First, a simple question, what made you choose education as your career choice? Why not other social service pathways?

I come from privilege and feel like I was sheltered in a lot of ways growing up. The schooling system was the one place where that wasn't true. I was in a highly competitive academic setting and had undiagnosed ADHD, and that combination made school a place of trauma for me. But I know that I'm where I am today because there were some individual teachers who made me feel like I was capable, and those classes were a safe space for me. I don't want anyone else to feel like they're "less than" because of factors that are totally beyond their control. But what really cemented my decision was the experience of living through a pandemic. It was a real life case study of all the devastation that can happen when people leave school unable to critically examine the world around them. As I was at a crossroads in my life at the time, it felt like the path forward was to be part of the movement to prevent something like this from happening again.

Have you had any experiences that made you doubt why you wanted to become a teacher? If so, what reaffirmed your choice in this path? If not, how have you been able to relinquish self doubt in this area? 

I have been directly told that I might not belong in this field, and it's true that my disability makes a lot of aspects of this job hard. It's also true that my subject area, social science, is far more white male dominated than most others, and it's so hard to change deeply rooted notions about who does and doesn't belong in that space. But, there's nothing these factors don't affect, and I figure that if I'm going to struggle, I'm going to do it for a cause that I'm very deeply invested in. The other thing that keeps me going is just remembering that a lot of our judgments about who "belongs" somewhere have nothing to do with what we can actually add to the space, and everything to do with deeply rooted inequities. It ties back into why I wanted to do this to begin with, my desire for a world where these misjudgments don't happen. And I also carry the advice that so many educators who came before me have offered - that if my main focus is advocating for the kids, then everything else will follow. 

We Just finished our first portion of our master's program (Yay!) How was your experience in the class? Was there anything you learned that you intuitively knew was necessary to implement into a classroom?

The kinds of discussions we've had in our classes have been incredibly healing and affirming, Being in this program has really validated my experiences, and also made me look at them from a whole new lens. I have a newfound passion for the research side of the education field, and that's definitely something I want to pursue more after finishing the degree and even as I continue teaching. So much of what I know I have to implement is all about making class an empowering experience for students, whether it's encouraging a growth mindset or validating the funds of knowledge that they bring, something that this program has encouraged. I have learned so much just listening to my classmates speak, and I have loved engaging in these profound conversations.

What is your current teaching philosophy? How do you think it may change within the next year as we continue on in the program?

I want everyone in my class to believe that they're capable of success, of developing a positive attitude towards my discipline, of belonging in these academic spaces. I would hope that I can do that by exploring all the ways social science shows up in their everyday lives, encouraging meaningful discussions, and drawing on things that are meaningful to them. But I also know that there's only so much that I really can do, and my environment won't always be conducive to that, and I know that this year will be all about finding out where I actually have the room to implement this. 

Lastly, A lot of our peers have been feeling an overwhelming amount of pressure because of our talks about diversity, inclusion, and social and cultural education in our classes, as for many this is the first time fully being able to speak about the issues/ are getting a large amount of information at once. What is some advice you may have to help navigate these emotions? And how can we help alleviate these negative emotions about heavy topics for us to further the conversations?

I would say that you shouldn't feel like you have to apologize for not knowing these things inherently! We are all products of our upbringing, and sometimes that means that we don't have access to diversity or the language to talk about it. What matters is that you come in with an open mind, and are willing to question your own beliefs and assumptions. So many of the people I know who implement this stuff the best are people who have never been formally trained in these things, while I've also met people who knew all this theory but were always ready to talk over marginalized people. And you do have your own experiences to draw on - you might not experience as much systemic discrimination, but we have all been in settings where we have felt affirmed or left out, and so much of treating people equitably is just drawing on that in figuring out how to treat someone else.

First, a simple question, what made you choose education as your career choice? Why not other social service pathways?

Gran parte del apoyo que recibí de niña vino de mis maestros, me ayudaron mucho y me dieron ganas de hacer lo mismo por los demás. A medida que fui creciendo, seguí viendo un patrón de maestros interviniendo cuando más los necesitaba. Ayudó a solidificar mi objetivo de convertirme en maestra, sabía que podía tener un mayor impacto en la vida de un niño al convertirme en maestra. He explorado otras vías de servicio social e incluso me ofrecí como voluntario con jóvenes de crianza. Sin embargo, mi corazón está puesto en la enseñanza, siento que mis habilidades también son las más adecuadas para ser maestra.

