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1. Be an active listener and learner
2. Be polite, prepared, productive, and prompt
3. Raise your hand before you speak
4. Be a friend, not a bully
5. Have growth mindset

I like community guidelines, instead of rules to have a classroom that feels more like a community.

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A participant releasing a blue jay during a bird banding event. Photo courtesy of the author.

It is important to engage all families in out-of-school science experiences as studies have shown that children develop lifelong interests in science by exploring science with family members ( Corin et al. 2018; Jones, Taylor, and Forrester 2011). In this article, we share our experience in developing a family science program for underrepresented youth. Our goal was to get students excited about science by involving the whole family in fun and motivating science experiences. Family programs can be particularly beneficial for supporting students who are underrepresented in science ( Perera 2014). We know from research that parents of underserved youth think it is important for their children to visit museums and participate in informal science programs that allow their children to have hands-on, real-world experiences ( Simpson and Parsons 2009), but they may not always feel comfortable in museums or science centers. With a little support and thoughtful planning, all families can be made to feel welcome and valued in these spaces.

To support out-of-school learning and to increase family science engagement, we developed a yearlong, once-a-month family science program for students from underrepresented communities. This program was a partnership between North Carolina State University and three museums: the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Marbles Kids Museum, and Moorhead Planetarium and Science Center. As researchers and project managers, our role was to assist with recruiting families, facilitate collaboration between the museums, ensure that the museums had the resources they needed to run the program, and collect data on the efficacy and impacts of the program. We also attended the majority of the program events to engage with the families and assist the museum staff as needed.

Developing the program

The first step in creating this program was to develop partnerships with local science museums in our area ( see Figure 1). We reached out to three informal science centers to identify whether they would be interested in helping us develop a program to help support student science interest and career aspirations. All three museums agreed to participate and serve families in their local area. Each museum decided to develop a monthly program around a specific theme, including life sciences, engineering, and physical sciences. Each museum recruited 20 families to participate in the program at their facility through established partnerships with Title I schools and afterschool programs. The museums sent flyers in English and Spanish to the afterschool programs and Title I schools inviting students to apply. Each museum had its own application process for selecting students who were interested in science but may not have the resources to engage in STEM programs. Most families attended the entire year.

Museums and other informal science centers often have special community events like Family Science Olympiad Day or Engineering Day. Our programs included annual events being held at our partner museums such as Astronomy Days, Bugfest, and the Science Festival. The family programs took place during these special museum events and had themes that matched the special events. Although these were public events, our families also had a private program behind the scenes that was closed to the general public during the events.

We were fortunate to have a wide range of museums to work with, but not every school system may be located near a museum. However, there may be other types of organizations in your area that you can partner with. Schools in rural areas may want to reach out to their local cooperative extension or 4-H programs. Additionally, schools may be able to partner with their local public libraries, many of which now have science programs or maker spaces. State park systems may also have opportunities to engage in science programs or offer spaces where families can meet. Additionally, family science programs can be hosted at the school itself if you are not able to locate an external partner.

Once you have a partner, work with their education staff to leverage programs they may already be offering at their institution. This will decrease the amount of work that you and the community partner have to do to create the program. In our program, each museum designed their monthly programs based on their individual theme. They identified family-friendly activities that matched the theme, community scientists engaged in the work, and take-home activities for the families to learn more about each topic. As researchers, our role was to support the museums in conducting research and evaluation about the individual events and the overall family program. We also planned an end-of-the-year graduation ceremony at our university. This event brought the families from all three museums together to engage in family science activities, to meet students from their community enrolled in science or engineering programs at the university, and to learn more about resources related to science camps and college tracks.

A family designing "Doodle Bots" during a family event on robotics. Photo courtesy the authors.
Safety note: Use of sharps requires eye protection-safety glasses with side shields or safety goggles-for set-up, hands-on and take down components of this activity.

Program implementation

The programs were offered on either Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon and ran about three hours. Both indoor and outdoor programs were offered. Program examples include building Rube Goldberg machines during an engineering day and bird banding events where families helped tag and release birds with researchers. For outdoor programs, we found it important to convey information about appropriate outerwear for the participants. During our first outdoor programs, we were not clear about what types of clothing should be worn (e.g., tennis shoes, jackets), and many families were unprepared. After that event, our partners started bringing additional outerwear for families to borrow. Make sure any activities you plan meet the safety standards set out by NSTA (see Online Resources); provide proper protective equipment such as goggles or gloves for activities that might pose a hazard. Our families signed consent forms to participate in the museum program. You may want to have families sign waivers or permission slips to participate in your program and make it clear to parents that they are your partner in ensuring safety.

To help the museums plan for the programs, each family was asked to register ahead of time. Some museums used registration systems they already had in place, whereas others asked for emails or texts concerning how many adults and children to expect. There was no limit to the number of people families could bring. Each family was able to bring anyone they considered part of their family. We welcomed everyone, including grandparents, aunts and uncles, community mentors, even newborns. While the students were required to bring an adult with them to each program, it did not have to be the same adult each time. This allows for flexibility for families who have changing work schedules, custody considerations, and other concerns that might affect the adult's ability to participate in the program each time. If possible, you should offer a snack or food that can offset any food security issues associated with attending the program. Our meals were paid for by a National Science Foundation Grant that funded the program.

