I chose mother as my identity, and a time I felt proud or included to be a mother is when I’m able to share my experiences via social media, or in mom groups, or with a stranger on the street who is holding her child’s hand while I hold my own. I feel like these moments create a connection between us even when we don’t know each other.  I think a way for students to be their authentic selves in class is to create a strong classroom community where students are not afraid to ask questions, and state opinions.  

Activity 2 reflection: 
Visible: Asian

Surface: sister

Deeper: mother

Some challenges I might face in trying to ensure all voices and identities are validated in the classroom is time and knowledge.Some opportunities to reinforce identities would be in morning meetings, read alouds, modeling of my own culture and others, ensuring there are visuals that match my students.

Activity 3 reflection:  
Self documentation is a great way for students to analyze more about themselves. Building prior knowledge and prioritizing student interests can help students feel more confident in sharing. Utilizing circle meetings and restorative justice circles can also be a place to build a stronger community, enabling students to share more openly in other parts of their school day. 

Activity 4 reflection: 

I think building bridges and connections between home/ family life and content will be the main way to encourage students to be their authentic selves and to stay engaged in STEM activities. We need to make our teaching meaningful for our students. Some ways to do this could include consistent morning meetings and circles so our class community remains strong. Other ways could include utilizing a variety of culturally responsive discussion activities so students can share their ideas and thoughts. 

 

Activity 5 reflection: 

I think it’s important for teachers to be prepared, especially during hot topic discussions; this means knowing your students, and brainstorming possible answers and different directions the discussion can take. Then formulating a plan of action for each. The goal is to grow students’ thinking through discussion, therefore hot topic discussions need to be strategic and deliberate. Some possible ways to have discussions are to do it smaller groups so students feel more comfortable, maybe assign roles and/ or sides so students are growing their thinking, pre- reading the free writes and being deliberate in who begins, who ends etc. 

Activity 6 reflection: 

This process was helpful because all of our claims were based on factual data. From the presented data, we were asked to think through causes and reform. This same process can be used with students. I teach younger students so we could work as a class on this, using prompts from me and sentence stems to keep our work on track. This sort of process can be used for many subjects.  

 

Activity 7 reflection: 

Some challenges in connecting science and ELA is that sometimes we need to use specific curriculum or books that don’t always align with the other content area. Time can also be a factor because sometimes teachers are not given enough time to connect academic areas. 

 

Activity 8 reflection: 

So many of my meaningful learning happened with another person(s) around. Very few happened on my own. This reinforces that students need to be talking to each other. Their learning can be more meaningful that way. Because of this I need to ensure I incorporate culturally competent discussion activities and tasks. 

Activity 9 reflection: 
This activity was challenging because I had to be confined to a small space (just because of situation). Getting to 20 was harder with just me.

Activity 10 reflection: 
 The inventor wants to design a bird feeder to deter squirrels. This video really reinforces that a phenomena can be anything small or large. This video could be inspiring to students because it highlights that no question/ wondering is too small or "wrong'. 

Activity 11 reflection: 
This was a fun activity because it allows for students to brainstorm at no pressure because absolutely everything they say is right! Visuals are appealing so it is also a way for students to stay engaged.