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About Me!
About Me!
Hi, my name is Kate Reilly! I just transferred to The College of New Jersey, and I am studying Biology Secondary Education as a junior. Teaching is practically in my blood, so choosing to pursue teaching came naturally. Just as my family's long line of teacher became influential teachers, I wish to do the same. I want to do better than them though. From the few education classes I have taken at TCNJ, I have learned so much. I have always been an inclusive and supportive person, but I never realized how much of our present education is not. I am grateful I have had the opportunity of taken EFN 299, because it has opened my eyes to all the injustice happening in our school systems. I want to be one of the teachers who start making the change. My future classroom will be a place where all are welcome and can feel supported.
Strategies for Culturally Responsive Teaching:
Familiarizing yourself with your students' dialect or native language. Communicate with them using some of their vocabulary.
Regularly include contributions or work from student's cultures or diverse backgrounds. Don't just highlight them during a special week or month.
A good teacher never stops learning. To create an inclusive classroom we must constantly learn from and about our students. This article from the National Science Teaching Association defines what culturally responsive teaching is and highlights some key inclusive practices for the classroom. Being a culturally responsive teacher as defined in the article is using previous experiences and references, cultural knowledge, and efficient styles of diverse students to make learning more relevant for them. Culturally responsive teaching follows these principles, acknowledging student's cultural heritage and teaching them to praise theirs, building a connection between home and school experiences, and using a wide variety of learning methods. All the strategies mentioned in this article centralize around the idea of validating student's diverse identities and integrating them into the curriculum and classroom.
Strategies for DEI Classroom Practices:
Integrating the work and contributions of people of color, LGBTQ+, women, and people with disabilities into the classroom.
Inviting guest speakers or lecturers of diverse backgrounds into the classroom.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion must be integrated into our classrooms. Professor Diana Ortiz of Westminster College has been highlighting the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in a biology course. It is important that we recognize the socioeconomic disparities throughout the world of science. To integrate these DEI concepts into the classroom it is important to recognize that scientists are just “white old men.” In fact there is a wide variety of diverse people who have made many scientific contributions. People of color, women, LBDTQ+, people with disabilities and more have all made outstanding contributions to the world of science. As future educators we may not even recognize some of those people, so it is important we familiarize ourselves with them so we can introduce them to our students. Inviting guest speakers of diverse backgrounds into the classroom, allows students to get a first hand look at the diversity that exists in science. It also allows students to relate to well-established scholars in the field of science. These speakers can offer first hand real-word experiences and raise awareness of the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Strategies to make STEM Classrooms Inclusive:
Reflect who they are
Elevate their voices
Leverage their experiences
Start with their teacher: you
29 percent of women have held careers in science and engineering in 2017, and only 13 percent of those jobs were held by “underrepresented minorities.” This statistic is a direct result of women and underrepresented groups growing up in classrooms where the only scientists they’re introduced to are old white men. To boost this statistic there are many things we can do to make STEM classes more engaging and better catered to diverse backgrounds. This article demonstrates four ways to create an inclusive STEM classroom. Reflecting on who your students are is an efficient way to create an inclusive classroom. Surrounding your students with successful science scholars that look like them will encourage them. Elevating students’ voices is an effective strategy, as well. Encouraging in classroom scientific debates or asking students to solve problems within their community with STEM. Leveraging their experiences promotes an inclusive classroom. Creating real-life experiments, so students have the opportunity to get hands-on experience. The best way to create an inclusive classroom is with you, the teacher. Recognizing the biases, injustice, and little diversity in science, and making a change by encouraging all students to get involved in STEM.
Strategies to Create Inclusive Environment:
Curriculum relating to current events and student’s experiences.
Implementing hands-on activities for all students.
Reviewing all of the students' work, projects, worksheets, reports, etc.
Inclusive classrooms in science are environments where students feel engaged yet supported. This article discusses some key ways for science teachers to have an inclusive environment. Teachers should recognize what an inclusive classroom looks like and familiarize themselves with the environment. A curriculum that is linked to current events is a key role to creating an inclusive classroom. This keeps students engaged while also allowing them to relate to the current events discussed in class. Creating a classroom environment where all students are involved, gaining hands-on experience. Taking the time to review work. It is detrimental that you review work or projects that students have worked hard on, so that their success can be appreciated. Gallery walks are a great way to keep all students involved and engaged, but also allowing them to get peer feedback on their work. These factors are necessities to creating an inclusive classroom.
Alternative Assessments for Inclusive Science Classrooms:
Podcast creation
Create a blog with students writing posts about the phenomenon they are experiencing
Social media profiles centering around content
Sharing, through artwork. How their culture views the science content
Sharing videos relating to the content
Shadow a mentor in a STEM field and creating a project on your experiences
Creating a flip book
Preparing an entry for Wikipedia
“A microscope does not care who looks through it.” Inclusive classrooms accept and welcome all students no matter their identity. Some inclusive strategies to recognize in your classroom include open-mindedness, listening, suspending judgment, purposefulness, and authenticity. In any classroom students always ponder why we are studying the gas laws of chemistry or standard deviation in math, rather than how we are applying these to our everyday lives. This is often simply due to the fact that it is on our test or exams. This is no way for students to learn. By using alternative assessments we can foster an inclusive environment for students.
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