Promising Practices

Entering the Promising Practices conference I was unsure what to expect. I was wondering if I would be dressed up enough, if I were going to be able to understand what the context was and hoping that I wouldn’t be sitting with a bunch of strangers. The moment I walked in I was greeted with smiles from our FNED 346 class and I felt better. I also had always more than two classmates in both of my sessions that made it fun and easy going. It was so early that it was hard for me to concentrate on the opening speeches, but some of the things they talked about were interesting.

            The first session that I went to was called “ If your safe and you know it clap your hands” It was directed by Gerri August and she mentioned some key points from her book Safe Spaces- Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGBT Youth. We talked about what a safe space meant which is a place that provides physical, social and psychological freedom from all youth. We also mentioned how children need a sense of belonging and a settled confidence. After we broke up into groups and discussed positive and negative social statuses that would make it easier or harder for children who were LGBT.  I was in a group with Vanessa, Alex W. and Genesis and the first thing that came to mind was S.W.A.A.M.P. We dissected it for our peers and it tied into what we talk in our class. Two new words that I learned were Mirrors and Windows.  I learned that Mirror meant that you have something in your curriculum that relates to your students of the LGBT community. Maybe a book with two moms or two dads, etc. Windows are giving examples of doing certain things all different ways. One interesting fact that caught my eye was how many states have so many anti-bullying campaigns but refuse to accept the LGBT community in that. How can you promote anti-bullying if you are subtly bullying a whole community of people? I believe when you become a staff or faculty member of a school your main job is to make a comfortable learning space for each and every child. I found the session tied in a lot with what we talked about during our discussion on LGBT so it was more of a review but I still learned some new techniques and information.

            My second session was so intriguing. The session was about Transgender friendly picture books for young children and Elizabeth Rowell directed it. Her energy and excitement toward the subject really got me pumped up! I had no idea how many transgender books were out there and it saddened me a little that they are not in most schools. We talked about the difference of transgirls and transboys. Transgirls are little boys who feel they are in the wrong body and transboys are little girls that feel they are in the wrong body. Elizabeth gave us a list of books for both and also a couple books for parents that have transgender children. The session was really so informational. Did you know that a child knows if it belongs to its body by at or prior to the age of 6? This is why having a selective amount of transgender books are nice to have so the child feels welcomed. Whether or not you know of a child in your classroom is or isn’t transgender have the book anyways because most stay quiet. It has been recorded that more than or less than 1% of our population are classified transgender but there is the leading factor that not all are out so you can really tell. We also discussed being an advocate for transgender they need to know they have someone who will stick up for them and stand by their side. My favorite saying that was shown to us was “ What we don’t know – we fear! What we fear- we shun! What we shun- we don’t know! “ I think that is a great simple and easy way to remember that before you judge you need to know exactly what your judging and why it matters.  This briefly relates to our class discussions for when you read us the fairytale of the two princes’. 

            Both of my sessions showed great proactive anti- bullying behavior acts for the LGBT community. Both of these sessions reminded me of when of the “white backpack” but instead about color and class it was about gender specifics. There are many for race, and color of the skin but almost all schools look passed the LGBT community. I believe that it should be our generation of teachers’ goal to make it a suitable and comfortable learning experience for all students no matter who or what you are. I have great hope for the years to come when I become a teacher because there are so many resources and tools out there to make it all happen. Equality for all is a very important subject to me and I will most definitely look back at this seminar to help me in the future.To follow up with this, check out this awful song "You've got to be carefully taught..."

            The lunch un-conference was really interesting and something I’ve never been to before. I loved the A.L.L.I.E.D speeches I think it really livened up the room and opened things up for discussion.  Also I thought the closing was pretty cool how people got up and told some stories from there own experiences.