During family programs, it is important to provide families with an opportunity to develop a sense of community. This helps families who may not often visit these types of settings feel more comfortable. As the families attended the program all year long, we found many of them built close relationships that extended beyond our program.

During your family program, structure the activities so families can work together as they explore different aspects of science. Selecting collaborative, noncompetitive activities that require a wide range of abilities helps to keep participants of all ages engaged. For example, one of our museums had a program on fossils. During this event, each family was given a paper plate with material to dig through to find fossilized shark's teeth. The families then worked together to try to identify the types of teeth they found on their plate. Other examples of family science activities can be found in Table 1.

These family programs are also a wonderful opportunity to invite local scientists to come and talk about work being done in the community. They can speak with students about the types of careers that can be found in the community and the type of education needed to pursue those careers. We had an array of community scientists and engineers come to our program including an astronaut, an entomologist, a soil and water scientist, a park ranger, and an ornithologist. These community scientists were identified by the museums and offered their time for free as part of their community outreach and service. For schools in areas that may not have access to a university or community scientists, it may be possible to leverage other programs like "Skype a Scientist" to engage your families with science professionals.

One difficulty we found during our family activities was that at times, parents stood back and let the child do the activity on their own or took over the activity. This may be because the parents thought the activity was designed for the children, and they stood back to watch. We recommend finding ways to help parents see themselves as partners in the learning activities. This may be in the form of parent questioning guides that give parents information on the topic/activity and questions they can ask their child to increase conversation.

After each program, families were invited to continue their day by visiting the science center where the event took place. Often this meant joining the major event happening that day, such as a Future Me Fair (careers in science), or exploring the museum to learn more about the day's topic. Before the parents left our group space, we made sure to give them resources related to the day's activities so they could continue the science conversations at home. We learned that when sending home materials, parents needed explicit information about what to do with them. Taking parents aside at the end of the program and providing an explanation about the materials you are sending home, or including a parent guide along with the materials, will help ensure their use. We also recommend sending home additional questioning guides that will help parents connect the information they learned that day to their everyday life. This will help encourage family discussion beyond the program and hopefully help increase families' interest in engaging in science for fun. See Table 2 for examples of take-home activities for families to engage in together.

Table 1: Examples of family activities for family science programs (see Online Resources).

Table 2: Examples of take-home activities for parents (see Online Resources).

Evaluating the program

There are several options for learning more about how your families are engaging in the program. You can have the families develop a family science notebook. If you supply families with a science notebook at the first event, or ask them to bring one, they can document their experiences throughout the year. Using the notebook, parents and children can share the information they learn at the program, as well as note any questions they have and examples of the types of conversations they're having at home. Families can also work together to draw images and make observations. Younger siblings can help with the drawings, while parents and older siblings can write about the activities.

One of our museums developed a GroupMe chat for their families. This is a text-messaging service that allows private chatting for small groups. GroupMe allows the educator and families to maintain their privacy by not sharing telephone numbers and also allows educators to silence the group when necessary so that they do not receive constant messages. Through the GroupMe, students and parents shared images of themselves engaging in science during and outside of the program. This included "selfie with a scientist" photos at a large event at their museum, images of their take-home activity in their backyard, or pictures of a bug they found and wanted to share with the group. This type of digital engagement allows families to stay connected between programs and helps build a rapport with the educators.

We also developed a survey that was given out at the first and last events. The student survey provides information on how the students' science self-efficacy, experiences, future beliefs about science, and family beliefs about science change over the course of the program. We found that the program increased students' science experiences outside of school, as well as their levels of science-self efficacy. Families in our program reported that they spent more time talking about and engaging in science together after participating.

Encouraging parents to engage in science learning with their children is an important step in building the science interests and career aspirations of students. Many students begin losing interest in science in middle school (Maltese, Melki, and Wiebke 2014), and building a supportive community where families engage in science together may help offset that loss of interest. Collaborating with local informal science centers or other community groups allows teachers to bridge classroom learning and out-of-school learning for their students. We hope that you will take our experiences and use them to develop your own program to help support your students' science interests and career goals. *

Acknowledgment

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation Grant No. 1614468 and DGE-1252376. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Megan Ennes (mennes@floridamuseum.ufl.edu) is an assistant professor of museum education in the Department of Natural History at the University of Florida in Gainesville. M. Gail Jones is a professor of science education in the Department of Math, Science, and Technology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

References

Corin, E.N., M.G. Jones, T. Andre, and G.M. Childers. 2018. Characteristics of lifelong science learners: An investigation of STEM hobbyists. International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 8 (1): 53-75.

Jones, G., A. Taylor, and J.H. Forrester. 2011. Developing a scientist: A retrospective look. International Journal of Science Education 33 (12) 1653-1673.

Maltese, A.V., C.S. Melki, and H.L. Wiebke. 2014. The nature of experiences responsible for the generation and maintenance of interest in STEM. Science Education 98 (6): 937-962. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21132

Perera, L.D.H. 2014. Parents' attitudes towards science and their children's science achievement. International Journal of Science Education 36 (18): 3021-3041.

Simpson, J.S., and E.C. Parsons. 2009. African American perspectives and informal science educational experiences. Science Education 93 (2): 293-321. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20300

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feature Family Science Programs A participant releasing a blue jay during a bird banding event. Photo courtesy of the author. It is important to engage all families in out-of-school science experiences as studies have shown that children develop lifelong interests in science by exploring science with family members ( Corin et al.

