I listened to a webinar called Speak Up at School by teaching tolerance. The two people that were leading were Jarah Botello and Amy Melik. Jarah Botello is a teaching and learning specialist. Amy Melik is an ELL Teacher and Coordinator. Teaching with tolerance helps teachers and students to participate in democracy across the school. The main objectives in the webinar was to identify what bias language mean. The next one was to obtain tools and strategies to speak up against stereotypes and bias. The last one was to know how to prepare students to speak up. An example of a bias word is referring to a pep rally as lame. This could be rude to someone with disabilities. The poll that they created was that the teachers stood up when they saw these kinds of words being used. One of the most important things to do to be prepared to speak up is to be prepared. Instead of just telling students not to say that word, explain why that word could be hurtful. Questions are a great way to stop situations that can be hurtful to other students. It reflects the comment back to the student and it helps them to know what they are saying. Some questions that you could use are, will you tell me more about that? What do you mean? Overall, this webinar was extremely informative. It gave many examples on ways to redirect the conversations. It helps students think critically about what they are saying.
