DEIJ & Gender
One of my current professional goals is working on creating a more diverse and inclusive learning environment for my class and others our school.
I am currently reading, collaborating and having discussions around gender and how we can learn and grow through these learning conversations.
Extension of International Women's Day 2022
After reading Strong Is the New Pretty: A Celebration of Girls Being Themselves by Kate T. Parker some students in my class decided they wanted to capture the strength of their female peers in Y1 (5-6yrs).
They were able to assist in capturing pictures of friends and then asking for a quote about what makes them strong. We also collaborated with a secondary school service group - FemiNIST who read us books and shared some photos of what makes them strong as well.
Our interactive exhibition we got to share with all of NIST. The comments by students and adults confirmed how powerful and needed these messages are on our journey to equality.
Creating a more understanding and open future!
Identifying and reflecting on our biases.
We continue to look at what gender means and how we see it through our own perspectives. My 5-6 year-olds have been looking at the vocabulary we use, and also activities/likes/etc that are often associated with each gender. This documentation was up for several months and was always open for additions and changes. We would reflect and then find evidence which led to discussions around where different words (aunt, grandpa, her, he), activities (soccer, painting nails, playing video games) or attributes (long hair, wearing cleats or dresses) could be organized on our wall.
And always... A well stocked classroom library with books to show a variety of perspectives.