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Morning Meetings: Building Community in the Classroom

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I will want to teach in a school where the majority is Latinx, such as Boyle Heights or East LA.

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Bloom, J. W. (2006). Creating a classroom community of young scientists (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

Creating a Classroom Community of Young Scientists helps teachers - both pre-service and in-service - to develop exciting science programs in their classrooms. This book provides the groundwork for designing and implementing a science program that takes into account the latest research in teaching and learning. It provides an approach that will capture children's imaginations, stimulate their curiosity and create a strong foundation for their continued interest in, and appreciation of, science and the world in which they live. The book is designed to be user-friendly, and offers an approach to teaching science that is exciting for teachers as well.

This thoroughly revised, second edition focuses on making inquiry more explicit both in terms of the process of inquiry and teaching in ways that capitalize on children's curiosity and questions. New material has also been added on U.S. and Canadian science standards, as well as professional standards for teachers.

Creating a Classroom Community of Young Scientists provides teachers with the insight and tools they need to develop exciting elementary and middle school science programs. Bloom's approach to science education is founded on the notion of democratic classroom communities, where students are responsible for and in control of their own and others' learning. This approach, and the inquiry-based and activity-oriented learning methods it endorses, will stimulate children's imaginations and create a strong foundation for their continued interest in science.

User-friendly and engaging, the book is supplemented throughout by real-life examples, questions for reflection, and suggested classroom activities that make science education exciting for the teacher as well as the students. This thoroughly revised and updated second edition contains a significant amount of new material, including new information on science education standards and a new chapter on the benefits of an inquiry-based teaching method fueled by children's curiosity and questions.
Features include:
Sidebar reflective questions and suggested activities encourage the reader to further engage with the material covered in each chapter
Activities and teaching strategies are presented in relation to U.S. and Canadian science education standards
Real-life examples pulled from current issues and challenges in teaching elementary science
Table of Contents
Part 1. Getting Started

1 Introduction

2 Initial Explorations

Part II. Teaching Science for Children's Meaningful Learning

3 Nature of Science

3.1 Introduction
3.2 Views of science: Scientists and thinkers about science
3.3 Activities
3.4 Examples of children's ideas
3.5 Summary

4 Children's Learning and Sense-Making

4.1 Constructivism
4.2 Social constructivism
4.3 Contexts of meaning
4.4 Categorization
4.5 Play
4.6 Complex learning
4.7 Summary of implications for teaching

5 Children's Talk

5.1 The traditional approach to classroom discussions
5.2 An alternative approach to classroom discussions
5.3 An example of a classroom argument
5.4 Extending our understandings of how to work with children's discussions

6 Teaching and Learning through Inquiry

7 Assessing Children's Learning, Thinking, and Talk

7.1 Establishing goals
7.2 Some necessary background
7.3 The purpose of assessment
7.4 Some approaches to assessment
7.5 Observations and performance assessment
7.6 What to look for and keeping track
7.7 Additional issues of assessment as driven by curricular documents and national standards
7.8 A final activity

8 Planning and Implementing Instruction

8.1 Some basic guidelines and principles to consider
8.2 How and where to start
8.3 A simple model of planning - E-7
8.4 Instructional plans
8.5 Alternative sequencing for a restricted curriculum situation
8.6 Taking into account children's ability levels (...but not selling them short!)
8.7 Teaching and working with children: Implementing instruction
8.8 Some example unit topics and themes
8.9 Yearly planning

9 Classroom as Community of Young Scientists

10 Reflective Practice

11 Where to Go From Here: Participating in the Professional Community

11.1 Participating in the professional community
11.2 Continuing to learn about science
11.3 Continuing your professional development
Part III. Appendices
A Safety

A.1 Physical safety
A.2 Personal, psychological, and social safety

B United States Science Education Standards

C Canadian Science Education Standards

D Learning and Teaching for Complexity

D.1 Systems
D.2 Patterns, metapatterns, and other broadly connecting concepts
D.3 Teaching and learning for complex understandings

E More On Planning - Curriculum Units

E.1 More planning tools
E.2 Sample curriculum unit ideas

F Field Studies

F.1 Types of field studies
F.2 Planning an extended field study
F.3 Summary

G Sample Activities

G.1 Structures
G.2 Marble collisions
G.3 Pendulums
G.4 Balancing act
G.5 Batteries and bulbs
G.6 Construct a boat to hold a specific cargo
G.7 Forest or open field study
G.8 Exploring metapatterns
G.9 Challengers - Jumping into what scientists experience

H Data Collection and Analysis Techniques

H.1 Background
H.2 Collecting data
H.3 Analyzing data
H.4 Formulas and conversions
H.5 Summary

I Science Techniques

I.1 Collecting and keeping organisms
I.2 Science techniques and procedures
I.3 Science equipment and measurement

J Technology

K Equipment, Supplies, and Materials

K.1 Basic science equipment and materials for the classroom
K.2 Sources of science supplies and equipment

L Professional Resources

L.1 Professional organizations
L.2 Science-related organizations
L.3 Internet resources by science topic or resource
L.4 Teacher professional journals and children's magazines
L.5 Books for teachers

Reviews

Creating Classroom Community of Young Scientists is a rich smorgasbord of fruitful and inspiring ideas about science teaching that will serve a wide range of readers. The book is based on current research about learning, classrooms, and teaching and supplies a multitude of practical ideas for teaching that are richly illustrated by samples of student work and classroom dialogue, making them useful for teachers of all levels of experience. The theoretical frameworks Bloom supplies help the reader understand the reasons for the practical ideas he presents.

