The "Founder of this Country"

Who was Christopher Columbus to me? He was the founder of this country, he was a hero, a nice man that made this country possible for all of us. This is all a lie. I don't understand why schools continue to teach student's lies and if they don't want to say the truth because it can be inappropriate for student's to know, then don't teach anything about it at all. During class we discussed Christopher Columbus and I found out he was actually racist and cruel because he would cut off children's hands. If it was up to me as a future teacher I wouldn't even teach this topic but it isn't. What I can do is teach around it and what that means is finding other reliable resources that can make this topic more meaningful for my student's, teach what really is important about Christopher Columbus. I can change this process for my student's such as  I can ask who's story is missing from these traditional perspectives, we can read books and give them the chance to investigate and become detectives. Then let the students tell the story from their own perspective. 

Healthy Identities

Creating healthy identities is one of my main goals as a teacher. This can be a hard task just because at the beginning I will not know what my student's are raised to believe in, what their parents beliefs are, etc. but as long as I can develop strong and healthy identities in my classroom and the student's carry it with them throughout life, believe in it, then that will be good enough for me. How can I develop strong and healthy identities in my classroom? First I can model to my students what a healthy identity looks like such as coming to school looking clean, with a good outfit, and my hair brushed. Basically be someone they can look up to. Second I can represent my students in my classroom such as having posters, pictures, objects, etc. that represent diversity, their culture, families, identity. Third I can be diverse in my teaching such as reading books about the different cultures, languages. Tell stories about the different cultures from my personal experiences or other's point of view and experiences. Lastly show and tell my students about my own family stories, my own culture, show them family photos and give them the opportunity to do the same as well. I have always believed in equality and equity and would love to incorporate that into my classroom as well.

A Student's Name Matters

In class we discussed Cult of Pedagogy and it was an important topic for me because my whole life teachers and substitutes struggled with my name. They didn't know how to pronounce it and at first I didn't mind it and would just correct them but when I had arrogant manglers, nicknamers, and ***holes not think it was important to pronounce my name, it became a problem. It was a problem because I felt like my name was not important to this world, I felt as if my value was less than others, and after so long I eventually got tired. They even mispronounced my name at graduation and I didn't say anything about it. Now looking back I would of stopped walking across that stage and go correct the lady who said it but now it's too late. All I can do is be different for my own student's and show them that their names matter and I will not put them through what other teachers put them through. A student should never feel any less than others, like we discussed in class, pronouncing a name right matters, it won't be easy to say each name but as long as you try and don't give up that will good enough. An important tip our professor mentioned for this situation was to: Pull them aside and ask them to help you pronounce their name. It's the little things like this that matter.