice in the classroom allows for students to discover information in an organic way, ensuring the knowledge sticks longer than if I as a teacher forced the material on them.
- Writing is a personal journey and topics should always be able to change and fluctuate, meaning that students should write what they need to, not what the prompt is requiring.
- I believe that when a student is given the option to learn, they will choose it; when learning is mandated, they will resist it.
- Reader needs are varied and will never all be satisfied with one story, which means teachers owe it to their students to provide options in order to better meet every need for the students.