A lot of the support that I received as a child came from my teachers, they helped me a lot and it made me want to do the same for others. As I got older, I continued to see a pattern of teachers stepping in whenever I needed them the most. It helped solidify my goal for becoming a teacher, I knew that I could make more of an impact on a child’s life by becoming a teacher. I have explored other social service pathways and even volunteer with foster youth. However, my heart is set on teaching, I feel that my skills are best suited for teaching as well.

Have you had any experiences that made you doubt why you wanted to become a teacher? If so, what reaffirmed your choice in this path? If not, how have you been able to relinquish self doubt in this area? 

Comencé a trabajar con niños de edad escolar cuando tenía 22 años y al principio fue abrumador, sentí que quizás este camino no fuese para mi. Recuerdo cuando mi primer plan de lecciones fue un desastre, y nada iba de la forma en que lo había planeado. Entonces me di cuenta de que estaba bien, y estaba bien e incluso mejor cuando mis alumnos tomaron mi plan de lección y lo dirigieron en una dirección diferente porque significaba que estaban comprometidos. Aprendí a trabajar con ellos y a facilitar su aprendizaje y a dejar que sus mentes tomaran lo que quisieran, ya que al final del día estaban aprendiendo más de lo que había anticipado. Ahora que he estado trabajando con niños por 5 años, tengo mucha más confianza en mis habilidades y estoy muy emocionada de poder hacer una diferencia en el salón de clases.

I started working with school-aged children when I was 22 and it was overwhelming at first, I felt like I wasn’t cut out for it. I remember when my first lesson plan was a disaster, and nothing was going the way I had intended it to do so. I then realized that it was okay, and it was okay and even better when my students took my lesson plan and steered it in a different direction because it meant they were engaged. I learned to work with them and to facilitate their learning and let their minds take on whichever way they felt like since at the end of the day they were learning more than I had ever anticipated. Now, that I have been working with children for 5 years now, I am much more confident in my abilities and I am just so excited to be able to make a difference in the classroom!

We Just finished our first portion of our master's program (Yay!) How was your experience in the class? Was there anything you learned that you intuitively knew was necessary to implement into a classroom?

¡Estoy tan aliviado de haber terminado con nuestra primera parte de nuestro programa! Fue una experiencia muy diferente, pero en el buen sentido. Realmente me gustó lo diferente que fueron los cursos y disfruté trabajando junto con mi grupo. Pude revisar los temas con mucha más profundidad de lo que jamás había imaginado y estoy agradecida por ello. En clase aprendimos sobre la creación de sentido y la importancia de implementarlo en el aula. Entré en el programa y no estaba familiarizado con el término y me fascinó. Todo tenía sentido e incluso me hizo cuestionar mis propias experiencias en la escuela. Supe de inmediato que esto era algo que sería esencial para mi salón de clases, espero aprender sobre más formas de implementarlo.

I am so relieved to be done with our first portion of our program! It was a very different experience, but in a good way. I really liked how engaging the courses were and I enjoyed working along with my cohort. I was able to review topics in much more depth than I had ever imagine and I am grateful for it. In class we learned about sensemaking and the importance of implementing that in the classroom. I came into the program and I wasn’t familiar with the term and was fascinated by it. Everything made sense and even made me question my own experiences in school. I knew right away that this was something that would be essential for my classroom, I look forward to learning about more ways to implement it. 

What is your current teaching philosophy? How do you think it may change within the next year as we continue on in the program?

Siento que mi filosofía de enseñanza está en constante evolución, pero una cosa sigue siendo la misma, mi objetivo es infundir confianza, tolerancia, respeto y amor por el aprendizaje en todos mis estudiantes. Me parece importante asegurarme de que mis alumnos crezcan para ser seres humanos increíbles y respetar a quienes los rodean, al mismo tiempo que creen que son capaces de lograr todas sus metas. Sé que aprenderé más sobre cómo funcionan nuestros sistemas escolares y cómo implementar estrategias de enseñanza positivas en los niños, así que estoy emocionado de ver qué más agregaré a mi filosofía.