- Deborah J. Trumbull, Director of the Cornell Teacher Education Program and author of The New Science Teacher: Cultivating Good Practice

Jeffrey Bloom has deliberately added to the value of Creating a Classroom Community of Young Scientists in the second edition. In this book, he comprehensively connects the why to the how, providing those who use it with a vision and a pathway for effective teaching practice. As a veteran science educator, I understand that the goal of scientific literacy can, at times, seem insurmountably difficult to achieve, but this book will enable even the most inexperienced teachers to immediately address the problem of superficial science learning in their classrooms.

- Karynne L. M. Kleine, Associate Professor of Education, Georgia College State University

Creating a Classroom Community of Young Scientists provides teachers with the insight and tools they need to develop exciting elementary and middle school science programs. Bloom's approach to science education is founded on the notion of democratic classroom communities, where students are responsible for and in control of their own and others' learning. This approach, and the inquiry-based and activity-oriented learning methods it endorses, will stimulate children's imaginations and create a strong foundation for their continued interest in science.

User-friendly and engaging, the book is supplemented throughout by real-life examples, questions for reflection, and suggested classroom activities that make science education exciting for the teacher as well as the students. This thoroughly revised and updated second edition contains a significant amount of new material, including new information on science education standards and a new chapter on the benefits of an inquiry-based teaching method fueled by children's curiosity and questions.

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Creating a Classroom Community of Young Scientists

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Bloom, J. W. (2006). Creating a classroom community of young scientists (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. Creating a Classroom Community of Young Scientists helps teachers - both pre-service and in-service - to develop exciting science programs in their classrooms. This book provides the groundwork for designing and implementing a science program that takes into account the latest research in teaching and learning.

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Disrupting Power and Privilege in the Science Classroom 

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Disrupting Power and Privilege in the Science Classroom 

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Next Gen Navigator

Some cultures have historically been privileged in particular times and places, and as a result, some ways of knowing and doing science have had more social standing. We work from the stance that scientific ways of knowing and science education are fundamentally cultural and inherently political. All students have a right and a responsibility to learn how science has been implicated in creating many social inequities over time and how diverse scientific knowledges and practices can promote justice.

For example, the ice floe knowledge of Arctic Indigenous peoples was not initially brought into the larger scientific conversation on global climate science until sustained relationship building and deep listening between Indigenous and Euro-Western-trained scientists occurred. This knowledge held within Indigenous communities allowed for refinement of global climate modeling. Tribes and Indigenous peoples are engaged in hundreds of such efforts to understand and respond to climate change (see Chapter 15, Fourth National Climate Assessment for details).

Teachers can foster such cultural bridging in ways that help students recognize their agency to engage in social justice projects in ways informed by the sciences. Specifically, justice-oriented science educators should engage in culturally-based pedagogies that identify and leverage the knowledge and practice resources of students and their communities.

Science education can be used to support more just, sustainable, and culturally thriving futures-especially for those who have historically been and continue to be disenfranchised from science (Bang et al. 2017). To do this, we need to teach students that

1. Making sense of the world has been, and continues to be, universal across diverse cultures throughout human history and thus people bring diverse experiences and sense-making repertoires to their science learning (see STEM Teaching Tool #55);

2. Decisions made using scientific knowledge are tied to specific values and ideologies, some of which are more powerful in our social decision-making (e.g., giant corporate farms growing hybridized monocrops are more economical than small locally-owned farms that sustainably grow genetically diverse crops, but diverse crops are more resilient to climatic changes than the monocrops);

3. It's important to know how to develop and apply a wide range of knowledges and practices of science and engineering (along with other knowledge) in ways that support broad social justice movements (e.g., disrupting racial disparities in health and mitigating climate impacts for communities impacted by poverty); and

4. Equally important are how the means and ends of learning and teaching are focused on commitments of human dignity, as well as fostering respect for and responsibility to other living organisms (see Learning in Places).

The approaches described in this issue's articles highlight these dimensions of centering diverse sensemaking, supporting critical social analysis, positioning students to work toward justice, and focusing education on just, sustainable, and thriving futures for people and all living beings. We look forward to your examples and thoughts about how to further this work.

Bang, M., B. Brown, A. Calabrese Barton, A. Rosebery, and B. Warren. 2017. Toward more equitable learning in science. In Helping students make sense of the world using next generation science and engineering practices, eds. C. V. Schwarz, C. Passmore, and B. J. Reiser, 33-58. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.

STEM Teaching Tool #67: Focusing STEM Learning on Justice-Centered Phenomena.

STEM Teaching Tools PD Module: Learning to See the Resources Students Bring to Sense-Making.

Bevan, B. and K. Wingert. 2014. Science isn't "settled": Disrupting canonical science to engage more students. Relating Research to Practice.

Morales-Doyles, D. 2019. Justice‐centered science pedagogy with Daniel Morales-Doyle. NGSNavigators.

NSTA. 2020. Supporting equity in the classroom. Next Gen Navigator, Jan. issue.

