Reflections on my Auto-ethnography Assignment

My life experiences have helped me gain a deeper understanding of inequality, racial bias, and classism. It also helped me see the important role teachers play in shaping the social outlook of society. Every year students from various backgrounds and experiences join a room full of strangers with a new teacher they might have never seen before. Students and teachers will spend more time together each week than they will with their families. 

It’s vital that teachers create an environment that is calm and welcoming where students feel safe and heard. It’s also important that teachers and students have a chance every day to get to know each other, through morning meetings, group projects, field trips and classroom activities. Through these experiences teachers and students are actively creating a community that reflects the needs of the students. When issues arise among students, teachers have the unique opportunity to influence a positive outcome. When teachers model active listening, and set standards for respectful behavior, students learn about their feelings, why they react the way they do, and improve their relationships with one another. Taking time for this each day is necessary, as more families face financial uncertainty, environmental crisis, and mounting health concerns such as COVID. 

When adults and children feel stress, they tend to take out their aggression on one another. They look for differences and form alliances. This results in bullying, and social inequality. Making social-emotional learning part of the curriculum helps children understand their emotions, slow down their reaction time during tense moments, and make them more self-aware and empathetic.