I feel like my teaching philosophy is constantly evolving but one thing remains the same, my goal is to instill confidence, tolerance, respect, and a love for learning in all my students. I find it important to ensure that my students grow up to be amazing human beings and to respect those around them, while also believing that they are capable of achieving all their goals. I know I will learn more about how our school systems work, and how to implement positive teaching strategies on children so I am excited to see what more I will add on to my philosophy. 

Lastly, A lot of our peers have been feeling an overwhelming amount of pressure because of our talks about diversity, inclusion, and social and cultural education in our classes, as for many this is the first time fully being able to speak about the issues/ are getting a large amount of information at once. What is some advice you may have to help navigate these emotions? And how can we help alleviate these negative emotions about heavy topics for us to further the conversations?

En primer lugar, creo que solo iniciar la conversación es un gran paso adelante, definitivamente es un tema pesado y algunos nunca han discutido el tema. Mi consejo es que dé un paso atrás y piense por qué puede sentirse así con respecto al tema. Creo que la autorreflexión puede ayudarte a navegar con las emociones que estás sintiendo. Podemos aliviar las emociones negativas hablando con otros sobre ello y siendo abiertos sobre sus sentimientos y experiencias. Al hacerlo, uno puede encontrar consuelo al saber que otros pueden sentir lo mismo. Es importante tener una comunidad y tener a alguien con quien discutir este tipo de temas, quizás hablar con miembros de su grupo pueda ayudar a aliviar estas emociones negativas y promover la conversación.

First of all, I think that just initiating the conversation is a big step forward, it is definitely a heavy subject, and some have never discussed the topic. My advice is to take a step back and think about why you may be feeling the way you do with regard to the topic. I think self-reflecting can help you navigate with the emotions that you are feeling. We can alleviate the negative emotions by talking to others about it and being open about your feelings and experiences. In doing so one may find comfort in knowing that others may be feeling the same way. It is important to have a community and to have someone to discuss these kinds of topics with, perhaps talking with members of your cohort can help alleviate these negative emotions and further the conversation. 

First, a simple question, what made you choose education as your career choice? Why not other social service pathways?

I chose education to become a teacher because I love working with children, and would love to see more teachers embrace neurodiversity in education. Many educators do not know how to be flexible enough to accommodate all students and seeing some teachers have low expectations of a student because of a diagnosis was heartbreaking for me. After experiencing this situation, I set my heart out into becoming a teacher and constantly learn and adapt to students' needs.

Have you had any experiences that made you doubt why you wanted to become a teacher? If so, what reaffirmed your choice in this path? If not, how have you been able to relinquish self doubt in this area? 

As someone who is Palestinian and visibly Muslim, I’ve always had to carry the burden of having conversations about race and Islamaphobia constantly. I’ve had to consider my safety, well-being, and my ability to integrate into new spaces and navigate predominately white institutions. It’s so important for me to share those experiences with my peers because some of their students will share these experiences and will need emotional support that I lacked when I was younger. Now I pride myself and am so happy I’m going into teaching for others to see new representations of someone from my background.

We Just finished our first portion of our master's program (Yay!) How was your experience in the class? Was there anything you learned that you intuitively knew was necessary to implement into a classroom?

I love the idea of collaborating with like-minded, driven people who are also passionate about teaching. It was a completely different experience for me than in undergrad, and everyone is so nice to work with. It’s important to build this sort of community where we can be open with each other and share different experiences to build knowledge from one another and use other’s lived stories to better understand our future students who might have had similar backgrounds. Something that really resonated with me was the idea of educators creating “brave spaces” instead of “safe spaces”, and how important that is because being different requires courage and encouragement from teachers.

What is your current teaching philosophy? How do you think it may change within the next year as we continue on in the program?

I believe teaching is really a lifelong learning journey. We are going to be thrown into many different situations as educators and pull from our toolbox of theories and experiences for the best educational outcomes. Having flexibility in methods and high expectations for all students is really important in antiracist and equitable teaching strategies. I hope as the year goes on, I can better hone these ideas as we are student teaching and gain more hands-on experience and insights from my mentor teacher.

