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.