Indigenous Education Tools

Illuminative. Native Education for All initiative.

Philip Bell
Next Gen Navigator Guest Editor

Philip Bell is a professor of education at the University of Washington, Seattle, and editor of STEM Teaching Tools. He served on the committee that authored the National Research Council's A Framework for K-12 Science Education, which guided development of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). He and his collaborators have worked to implement the equity-focused vision of the Framework in classrooms, across school districts, in afterschool environmental science programs, through family robotics workshops, and across networks of educators, educational leaders, and scientists. Bell considers himself to be a settler working in partnership on science education efforts with non-dominant communities to promote educational and social justice in ways they find consequential. Newer work focuses on promoting ecological caring through science education in the face of global climate change.
Bell frequently shares resources and ideas on Twitter at @philiplbell. He has an educational background in the learning sciences, science education, computer science, and electrical engineering.

Deb Morrison
Next Gen Navigator Guest Editor
Deb Morrison, a learning scientist with the Institute of Science and Math Education at the University of Washington, is deeply engaged in research-practice partnership efforts around equity and justice in STEM learning contexts, particularly with respect to furthering climate justice. This work is done through a cultural lens centered on differential participation within and across varied communities of practice and seeks to disrupt oppressive structures limiting participation. Morrison has taught middle school science and is particularly interested in content intersecting with environmental literacy, justice, and sustainability. She is passionate about working with educators in practice and has undertaken such efforts in a wide variety of contexts and content domains.
Morrison earned a B.S. in geography at the University of Victoria, a M.S. in Plant Sciences and Environmental Sciences at the University of Western Ontario, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction-Science Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder. More about Morrison can be found at http://www.debmorrison.me. Find her on Twitter @educatordeb.

Educators and researchers Megan Bang, Nikki McDaid-Morgan, and Alice Tsoodle discuss the development of ISTEAM (Indigenous science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics)-learning environments that support Indigenous students' intellectual, emotional, and communal thriving. In these learning environments, Indigenous children learn that their own communities have rich knowledge systems that generatively intersect, and substantively differ, from those that they are normatively asked to engage in at school. Read more.

Illinois biology teacher Jason Foster shares how he structures his science classes around justice-centered phenomena. Through his lessons, students learn to use scientific knowledge to advocate for their community, while also discovering how humane treatment and care should be essential for all people in all circumstances. Read more.

Note: The Next Gen Navigator is a monthly e-newsletter from NSTA delivering information, insights, resources, and professional learning opportunities for science educators by science educators on the Next Generation Science Standards and three-dimensional instruction. Click here to sign up to receive the Navigator every month.
The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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Next Gen Navigator Some cultures have historically been privileged in particular times and places, and as a result, some ways of knowing and doing science have had more social standing. We work from the stance that scientific ways of knowing and science education are fundamentally cultural and inherently political.

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The classroom would have the students in groups, the materials in the back, and the teacher in the back. I would have the board in the front for any direct instruction or student presentations. Also, the teacher can work in groups in the back without being a big distraction to other students. I like this set-up because the teacher isn't the dictator in the front, rather a teacher should act as the facilitator in the classroom.

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Teachers have long known that feeling safe and secure in school helps students focus their energy on learning. And the research bears that out: A 2018 study found that when teachers deliberately foster a sense of belonging by greeting each student at the door of the class, they see "significant improvements in academic engaged time and reductions in disruptive behavior."

Edutopia covered that study last year, and we've shared many other ideas from teachers for ensuring that every student in the classroom feels like they belong.

Some of the activities below take less than five minutes. They're divided up among the grades, but many can apply across all of the years from kindergarten to 12th grade.

Elementary School

Shout-Outs: This is a quick way for students to celebrate each other for doing a job well or for attempting something difficult. Shout-outs can be incorporated at any point in a class. First-grade teacher Valerie Gallagher of Providence, Rhode Island, rings a chime when she wants to get the class's attention to ask who has a shout-out.

"It's not just me as the teacher saying, 'You're doing well'-it's a way for them to interact with each other and celebrate positivity," says Gallagher.

Friendly Fridays: Elizabeth Peterson, a fourth-grade teacher in Amesbury, Massachusetts, uses Friendly Fridays as a simple way for students to lift each other and themselves up. Peterson has her students write a friendly, anonymous note to a classmate, practice using positive self-talk, or use storytelling to give a peer a pep talk.

Sharing Acts of Kindness: Fifth-grade teacher Marissa King, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, shares two activities that encourage kindness. In the first, the teacher gives students secret kindness instructions, such as writing an anonymous note to a peer who is struggling in one of their classes.

The second activity revolves around noticing others' acts of kindness: When a student sees a peer tidying up in the classroom, for example, they can post a thank you note on a shared digital "kindness wall." Both activities coach students to be kind to their peers in the hope that they'll begin to practice kindness unprompted.

Middle School

Paper Tweets: To build community in her seventh-grade classroom, Jill Fletcher of Kapolei Middle School in Kapolei, Hawaii, created a bulletin board modeled on Twitter. Students use a template to create a profile, and they enlist at least three followers-a friend, an acquaintance, and someone they don't interact with much.
Courtesy of Jill Fletcher
When the class does this activity-which takes about 45 minutes to set up the first time-Fletcher has them respond to prompts about their current mood or new things happening in their lives, and then their followers respond.

