TE448 Final Reflection

When looking back at the class as a whole, there is one specific week that I found myself learning the most. The week was about GLBTQ. Having gone to some of the GLBTQ Safe Schools Seminars and learning so much from those I feel that I have really pushed my thinking about this topic and expanded my knowledge. I feel that in general I am open to diversity and issues of GLBTQ but I had never specifically thought of how this issue could impact my classroom. While reading Boy Meets Boy I gained a better understanding of things that I had not thought about before. Being heterosexual I have never given thought about things such as walking down the street holding a guy's hand. Yet, when I see a homosexual couple walking down the street holding hands I do take a second look. Not because I agree or disagree with their lifestyle, but simply because it is something I am not used to seeing. Those are the situations in which I have no idea what it feels like and I understand that those are things I may never understand but simply realizing that I feel is important. In order to connect with my students I feel that I need to recognize that maybe I don’t know what their lifestyle is like and I will never know but I can be apathetic and just be there for them in any way possible. Another issue we talked about among my small group was name calling in the hallway or the classroom. I feel that this is still going to be something that I need to work on, how to handle situations in which students may be calling each other gay, as a put down, and how to appropriately handle that situation.Name calling is hurtful and happens with all age groups and I think in order to make both the school and the classroom a safe atmosphere name calling is something that should not be tolerated. How to make the environment such a place is something that I am going to have to work towards as a teacher. Having the discussion with my group I understood that there is still a lot to learn and there are experiences that I will have as a teacher that will test what I know and what I believe and those will have to be taken in strides. I realize that there is no way to be prepared for everything but by taking classes like TE448 I feel more prepared and feel like my classroom will benefit from these experiences that I have had.