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This is structured starting with how my educational experiences have shaped my motivation to become a teacher, especially an inclusive educator, and what I want to replicate or change for my students. Then I’ll discuss how my teaching practices will help my students reach their goals, the ideological tensions that I anticipate experiencing as a teacher (with family, friends, future colleagues, parents and community members), why there might be tensions, and how I hope to meet them. This will be followed by five commitments to my future students based on what I have learned during this project and the ideas we have explored this quarter. I will discuss how these readings, discussions, and reflections have shaped my understanding of my role as a teacher, especially as a special education teacher.

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For our educational biography that we did prior to this, we researched a high school that we went to, looked at the graduation and diversity rates, and we answered questions about our educational experiences. These questions brought up a lot of things that we don't normally consider. Some of these influences regarding the importance of education were expectations from family and teachers, messages from social environments, the larger cultural context, and the media. Revisiting my educational past has made me think about my positive and negative educational experiences, why I want to be a teacher, what I believe should stay the same, and what areas need improvement to ensure my future students have a better educational experience than I did. I have five commitments that I plan implement in my classroom. My five commitments involve multicultural classrooms, emotionally safe spaces, antiracism, supporting student identities, and pedagogical love. I believe that I can be part of a positive change and set examples for my students.

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There are several things that motivated me to become a teacher, especially an inclusive educator. I went to schools where the students were pretty diverse and also schools that weren't diverse, however culture wasn't a topic of discussion often at any of the schools I attended, if at all. I am of mixed race, being a mix of Filipino, Swedish, and Ashkenazi. Today, I'm proud of my heritage, but it took a while to get here. Being a person of color, I think a lack of discussion of different cultures in school affected my view of myself and also how others viewed different cultures, in a negative way. If you were of the same culture as the majority, you would have seen more people that looked like yourself as teachers, in books, or in the media. That would be inspiring. If not, you felt invisible. I've been called racial slurs throughout my life and I've seen many others face racism as well. I am motivated to become an inclusive educator to change how cultures are represented within the classroom and to educate my students on antiracism. I want to instill love and respect for others, including people that are different from them. Similarly, I struggled with confidence and body image in late elementary and middle school, but I've had some extraordinary teachers that helped me overcome that by being kind and reassuring me of my good qualities. I felt like they honestly believed in me. I hope to also empower my students, and gently push them towards their goals and potential by teaching with pedagogical love. Most people go through trauma at some point in their lives, children may be included. Whatever the trauma is, wherever it comes from, it is valid. Some children are not taught healthy coping mechanisms from their families and are not in touch with their feelings. This trauma can come out in a multitude of ways if not dealt with appropriately. I also want to create an emotionally safe space for my students to help them understand their feelings, or at least acknowledge them and realize that they are just feelings, which they have control over.

My teaching practice will help my students reach their own goals because they will have confidence in themselves, their abilities, their identity, and their emotions. I think these are some of the keys that will help my students interact positively with their classmates and myself, and it will help them discover a love for learning. As long as I hold up my end of the bargain to teach them to set good goals and create interesting, informational, relevant, and engaging lesson plans.

I'm sure there will be idealogical tensions that I will face as an inclusive educator. People always have something to say when changes are being made that don't align with their values or if they don't understand. I think my family and friends will support me as a teacher and the way I choose to teach. I would hope my future colleagues support my ideas, but if they don't, I would have conversations with them to see if there is a misunderstanding. However, I could see parents or community members possibly getting upset about their children being taught "too much culture", "too much about emotions", or "too much" of anything. I would take the time to explain what we are learning and why and offer them resources to do their own research if they're uncomfortable with the ideas. If they still have an issue, I would tell them that the school supports these ideas and bring in support, if needed.

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I commit to embracing and celebrating the differences in my students' cultures and creating a multicultural classroom. I hate to say it, but students of color seem to be an afterthought in a traditional school setting, or that they need to change to fit into western society's idea of a deserving student in order to receive a good education. This needs to change because our schools are becoming more diverse, we are seeing more of our students of color fall behind, and we need to support all of our students. "Proponents of multicultural education argue that the primary goal of public education is to foster the intelligence, social, and personal development of all students to their highest potential" (Bennet, 2017, P4). This is what I hope to accomplish with my future classroom. A  multicultural classroom would include equity pedagogy, curriculum reform, multicultural competence, and teaching toward social justice (Bennet, 2017, P5). I want to help provide equal opportunities for all my students and help them get the resources/services they need to be successful. Also, I want my students to feel comfortable speaking their first language in class, for example, working with a partner that speaks the same language. I think this would translate well for when my students are older and experience others talking in different languages. The curriculum needs to expand further than the history and perspective of the US. We need to bring in curriculum that includes accurate Native American history and perspectives, along with other cultures. There needs to be books based on other cultures, names in story problems from other cultures, artwork in the classroom from other cultures, the list goes on! I have this idea of bringing in a large world map and having students participate in a cultural project on themselves and marking on the map where their family is from and maybe bringing in guest speakers (family to help students discuss their culture) or choosing a culture of the month to discuss. I think things like this would help develop multicultural competence. All these things combined will teach towards social justice, where "The ultimate goal is to develop antiracist, antisexist, anticlassist behavior in basic everyday life" (Bennet, 2017, P10). I hope to help them realize that we can help create a better world than our current one.