Class Norms: Bobby Shaddox, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at King Middle School in Portland, Maine, has his students develop a set of norms for themselves-adjectives that describe them as a community of learners. Having students come up with their own norms creates "a pathway toward belonging for every single student in that class," says Dr. Pamela Cantor, founder of Turnaround for Children.

"Instead of a top-down list of rules that a teacher gives a class, these are words that we generated together," says Shaddox. "It helps us own the behavior in the classroom."

Group Salutes: A moment shared between two or more students at the beginning or end of an activity, a Group Salute is a teacher-prompted interaction that is a quick, low-prep way to cultivate community. The shared gesture can be physical-like a high five-or social-a teacher could ask students to express gratitude to their group members.

There's some interesting data supporting this idea: Researchers found that NBA teams whose players touch the most early in the season-high fives, fist bumps, etc.-had the best records later for the season.

High School

Morning Meetings: Morning meetings have long been a staple of elementary classrooms, but they can help students in all grades transition into class. Riverside School, a pre-K to 12th-grade school in Ahmedabad, India, uses a version of morning meetings at every grade level as "a pure relationship-building time." Bonding exercises led by teachers or students include physical or social and emotional activities, or discussions of sensitive topics like bullying.

Appreciation, Apology, Aha: As a quick, daily closing activity, students gather in a circle and share an appreciation of one of their peers, an apology, or a light bulb moment. The teacher models the activity by sharing and then asks for volunteers to speak.

"Those types of appreciations and community recognitions can go a long way toward building bonds," explains Aukeem Ballard, an educator with Summit Public Schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"A low-stakes thorn might be 'I feel tired.' Yet many students choose to share more personal items, like 'My thorn is that my dog is sick and I'm really worried about her,'" writes Alex Shevrin Venet, a former school leader at a trauma-informed high school.

Snowball Toss: Students anonymously write down one of their stressors on a piece of paper, crumple it up, gather in a circle, and throw their paper balls in a mock snowball fight. When that's done, they pick up a snowball and read it aloud.

"The idea is that we're moving around. We're able to have fun, laugh, scream, be loud, and then have that discussion about stress," says Marcus Moore, an advisory leader at Urban Prep School in Chicago.

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These community-building ideas for the classroom can help teachers ensure that students in every grade feel like they belong.

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Melody McAllister is starting her 11th year as an educator and is 2017's Garland NAACP Teacher of the Year. She has four beautiful children and one more on the way, and a very supportive husband who is part of the village of bringing up her future. She's an avid KC Royals fan because she is from Missouri, but Texas her my forever home.

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There's No Such Thing As Being Good Or Bad At Science

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Melody McAllister is starting her 11th year as an educator and is 2017's Garland NAACP Teacher of the Year. She has four beautiful children and one more on the way, and a very supportive husband who is part of the village of bringing up her future.

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This resource was created as a response to the University of Toronto's Truth and Reconciliation Steering Committee's call to action to develop and deliver anti-discrimination training, including concepts such as privilege, power, and justice. It is intended for Teaching Assistants (TAs), who wish to engage, make connections, and support critical self-reflexive teaching practices in their classrooms, labs, and tutorials and build greater self-awareness through anti-oppressive and action-based practices. This resource is structured through three guided questions, each of which will provide definitions, active learning activities, and anti-oppressive practices.

1. How can I work towards an anti-oppressive teaching practice?

2. How am I in a position of privilege?

3. What does power have to do with being a teaching assistant?

Before we begin with these questions, research has shown that being reflexive about our social identities in the context of our institutional roles can help us better understand the power relations embedded in our research, classrooms, and pedagogies (Tapper 2005). For more references and resources on how our intersectional identities come into play at the university, see the resource on Social Identities.

Mapping Our Social Identities

As TAs and Course Instructors (CIs), we bring our experience and our expertise into our classrooms, tutorials, and labs. We also bring our social identities. Our social identities include our social relationships, both on a micro (personal) and macro (social) level.

For example, our personal identities are based on our experiences, or what makes us unique, while our social identities are based on our group affinities, such as age, gender, race, religion, abilities, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status. Some identities are visible, such as race and assumed gender, while others are invisible, such as abilities, socioeconomic status, and education level.

All of our social identities intersect, change, and evolve over time.

Activities to Consider:

How can I work towards an anti-oppressive teaching practice?

When we talk about social justice in the classroom, we are talking about a process and a goal to provide students with critical understandings of the social, historical, cultural, political, economic, and ethical contexts of our respective disciplines. This will look different for each of us, but we might begin with asking ourselves: What kinds of knowledge do we need as TAs to provide an education to students that is grounded in anti-oppressive practices? For more on social justice and how to set the stage for equitable discussion, see the Diversity Toolkit.

As Teaching Assistants, we can work towards an anti-oppressive teaching practice by...

treating students from all backgrounds with dignity and respect

supporting students based on their diverse social locations

ensuring students are physically and psychologically safe and secure

ensuring that every student has a voice in the decisions that affect them

fighting the oppression or the "isms," including sexism, racism, classism, ableism, ageism, heterosexism, etc.

Remember: The "isms" happen at all levels. They are reinforced by societal norms, institutional biases, interpersonal interactions and individual beliefs.

