Ellie's Top Three

I believe a classroom needs to feel and act like a community. It is the teacher’s responsibility to create an environment where all students feel safe and excepted. Part of a community is a place where students feel that they can talk about difficult issues and get honest answers. The class is there to help each student learn and grown not to be judgmental of anyone’s ideas and opinions. I think it is important for the teacher to help foster a sense of togetherness among the class and make sure that every student feels like they have the opportunity to learn, explore and grow in what ever direction they want. Part of a community is having support and respect from your peers and teachers, I believe this is a crucial part in a child’s learning and is key to creating a lasting community in a classroom.

I believe children deserve to be taught unbiased and anti-racist curriculum. Every child deserves to hear the whole story and not just a scripted narrative that society has decided is the truth. Students should be taught to examine everything with a critical eye and not take everything at face value. Teachers should work their hardest to integrate unbiased lessons into their curriculum and not just have a tourist curriculum of cultures. Children should be taught about the world around them and the inequalities that come with life. Subjects should not be taboo; teachers should approach the hard topics head on and help kids to work through the stereotypes of society at a young age. Even difficult topics such as race, economics, gender, should be addresses in a manner where children are not scared or shocked but understand the complexities of our world.

In my classroom I value individualism, I believe that each child should be considered an individual and not put into a group depending on their race, gender or ability. Teachers should work with each child to identify their strengths and weakness but more importantly to figure out what teaching style works for the child. As we have read in Delpit’s book children from different upbringings respond better to different teaching styles, teachers should be aware of this and work to provide the best to each child.