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"We have this idea that these indigenous peoples, these distant others, quaint and colourful though they may be, are somehow destined to fade away, as if natural by law, as if they are failed attempts at being modern, failed attempts at being us. This is simply not true. In every case these are dynamic living peoples being driven out of existence by identifiable and overwhelming external forces. This is actually an optimistic observation, for it suggests that if human beings are the agents of cultural destruction, we can also be the facilitators of cultural survival" (Davis, 2009, P167).

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I commit to creating an emotionally safe space for my students and to be observant of changes and respond appropriately. We don't always know where our students come from, what their home life is like, or where their emotional well being is at. Our students may be facing poverty, homelessness, discrimination, or threat of deportation. Emotional health is very important, and important to establish at a young age. It can affect focus and motivation and alter attitudes. We must be patient, understanding, and keep in mind that, "Sometimes traumatized children are too anxious to sit quietly during circle time, too afraid of who might walk in the room to take their eyes off the classroom door, or too deprived to share a doll or toy. Rather than criticizing children for these behaviors, it is important for teachers to recognize the underlying causes and help the child to feel more calm, safe, and content" (Paine et al, 2020). I want my students to feel safe in my classroom and know they can come to me if there is something going on. I want to teach my students to be aware of their feelings, starting with a daily "body inventory check in" at the beginning of class and one at the end of class. A body inventory check in could look like, the teacher leading the class and instructing them to close their eyes and take a few deep breaths to think about how they are feeling today (physically, mentally, and emotionally), why they might be feeling the way they do, what they want to accomplish today, and then ask if someone would like to share out loud, to a partner, or in their journal. I commit to being observant of the changes in my students and responding appropriately.

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I commit to being an antiracist teacher. I want my students of color to know that I stand with them and their families against the injustices they face every single day. I want to teach all my students why it's important to be an antiracist, why it is wrong to dislike someone simply because of the color of their skin, and why we need to stand up for each other and stand together. This is a complex societal issue and there is a lot of history that needs to be explained to help them understand how our country got to this point and how we can help make a difference. It will also be important to educate students on the terms surrounding this topic, so they won't use racial slurs or stereotypes out of not understanding what they mean. The more they know about this issue, the more likely they are to understand and realize what kind of person they want to be. I know I have more work to do to in this aspect also, I want to have a deeper understanding of the history of other cultures because, "Teachers need to know the beauty of (those) culture(s), not just the hardships, that produce beautiful minds, many of them which are sitting right in front of them" (Love, 2019, P129). It is simply not enough to be assimilationists, we need to be antiracists and teach antiracism. I want to encourage my students to engage with people that look different than them.

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I commit to supporting and inspiring my students to be themselves and to be proud of who they are, and to know who they are. It's important to start discovering your identity and ways to describe yourself so that you're not easily influenced by others and you stay true to yourself. One thing I plan to provide my students with is education and resources on LGBTQ. "Schools nationwide are hostile environments for a distressing number of LGBTQ students,
the overwhelming majority of whom routinely hear anti-LGBTQ language and experience victimization and discrimination at school. As a result, many LGBTQ students avoid school activities or miss school entirely" (Kosciw, 2019).

Education on this topic would hopefully help with this and make these students feel more accepted at school. Having posters and signs will also be something I would like to implement. I also plan to ask my students what pronouns they would like to use and teach students to be respectful of this. As I discussed earlier, I also want my students to be proud of their cultures. Ensuring students of color are accurately identified for special education is something I would like to make sure is done the right way, so that my students get the help they need. I plan to intervene when I see issues arise amongst students. Lastly, I want to support an inspire students to be themselves. They should be free to be goofy, shy, talkative, imaginative, independent, creative, helpful, and themselves. Children aren't robots and it's important that they are free to express themselves.

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I commit to teach my future students with pedagogical love.  This won't be an easy task! Students can be challenging, say mean things, throw things, hurt others, refuse to work, and be defiant. "... Part of the educator’s task was to love a student when he is behaving in an unlovable way" (Crampton, 2017, P2). I have a lot of patience and I think this will serve me well as a teacher. Knowing the answers to every situation when I start teaching isn't going to be possible, but as long as I teach with love, seek support, don't give up, and treat my students well, I think it will be just fine. Time, experience, and great mentors will guide me in handling these difficult situations. Dr. Tracy Psycher gave us some good advice to reduce tensions in the classroom that I plan to use. She said to use humor. What kid doesn't like to laugh, how can you be hurtful to someone who makes you laugh? I know I can't. She also said to develop routines, have daily journals, and play social games, which I plan to do! She also said that if I'm having a troubling time with a student, I can look to a colleague that does well with students to see if they have any pointers for me. Believing in our students, regardless of the challenges is a form of pedagogical love and it requires a tremendous amount of work. I want my students to feel valued and seen. I want them to know I care about them, care about their learning, and I also want to instill a love for learning that they can carry with them through life.

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In conclusion, I think it is important to create a multicultural classroom where students feel safe to be who they are and express themselves, where all students are celebrated and loved, including students from different cultures, students of LGBTQ, and students with disabilities. I'm not afraid to have the difficult conversations with my future students, I'm excited! This may seem like it would take up a lot of time, but I believe there is a way to incorporate all of these ideas into the curriculum. With the way the world is today, it is necessary to educate our youth in new ways!

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