Lastly, A lot of our peers have been feeling an overwhelming amount of pressure because of our talks about diversity, inclusion, and social and cultural education in our classes, as for many this is the first time fully being able to speak about the issues/ are getting a large amount of information at once. What is some advice you may have to help navigate these emotions? And how can we help alleviate these negative emotions about heavy topics for us to further the conversations?

Feeling overwhelmed is completely normal. I know my peers well enough to say that they are all passionate people and have their hearts in the right place but may have a hard time imagining how these talks will translate into the real world, especially as new teachers. This is why the program instills the feeling of community and collaborative efforts between us because teaching must be a collaborative effort. We will collaborate with other teachers, school officials, parents, and community members to better understand our students’ needs. We are all learning, and will never stop learning, so having the Teacher Diversity Advocate events and website for additional resources is very useful. I hope in the future we can continue to build and add to these resources for everyone’s benefit.

First, a simple question, what made you choose education as your career choice? Why not other social service pathways?

I chose education because I want to make a difference, no matter big or small. I have had plenty of mentors and inspirations in my life, and I knew from a young age this is what I wanted to do for future generations. The same way they valued my mind and appreciated my worth I want to pass the torch and do the same. Why I did not choose another path in the social service route is my past traumas, and sadly most of those avenues are closed off to me because of triggers I still have. I do still want to try my best to service these other pathways to the best of my abilities as an educator.

Have you had any experiences that made you doubt why you wanted to become a teacher? If so, what reaffirmed your choice in this path? If not, how have you been able to relinquish self doubt in this area? 

Yes, I have had a few experiences that have made me rethink my career choice. Many of those involve me being the only person of color in the room and having my voice being drowned out. I didn’t know how I could advocate for my students if I couldn’t even advocate for myself. What made me reaffirm my belief in my choice was the understanding that I am constantly growing as a person, who is learning to navigate the world and the faculty meetings when needed and necessary to get my voice, and my students' thoughts to be acknowledged. While some days I may drop the ball, I can use them as starting points to learn from my mistakes and put it in action the next time it is needed.

We Just finished our first portion of our master's program (Yay!) How was your experience in the class? Was there anything you learned that you intuitively knew was necessary to implement into a classroom?

My experience in class was interesting and a mixed bag of feelings. There was a lot I knew but didn't know as deep of a knowledge that I do now. It made me a bit angry, distraught about the situation of the education system currently and how they came to be. It did make me more determined and motivated to absorb as much as I can from this program and make it an irreplaceable time in my life. I loved our conversations in class and seeing so many people with a common goal and different experiences and backgrounds gave me a lot to think about as the 5 weeks went on. There were plenty of lightbulb moments, but the one I have to say was when group 8 in our first class said for teachers to own up to their own deficiencies. It was a humanizing moment. 

What is your current teaching philosophy? How do you think it may change within the next year as we continue on in the program?

I honestly do not have a formulated teaching philosophy just yet. I believe school and teachers should be a safe haven, while we are not perfect we will do our best to model effective ways to deal with life beyond school. Trying to understand where the students' perspective of school and their value of education relies and depends on how I treat them in the classroom. They are human first, students second, their wellbeing takes priority as education can always be taught and be more rewarding when other factors are not in the way of the students' success. I believe it will change because I will learn more about myself as a teacher and the school system in general. I still have an idealized way of approaching a class, and I am ready for reality to collide with this and make me grow from this.

Lastly, A lot of our peers have been feeling an overwhelming amount of pressure because of our talks about diversity, inclusion, and social and cultural education in our classes, as for many this is the first time fully being able to speak about the issues/ are getting a large amount of information at once. What is some advice you may have to help navigate these emotions? And how can we help alleviate these negative emotions about heavy topics for us to further the conversations?

