It has been interesting to reflect on previous teachers and professors I have had and see how their personal or religious beliefs would negatively impact myself and other students. While some of it may have been intentional, it was very surprising when their unarticulated, or unconscious biases/beliefs would offend or negatively impact us. It was almost as if they had a false sense of confidence because of their beliefs that was the actual cause of their poor teaching. 

Maybe because it is pretty much bound to happen, It makes me nervous to think about how and when my own beliefs may negatively impact my students and how I can avoid it. 

I appreciate how this portion of the article addressed how beliefs can lead teachers to misinterpret or incorrectly label various personal identities as disruptive behavior. Whether or not a teacher’s beliefs agree or disagree with how a student or coworker chooses to identify or present themselves shouldn’t conflict with how they are treated. 

In general, even if I may not agree with someone, I “believe” that everyone should still give and receive mutual respect to one another.

In general, I think that this is a great reminder that all things, including beliefs are subjective and limited by perspective. But I also appreciate varying perspectives and think that they provide a great opportunity for me to become more aware and understanding. If everyone was simply limited to my beliefs, the world would probably be pretty boring. Not that I’m boring, but diversity is what contributes to making the world interesting. So while yes, I think it is important to have a personal set of beliefs or standards, understanding others can only benefit us and help us see other people's perspectives and reasoning behind their beliefs.

I am the youngest of three and both my older brother and sister went to the same schools as me and I feel like I had to quarrel with this concept. I was also not as book smart as my siblings, not that I had bad grades or anything, but they were both AP and honors students, while I was demoted to the general education classes for the most part. But, it was hard for me in some ways to pave my own path based on how some teachers would judge me. Some teachers were more strict with me because of my brother's rambunctiousness, while others provided less aid and assumed I would transfer learning as well as my sister had, when I simply couldn’t.

Experiencing this will help me hopefully see and appreciate the differences between student siblings that I will one day have.

This was a good warning call for me in how I intend on creating the reality of my classroom. As teachers we truly have the responsibility to set the tone for our students and can ultimately make or break their education experience. 

For me it made me think of how I need to be structured and responsible, but also open and approachable. I want students to feel safe and comfortable in my class and be able to have mutual respect given and received by all that come into my classroom. 

Throughout this section I thought of two main components for how to change my own beliefs: Humility and Willingness to learn. I don’t know how it is for other teachers, but one of the reasons why I want to become a teacher is to continue learning. I wonder if any/how many teachers out there want to become teachers because they think they are just smarter than everyone else and want to tell people what to do. 

One teacher friend of mine and I always talk about how we plan to continue taking community college classes throughout our careers just for fun, and it's something I genuinely am looking forward to because I like staying humble and remembering that there is so much more for me to learn and experience in life. And I strongly support the idea that as we continue to learn and grow, it will continue to shape our beliefs.

Overall throughout this article, I thought about implicit bias, and the fear that I will let my own negatively impact my beliefs and teaching practice. Hopefully not too sound too casual, but I worry about being either not “woke” enough or too “woke” a lot. I try to be open and get to know people without any preconceived judgement or assigning them to personal perceived stereotypes. I do my best to get to know someone as they are individually but am also conflicted when it comes to cultural ties, identification, and pride, because cultural ties, identification, and pride are also foundational to the whole of who they are. But the biggest thing I think that helps is abstaining from a positive or negative bias and approaching it from an objective perspective.