For this class we traveled to Carlsbad High School and attended a workshop for future teachers lead by the GSA club on campus headed by teacher Kurt Dearie.
When we first walked in the room for the workshop there were large circles made of desks for us to sit at. Students in the GSA club at school were already sitting in some of the seats and we filled in the rest to make groups of teacher candidates and students mixed together. we began with a vocabulary activity to help us be familiarized with the words commonly used when talking about this subject in school. We had to match the vocabulary words to the correct definitions and then a student walked us through the correct answers. I had never hear some of the words before so some of the matching was difficult, but going over the answers and asking clarifying questions was helpful at the end of the activity.
For me, the most beneficial part of the workshop was when we gave the students a chance to share their stories with us. I enjoyed hearing these students' stories because they are students just like anyone else and their stories and difficulties matter to me as much as any student. It does not matter what my beliefs are, I want to make sure that I know how to create a comfortable learning environment for each and every one of the students in my class. The most valuable thing that I learned in this workshop is that is extremely powerful when a teacher stands us for a student when negative words are being used in the classroom. Each of the students in my group expressed that they felt more comfortable in a classroom when they knew that the teacher was not afraid to speak up when they hear negative language being used in the classroom. I am not going to ignore it when i hear my students using words that may be offensive to others in my classroom. I will always make a point to address it and provide the student with other more appropriate words to use instead.
When we first walked in the room for the workshop there were large circles made of desks for us to sit at. Students in the GSA club at school were already sitting in some of the seats and we filled in the rest to make groups of teacher candidates and students mixed together. we began with a vocabulary activity to help us be familiarized with the words commonly used when talking about this subject in school. We had to match the vocabulary words to the correct definitions and then a student walked us through the correct answers. I had never hear some of the words before so some of the matching was difficult, but going over the answers and asking clarifying questions was helpful at the end of the activity.
For me, the most beneficial part of the workshop was when we gave the students a chance to share their stories with us. I enjoyed hearing these students' stories because they are students just like anyone else and their stories and difficulties matter to me as much as any student. It does not matter what my beliefs are, I want to make sure that I know how to create a comfortable learning environment for each and every one of the students in my class. The most valuable thing that I learned in this workshop is that is extremely powerful when a teacher stands us for a student when negative words are being used in the classroom. Each of the students in my group expressed that they felt more comfortable in a classroom when they knew that the teacher was not afraid to speak up when they hear negative language being used in the classroom. I am not going to ignore it when i hear my students using words that may be offensive to others in my classroom. I will always make a point to address it and provide the student with other more appropriate words to use instead.