More Equitable Educator

I would like to focus my blog on the article describing the 20 things I will do to be a more equitable educator.  There have been a few articles throughout this program that I have just wanted to share with everyone in my school.  This is one of them.  It is so eye-opening and like Dawn said at the end of our class–just good teaching.  One “thing” that stood out to me was ” I will reject the myth of color-blindness.”  This was me–even in the beginning of this program.  I thought I was such an honest and open-minded teacher because I felt that I don’t see color in my classroom–my kids do not see color in my classroom.  Should I be admitting this? I thought this was a good thing.  I think one of the first eye-openers was how successful the culture quilts were and how they really opened up my thoughts to the importance of seeing each child for who they are and empowering them to show who they are.  This includes our own EdS group!

Another item I thought was interesting was pronouncing names correctly.  This is one area I have always been in agreement with and I feel I can easily say I have not pronounced names wrong after learning how to say it the first time.  And I  make sure I know names the first day I meet my students.  But I will say this reminds me of a time this year in which I have two girls that have accent marks on their name.  (For example, Beyonce’ and Tah’lei)  I didn’t realize I left these marks off of their name on the sign in sheet and on their name tag.  Both of them asked me about it within about 3 weeks or so (at different times).  I felt horrible and I can not imagine how they felt–those marks are important to a name.  I wasn’t doing it because I thought their name wasn’t important, it just came from the office like that and I copied it.  So not only pronouncing names correctly is important but writing it appropriately is just as important to helping our students feel validated.