Students have knowledge of injustice in the world, have informed opinions about it, and know that their voice and actions have value. They can advocate for themselves and others.
Advocacy
As a special education teacher, I believe all of my students bring powerful, valuable skills to the classroom and have unique perspectives to share with the world. It is my responsibility to instill the critical thinking and effective language skills that will empower them to recognize and confront the inequity of opportunities that affect their communities, and arm them with the confidence and efficacy to leverage their individual and collective assets to create change. Given my students’ developmental and exceptional needs, developing this sense of activism in my students is even more paramount so that they can advocate for their own needs and the needs and rights of others.
My students demonstrate their abilities to analyze, question, and problem-solve the issue of racial inequity through high-level, text-related conversations, and make connections to real-world representations. Additionally, the classroom culture I create emphasizes inclusivity, and serves an environment where all voices are heard and represented, in order for all students to feel and demonstrate a sense of cultural pride.
On the pages below, I demonstrate my students’ abilities to think, speak, and write about their cultural identity, as well as real-world issues affecting that culture and community.
(Conversation-Related)
(Action-Related)
As a teacher of young students, and students with exceptionalities, I try to teach the “whole child” while navigating the complex intersectionality that my students experience. In many ways, developing strong, emotionally intelligent, cognizant young learners to me is more critical than mastering academic objectives, given the ever-changing world. I feel it is not only my role, but also my responsibility to model democratic values and demonstrate advocacy on their behalf, so that they too can emulate these skills for themselves and for their peers moving forward. Creating a language-rich environment where students can explore their race and identity, as well as engage in powerful discourse about respecting diversity was really important to me when designing instructional “text talks” during Black History Month. Further, our unit of study on Louisiana Culture was instructional for both myself and my students, as they explored facets of their heritage and geography that are inextricably linked to their state’s culture, while I, as a non-native resident also explored alongside them. Throughout these experiences, students developed their oral language while further demonstrating their flexibility in thought and open-mindedness.