This is tough because I am a part of this population. It is discussions we need to address but since these topics can be so heavy and emotional because they hit so close to home it becomes very hard to untie yourself to these conversations so they can progress further.  I would say one thing that has helped me is talking it out to family and friends about what we are talking about, and requesting that they do now give me input, just a place to vent. It allows me to clear my mind of my thoughts and my emotions to destress. Then I ask for us to come back to the conversation or for them to text/ write down their thoughts so I can keep them but read them when I am ready. It gives me a bit of control about how I discuss these topics to avoid becoming overwhelmed with emotions. I hope this may help someone in the future and trust we are all there for you!

First, a simple question, what made you choose education as your career choice? Why not other social service pathways?

I didn’t realize that I wanted to become a teacher until I was nearing the end of my time at my community college. Through learning more about history and tutoring my peers, I eventually realized that teaching history was something that I could be good at. Over time, learning about teaching and learning about the liberatory potential that education could have upon people made me consider the field more seriously. By the time I was attending my university, I had already pretty much decided that I would become a teacher.

Have you had any experiences that made you doubt why you wanted to become a teacher? If so, what reaffirmed your choice in this path? If not, how have you been able to relinquish self doubt in this area? 

I haven’t really doubted coming into teaching. The more I learn and read about teaching and different theories, the more excited I become. I sometimes think back to a history teacher that I had in high school who really was one of the first teachers to challenge some of my thoughts about the world and challenged me to think more critically. I think going through this experience where I felt like learning about history kind of revealed the world to me is an important one because I think this helps inspire me to become a teacher who can present new perspectives and ideas to students. I hope to be a teacher that can challenge students in their ideas and get them to see a bigger picture about our world, humanity, and history.

We Just finished our first portion of our master's program (Yay!) How was your experience in the class? Was there anything you learned that you intuitively knew was necessary to implement into a classroom?

One big idea that we keep coming back to, at least for the first summer session, is the idea of community. This really aligns with some of my beliefs about teaching when it comes to fostering classroom community but working with others outside of the classroom. I believe that it is critical that we are teaching our students to work with each other and that we model that to them by working with others. Earlier I mentioned the liberatory potential of education, and I believe that this is one way that education can do this. We must teach our students to work with others to transform their world, but at the same time, we must also be working to transform the world for them. Honestly, there are so many problems going on in the world when it comes to issues like systemic racism, climate change, global recessions, and more; I just hope to be able to work with my students to make their lives a little bit better for when tomorrow does come.

What is your current teaching philosophy? How do you think it may change within the next year as we continue on in the program?

I think that I have kind of already hinted towards this, but I have really become inspired by teachers like Paulo Freire. Freire was a radical teacher who built upon a long tradition of using education to teach students about their world and how to change it. I really hope to promote student autonomy in my classroom, utilize plenty of respectful conversations, and engage students in critical discussions about our world. I don't want to treat my students like they are just some passive being that I can just spout out information to. I am constantly thinking about how to promote democracy in my classroom and lift up students to have agency over their own learning and growth. I don't expect this philosophy to change much during my time in the program, but I hope that I will be able to learn some more concrete ways to create this democratic atmosphere as well as learn more about the theories behind humanizing pedagogies.

Lastly, A lot of our peers have been feeling an overwhelming amount of pressure because of our talks about diversity, inclusion, and social and cultural education in our classes, as for many this is the first time fully being able to speak about the issues/ are getting a large amount of information at once. What is some advice you may have to help navigate these emotions? And how can we help alleviate these negative emotions about heavy topics for us to further the conversations?

Honestly, I do hope that a lot of us feel some pressure to implement diversity in our teaching. Yet, I want this to be a positive pressure rather than a negative one. One way our peers can begin to handle these heavy topics is by attending this program's events. We will be discussing these topics in a safe environment, so some people should come with questions and others with answers. This program will be important for us all to learn from each other as we navigate difficult topics like racism, transphobia, ableism, and more. When it comes to discussing these topics in the classroom, it doesn't always have to be so heavy. Sometimes it just comes with giving some representation. As it does become a bit heavier, just tell your students that you don't know everything when it comes to some of these topics and that you're seeking to spark dialogue so that you can learn from them. Through these conversations, we can all learn from each other. We don't have to be experts in any of these topics that we present, I know I definitely am not. That's why I hope that we can all learn from each other through this program, and I hope that the collective learning we do here can be remodeled within our classrooms.