What lengths am I willing to go to in order to do right by every child?

    As a teacher, building trust in the classroom will be very important to me. I will let every student know that their lives are extremely important to me and they are able to reach out to me about anything they want to. I will assure them that they are in a safe and friendly environment in my classroom and any negative or scary situations they can talk to me about and I will give them the best advice or care. I will also make sure my classroom is like a family and teach them how to handle people of different backgrounds because that is something that will play a huge role in them being successful growing up.

    It is so important as educators that we are giving each student the opportunity to be heard and listen to in the classroom. This can involve looking through each curriculum and developing a plan to have the ones who connect with it share their experiences. This was seen in “The Culturally Responsive Teacher” when they had given an example of an immigrant student that would learn more and also inform her fellow classmates if in social studies she was able to tell her side of her immigration story or have her parents talk about their experiences. This will help connect the topic they are learning with real experiences that their classmates have gone through. As teachers this connection helps build a bridge between students home lives and their school lives helping them become comfortable in the classroom.

How Does Gender Affect the Teaching Profession?

The first male teacher I had was in the 6th grade. Because of this growing up I always assumed that teaching was more for women than it was for men. This confused me growing up because people with higher power like principals and superintendents were almost always males. It took some time until I realized that the reason for this was because men are more respected as teachers than female teachers are despite females making up the majority of educators. Women are seen as caregivers in society which is the reason why 97% of preschool teachers are women and with each year the percentages get lower until there is only 47% of women teaching beyond highschool level. It isn’t fair for women to be the only ones expected to be caregivers and not fair for guys to be rejected from jobs that involve caregiving.

I believe that since teaching is seen as a prominent female job that this could be the reason why the pay is so low. Also despite the low wages, women typically still willingly look into teaching as a career because it’s a job that involves the most child bearing responsibilities which is a reason why women usually go for lower age grades. I believe these factors are just some of the man reasons why gender plays a huge role in the teaching profession and I think we still have a long way until it will be equal

Is Schooling Equitable?

To say that schooling today is fair to all students would just not be true. I have first-hand experience with seeing many of my minority peers being treated differently based on the stereotypes that society puts upon their races. As an educator, it is important to make connections with each student. That's by learning more about their race, ethnicity, and the communities they are a part of that can help the student in life and education. We also as educators are obligated to understand these stereotypes of minorities in the classroom. By being aware of these stereotypes we can learn how to suspend our judgments, be aware of them, and rethink them. This is important because a majority of students come from a different cultural background than the teacher and not knowing how to connect with the students on a personal level can cause the student to be distressed and harm their schooling. A study made in Southern California examined 4,300 students and found that the students who were in higher diversity levels in their classrooms felt safer, less lonely, and had less reports of bullying. It is clear that diversity in the classroom is beneficial so as an educator understanding each student's background can help the success of the students.

Greatest impact on me as an educator:

    This is my first year of college and I already enjoy everything about teaching. I am constantly watching tiktoks and videos of teachers showing off their classrooms and talking about their experiences with their students. I knew I wanted to be a teacher since I was a kid and the reason being is because I grew up with a mom who taught pre-k. Seeing her interact with her students and hearing about the stories of things she’s experienced in the classroom made me feel like teaching was my destiny. I am so lucky to have gotten to experience everything it takes to be a teacher firsthand and to have a mom who can guide me along the way of my journey. I let my mom know all the time that the reason why I am so passionate about going into teaching is because of her. Everyone tells me how much of an impact that she has had on their lives gives me inspiration to be just like her. I am so happy to have my mom as my greatest impact for the reason I’m pursuing education. 

I am also lucky enough to have had such great elementary teachers who I look up to in addition to my mom. My elementary school was the best place that I could’ve gone to and every teacher that I have had from kindergarten through 5th grade has impacted my journey in becoming a teacher in many different ways. I am so incredibly grateful to experience such great teachers in my life and even if I am just half of what they all are, I will be a great teacher

 

Marginalized Stories

Since the beginning of education, schools have participated in the concept of marginalizing so many groups of people. Seeing first-hand the interaction that TikToker ‘@dancingteacher808’ had with their students really opened my mind on just how much history excludes so many important minority figures. Growing up I did come to the realization that the majority of historical figures I was learning about were in fact white males. We were taught about these white males over and over again while I was in school and I agree they are very important to learn about but to spend each year going over the same dudes gets pretty exhausting especially when they are overlooking the important people in minority groups who’s hardships and achievements are not being looked into. I think it is important for schools to teach more marginalized stories that way students see people just like them in historical contexts and develop a mindset that they can do anything just like the people they learned about. Learning about marginalized stories are also important to learn about because you get to hear different stories about communities of people who usually go without being shared. This can teach students about all different kinds of communities and cultures from these stories being shared. Changing the curriculum to better involve the stories is the right thing to do. So many people and I are tired of hearing about the same people and think that people of color, women, LGBTQ+, low-income individu- als, prisoners, the disabled, senior citizens, and many more deserve to have their stories taught in schools.

 

How do we talk about issues that matter?

    Talking about issues can be an incredibly difficult concept to do but pushing these issues away can cause a lot of damage to not only the students but also the teachers. This is because as teachers, challenging conversations are inevitable and it is your job to provide empathy and be a shoulder to lean on for the student. 

To begin talking about the issue, I feel that having a comfortable environment for the students is crucial in the first step of addressing the topics. Letting students know that they can come to you gives them a feeling of comfort in some situations and lets opening up to you way easier. Being able to communicate about these issues is also very important. In the article, “A letter to the students of color who were in my History classes”, the author Dylan Way talks about his experience of not addressing the underlying issues in his classroom. Way would never acknowledge the different races in his class which led to him having unconscious biases because he found that talking about the differences between him as a white male and the minority of students in his classroom made him uncomfortable. 

Not opening up about the issues in the classroom can cause such a negative space and limit your students voices which makes them feel unwanted or seen by their own teachers. No matter what way you decide to talk about these issues amongst your students, taking the initiative to do so can go a long way and I believe finding your own way to deal with them is what will work best. The thing that matters most is to make your students feel like they belong and opening up about their issues can make sure they feel this way.

 

 

     

About Me!

 

Why Teach? 

    Growing up I always knew I wanted to be a teacher much of that reasoning is due to my mother who's been a teacher ever since I was born. Seeing her in her classroom decorating and forming a bond with her students has always intrigued me. I would always fluctuate between being a pediatric nurse or being an elementary school teacher because both jobs involve working with kids which I consider myself good at and is something I love to do but even when questioning myself about whether or not I was going to be a nurse I always knew in the back of my mind that I was made for teaching and made my decision the beginning of senior year.

    I am looking forward to teaching elementary level with second grade being the grade I'd like to specifically teach. I can't wait until I get to build a safe community in my classroom and have the special connections with each student like my mom did. I also look forward to helping the future of our country and basically being the backbone of society! 

Graduation Picture😝

About Me!

    My name is Aliyah President (cool last name I know). I am from a semi small city called Temple, Texas located about an hour north of Austin and 30 minutes south of Waco pretty much in the eastern middle of Texas. I am 18 years old and am a freshman at TXST. I love love love to read my favorite book right now would have to be "A little life" super sad story but very much recommend it. My favorite show is the office and my favorite movie is Titanic. If you look at my arm in the picture you can see I am pretty muscular that is because I did gymnastics for 8 years and then did high school and competitive cheer for 6 years so for a majority of my life I have been able to walk on my hands. I am so excited to be a teacher and cannot wait for everything this class has in stored! <3