Individual e.g., feelings, beliefs, values

Interpersonal e.g., actions, behaviors and language

Institutional e.g., legal system, education system, public policy, hiring practices, media images

Societal/Cultural e.g., collective ideas about what is "right"

How do I create, facilitate, and promote an anti-oppressive learning environment? Here are a few approaches you can try:

How am I in a position of privilege?

When we talk about privilege, we are referring to the systemic or structural advantages we experience based on our social identities, or the "unearned social power accorded by the formal and informal institutions of society to ALL members of a dominant group (e.g., white privilege, male privilege, class privilege, etc.). Privilege is usually invisible to those who have it because we're taught not to see it, but nevertheless it puts them at an advantage over those who do not have it." As mentioned above, we can expect our identities to intersect, overlap, and create different advantages and disadvantages over time.

Here are some examples of how to be aware of our privilege in our teaching roles. We've included leading discussion-based tutorials, labs and practicals, and teaching students how to "write good," or within field-specific boundaries, as the teaching contexts.

During discussion-based tutorials, we will...

Pay attention and react to trends in conversations. Who is speaking up? Who is staying silent? Why? How can your facilitation support new voices joining?

Listen for understanding seeking to understand as well as empathize with different logics, ways of knowing, experience, etc.

Structure conversations to support equity of voice. Sometimes, simply giving some time for participants to process individually or with a partner before a whole group conversation helps bring new voices into the discussion.

Consider how the set up and structure can invite all voices into the conversation.

Set norms in advance. Agreeing on shared norms can help set the conditions for more equitable exchanges and allow groups to explore learning moments thoughtfully and with curiosity.

Draw on the insights of others. Develop a network of colleagues of different identities and perspectives to help you notice and compensate for your blind spots in planning, facilitating and reflecting on discussions.

Go to where the learning is. The learning may be in the activity you planned as a facilitator, but it may also be in a critical incident that arises during a conversation and is worth unpacking as a group. Learn when to follow your agenda and when to take an Equity Pause.

During labs and practicals, we will...

Acknowledge that gender inequality in STEM is a real phenomenon in Canada.

Acknowledge that our students come from diverse social locations with different relationships to STEM and Euro-Western science.

Set ground rules, guidelines, or a code of conduct before starting to collaborate.

Use this cheat sheet for Consensus-Oriented Decision Making (CODM), which is a process where everyone in a group agrees to move forward on a plan of action. This doesn't mean everyone agrees equally, but that everyone has agreed to move forward regardless of unevenness and differences of opinion.

Consider practices such as Round Robins/Talking Circle, wherein each person gets a chance to speak.

When teaching students how to "write good," we...

Acknowledge that "good writing" is often associated with specific social locations.

Recognize that "good writing" has multiple forms depending on field and discipline and that academic writing is just one of many different kinds of good writing.

Encourage students to use their voices.

What does power have to do with it?

When we talk about power, we are referring to the complex set of power relations we experience as both graduate students and teaching assistants as well as the forms of oppression that can result from the use of our institutional privilege and power. For example:

As graduate students, we exist in relation to the University of Toronto, our department, our supervisor, and our colleagues, as well as all of the invisible labourers and caretakers that maintain the libraries, classrooms, technologies, and all of the other resources we rely on as students.

As Teaching Assistants, we have responsibilities to the University of Toronto and its policies, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the department where we teach, the course instructor (Professor or CI), our fellow TAs, and our students. The specificities of these relations will be determined via our diverse social locations.

As graduate students and TAs, we hold multiple identities, which means that our relationship to power/power imbalances will be different and change over time.

Knowledge is power, but who decides what counts as knowledge? In universities, the default model of teaching places teachers in a position of power over students. It is up to us to work towards identifying, reflecting, and accounting for bias in our evaluation. Let's go over some of the abilities and capacities we hold in relation to our students:
As experts in the classroom, TAs can...

Hold the power to call on, recognize, and reward students for their participation, perspectives, and work.

Hold the "expert knowledge" that students require to succeed.

Depending on our teaching contracts, we might even have the power to choose course content from readings to forms of evaluation. When it comes to choosing course content, we must be aware of the power we have to define or erase particular knowledges.

When we evaluate participation, TAs can...

Place value on the particular ways we define participation, likely based on how experience tells us participation is typically evaluated. This most often equates participation with putting one's hand up and speaking in class, and can privilege students more comfortable with this form of engagement (often male, often those whose first language is English, and often students whose parents attended university).

Risk assuming that students looking at their computers or phones should not receive a high participation mark. These students may actually be reviewing course materials, looking up definitions, or using assistive technology.

When we develop assignments or exam questions, TAs can...

Decide what knowledge we feel is most important for the students to have learned from our teaching over the duration of the course. In deferring to norms in our fields about what is most important or what foundational texts are, we are likely to require the very diverse group of students at the University of Toronto to write assignments or exams based exclusively on the work of white men.

Are rewarding students who are best able to respond in the assessment style that we have chosen. Diversifying the types of assessments that we use provides more students the opportunity to excel.

When we oversee exams, TAs are...

In charge of enforcing the University of Toronto's Rules of Conduct for Examinations, which includes keeping time and controlling how students move in the space. For example, students are not allowed to leave the examination room unescorted for any reason. When taking students to the bathroom, consider how you are interacting with them and how these interactions might impact their experience of writing the exam. While you should not chat with the student, you can make an effort to be pleasant and be clear that walking them to the bathroom is not an inconvenience for you.

