Part 3: Next Steps

Broaden your circle: Several of my students have parents that own different restaurants. I want to go to them and try the food and connect with these students through their culture and food. This leads into step two: Practice empathy with the “others” already in your life. There are a lot of things that I may have in common with my students and this helps to create a safe classroom. This can open up communication with the students and they can feel more comfortable answering questions or working in groups. 

I wanted to focus on the strategies “Broaden your circle” and “Monitor your daily intake of media.” As a teacher, I think both are key to understanding the perspectives of the students in my room. Broadening my circle means intentionally connecting with people, both inside and outside of school, who have different backgrounds, beliefs, or experiences than I do. This could be as simple as collaborating with colleagues who teach different subjects or making time to listen to students’ stories that I might not normally hear. I'm also not opposed to her suggestion of testing out new restaurants of different cultures! The more I understand different perspectives, the better I can relate to my students and create lessons that reflect their realities. Monitoring my media intake is just as important and ties into mental health practice! The information and voices I choose to listen to shape how I see the world and how I interpret my students’ behaviors and experiences. If my news, entertainment, and social feeds all come from the same type of source, it limits my awareness. Media and news is so divisive and drives people apart. By being more intentional and following a wider range of creators, educators, and voices, I can model digital awareness for my students. Both strategies remind me that cultural awareness starts with the choices I make every day, not just what I teach.

What resonated with me was the big theme of really just putting yourself out there and asking questions so we can understand more. Asking kids questions about what their into, what they like, what they do on the weekends seems very simple but it gives us a glimpse into who they are and sometimes gives us reasoning into their personality, behaviors or actions without us automatically "othering" or judging them. 

I also think that remembering that sometimes there are context gaps simply because a student hasn't experienced something in the same way we have is important to consider  when evaluating how a student is doing or what they are engaged in in class. This is especially true in a diverse school such as ours where so many of our students come from different backgrounds, cultures, and areas of the world and have drastically different experiences than I do. That shift in perpective will help us as teachers better serve our students and understand that sometimes if they don't understand or know something, it could be because of the experiences they have had. 

Consider the six steps offered by Hedreich, describe how you might use 1-2 strategies as a teacher to understand the perception/point of view of students in your room.

I love the first step, I think we all often tend to do the things we're good at and comfortable with.  The best way to understand and learn is to broaden our horizons.  It is a great experience to sit in that uncomfortable place, it helps us learn more and maybe even help us to understand how others might feel. I can certainly eat new foods and try new things to broaden my circle.  I do try to read and watch things that are "outside my circle" but I do think I could put myself out there more as well.  

In the classroom I also really like the idea of step 5.  I think it's important for us to really take note of the students we're correcting and why.  This will help us examine more of what that child may need and what we can do differently. 

I also think the biggest thing we can learn from is the don't get defensive.  I think we need to be more comfortable in the idea that we aren't perfect and can do better. We should always be listening and learning, always. 

This was interesting in many aspects.  I really liked the practice empathy with people in your life.  As humans it seems we like to talk about people without knowing the real "truths" behind their stories.  If you are curious about something or someone ask them, Why do you like designer brands?  Get to know people or students for who they are.  Make relationships with them.  I like how she said to play the game This or That.  Students get to form relationships with their teachers based on a simple question.I thought it was a neat idea to keep on log on behaviors in your classroom to see if there are any patterns of who gets the free pass.  As an elementary teacher it would be difficult to do on a daily basis, but for a day here or there it would be an interesting find. 
She again talked about broadening your circle, which I think is a fantastic idea.

Strategy 1- I hope to continue to broaden my circle of friends and experiences. Hanging out with people/families that are different from me and my family. Going to different restaurants, playgrounds... Having different and new cultural and racial experiences for my family to experience.

Strategy 2- I can always continue to practice having more empathy and patience for the "others" already in my life. Trying to better understand their uniqueness and what makes them different, etc. Trying to be more and more intentional about building relationships with those people in my life and building relationships with students that I have less of a connection with.

Strategy 6- Continuing to teach about the importance of understanding biases in history and even in our own lives. That bias in the classroom is not confined to the biases of people in the classroom. That students are made aware of everything that we read and watch has been written or said by a person with perspectives and biases, whether intentional or unintentional. Also, that I would consider asking my students the following question, "whose stories are missing, who else was there?" to teach students about the most important bias, silence. Those whose story and personal narrative and history are being left out for whatever reason. The importance of teaching our students how to expose and uncover those biases and perspectives in our social studies classrooms.

I tend to get defensive when someone I assume to be biased (especially people who make what I perceive to be racist or homophobic comments) and have been called a "white savior" or told that I act like I hate white people. I have gotten defensive about this in the past, but when reading through the next-steps portion, I see that me reactions can make others just as defensive as they make me. I need to work on calling others in rather than calling them out. 
I tend to not rely on textbooks because I know that if a student can't read at grade level, they won't be able to read the textbook. I didn't even think about the biases that may show up in the text. I now understand that i can lok for different resources, not just as a reaction to student reading levels, but also to find text that is more inclusive. I can also change the language that I use. 

After thinking about my implicit biases, the important part is taking the next step in my personal life and in my classroom. I work hard to build strong relationships with my students, which means asking a lot of questions of my students to see what interests them. I look up info to show my interest in a topic that we can connect on. Strong relationships help all of us in the class to connect with each other. I need to be sure to communicate the content well with my diverse students. We need to continue to read from numerous and diverse sources of history. We also need to be aware that content knowledge is always changing and to keep up on the new ideas/content that develop over time. If someone tells me that I have said or done something that is incorrect or makes someone uncomfortable, I need to make sure I hear that statement, reflect on it, and make the appropriate changes. My daughters, who are now in their twenties, have kept me up to date on current social acceptance and changes. It is my job to read and understand, no matter my age or upbringing.

Broadening your circle is one of the most powerful ways as a person and educator to understand the perception/point of view of students in the classroom. The times I have been most challenged to grow and learn are when I have put myself in new situations where I feel people notice me because I am new, don’t belong, and do not fit in. For the most part, people are welcoming and not really thinking about me at all. It opens me to new conversations and windows into other cultures. Being the outsider is a huge challenge for all of us and I do well to remember this with my interactions with my students.

These steps are great tips to start to reflect and alter some of your blind spots. 
Broadening your circle is one that would require quite a bit of effort on a personal level, just due to the natural grind that life gets you end and routines that you constantly existing. I have found that as I’ve gotten older, they become more ingrained, and when I was younger, my circle of people that I have surrounding myself with were a much more broad group. Playing basketball in college Made this a much easier task as my circle expanded to a much different and more diverse group than I ever grew up around. 20+ years later, since that time in my life, my circle has probably shrunk back the other way, and it’s primarily a small circle of friends and family that I spend the most of my time with. 
I also think that monitoring my consumption of media is a activity that would be beneficial. Like most, I am probably guilty of feeding the perceptions that I already have by consuming the same things over and over again, and getting the same viewpoints fed to me that reinforces the loop. Reaching out to other places could be very beneficial to help fill in some of those gaps and understanding a variety of different people. I like their suggestion of social media as a easy, quick place to access people very different than you, and hear their stories and experiences in order to help understand others more broadly.