In charge of monitoring cheating. Are you checking in on some students more than others? Why or why not?

Acknowledging how our presence may impact students' mental state during an already stressful experience such as an exam. Consider the kinds of interactions (positive or negative) that your students may have had with individuals of your social location in the past. This will likely influence their interpretation of your role in the examination, their relationship with you and the resulting impact on their experience.

When we grade assignments, TAs can...

Work from a rubric based on our (or the course instructor's) assessment of what is most important, which is a subjective assessment that relies on potentially biased norms in the field and what we particularly value as academics rather than a more general truth.

Quickly skim and reward students based primarily on whether or not they are clear writers (often intended to be 5-20% of the mark) rather than whether they included the required content. Often TAs have limited time to spend on each assignment.

Remember: There is no "outside" of power relations. Whether we are in a classroom or lab, evaluating participation or grading from home, or overseeing an exam, we bring our experiences and beliefs to our teaching practice.
References and Further Resources

2Revolutions: Do What You Love for Good. (n.d.). https://www.2revolutions.net

Anti-Oppressive Facilitation for Democratic Practice. (2017). AORTA: Anti-Oppressive
Resource and Training Alliance. http://aorta.coop/portfolio_page/anti-oppressive-facilitation/

Barnett, P.E. (2013). Unpacking Teachers' Invisible Knapsacks: Social Identity
and Privilege in Higher Education. Association of American Colleges and Universities. https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/unpacking-teachers-invisible-knapsacks-social-identity-and

Blackwell, Deanna M. (2010). Sidelines and separate spaces: Making education anti-
racist for students of color. Race, Ethnicity and Education 13(4), 473-94.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2010.492135.

Blakeney, Alda M. (2005). Antiracist pedagogy: Definition, theory, and professional
development. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy. 2(1), 119-132. https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2005.10411532.

Cote-Meek, S. (2014). Colonized classrooms: Racism, trauma and resistance in post-
secondary education. Fernwood Publishing.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Social Identities. (n.d.). Northwestern Searle Centre for
Advanced Teaching and Learning. https://www.northwestern.edu/searle/initiatives/ diversity-equity-inclusion/social-identities.html

Goldbach, J. (2019, May 7). The MSW@USC Diversity Toolkit: A Guide to Discussing
Identity, Power and Privilege. USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.
https://msw.usc.edu/mswusc-blog/diversity-workshop-guide-to-discussing-identity-power-and-privilege/#name

Hango, D. (2015, Nov. 27). Gender Differences in Science, Technology, Engineering,
Mathematics and Computer Science (STEM) Programs at University. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2013001/article/11874-eng.htm

Hahn Tapper, Aaron J. (Summer 2013). Pedagogy of social justice education: Social
identity theory, intersectionality, and empowerment. Conflict Resolution Quarterly. 30 (4).

Hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom.
Routledge.

Jacobson, D. and Mustafa, N. (2019). Social identity map: A reflexivity tool for
practicing explicit positionality in critical qualitative research. International
Journal of Qualitative Methods. 18, 1-12. DOI: 10.1177/1609406919870075 journals.sagepub.com/home/ijq

Kailin, J. (2002). Antiracist education: From theory to practice. Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers.

Kandaswamy, P. (2007). Beyond colorblindness and multiculturalism: Rethinking anti-
racist pedagogy in the university classroom. Radical Teacher. 80(6), 6.

Kumashiro, K. (2002). Troubling education: "Queer" activism and anti-oppressive
pedagogy. Routledge.

Kumashiro, K. (2000). Toward a theory of anti-oppressive education. Review of
Educational Research. 70(1), 25-53.

Liboiron, M. (n.d.). How to Run a Feminist Science Lab Meeting. CLEAR: Civic
Laboratory for Environmental Action Research. https://civiclaboratory.nl/2017/03/31/how-to-run-a-feminist-science-lab-meeting/

Racial Equity Tools. (n.d.). Racial Equity Tools. https://www.racialequitytools.org/home

Safer Space Policy/Community Agreements. (n.d.). The Anti-Oppression Network.
https://theantioppressionnetwork.com/resources/saferspacepolicy/

Smith, L. T. (2013). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples.
Zed Books Ltd.

Smith, L. T, Tuck, E. and K. Wayne Yang. (2018). Indigenous and decolonizing studies
in education. Routledge New York.

St. Clair, D, and Kishimoto, K. (2010). Decolonizing teaching: A cross-curricular and
collaborative model for teaching about race in the university. Multicultural Education. 18(1), 18-24.

Term Work, Tests, and Final Exams. (2019). University of Toronto Academic Calendar.
https://fas.calendar.utoronto.ca/term-work-tests-and-final-exams

Trifonas, P. (2003). Pedagogies of difference: Rethinking education for social change.
Routledge Falmer.

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Privilege, Power, and Justice in the Classroom - Teaching Assistants' Training Program

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Anti-Oppressive Practices for Teaching Assistants at the University of Toronto The following information is available in PDF format. This resource was created as a response to the University of Toronto's Truth and Reconciliation Steering Committee's call to action to develop and deliver anti-discrimination training, including concepts such as privilege, power, and justice.

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How to build an equitable learning community in your science classroom : StemTeachingTools (en-US)