Adios

If you are just beginning to read my blog PLEASE start on the second page; reading the oldest posts  to the newer ones so that your able to capture my thinking as I progress.  Which means after this post; go down to the bottom of the page and click older posts and start reading at the bottom of that page.  Start with the one called Gender and read up from there!

That is all for now folks! Hope you enjoyed my posts and were able to follow along with me in my journey about learning about gender roles in society; including sexism and the LGBTQ society.


Enjoy :)

Jenny

Final Entry

The Literature

            The series of blogs that I have created have been about gender issues including sexism, heterosexism, and LGBTQ within a school.  I’ve addressed common issues that occur as well as what we can do as educators to create a welcoming environment in our classroom for all of the students we teach.  The blogs have followed my educational journey from the beginning where I didn’t know a whole lot about the issues of gender to now- where I have done a fair amount of research and have a good understanding.  I did not just research peer-reviewed articles; I went further then that.  I found amazing resources that allowed me to explore in a way that very beneficial for me as a young teacher.  However now I am going to back up all the thinking and growing that I have done through the blogs with academic peer reviewed journals.  It is amazing how they fit so perfectly with what I was saying throughout the course of the blog.

            I began the blogs with talking about sexism in general.  How anyone can experience it- men/women, teachers/students, young/old.  It is a scary thought, however sexism still occurs everyday; intentionally and unintentionally.  The scarier thought is that it is happening in our classroom, and without knowing the teacher could also be contributing to promoting socially constructed genderized norms.  How many teachers have based their seating arrangement on gender, determined groups because of gender, assigned roles because of gender?  Through my experience in the education system- far too many.  Sexism not only occurs through verbal communication, but nonverbal as well. Subtle interaction messages are less able to control consciously and less subject to self-monitoring and accountability (LaFrance, 1985).  Subtle genderized interactions in the classroom can include asking males to be the ones to lift heavy objects, letting girls go to the washroom but not allowing the males, and reprimanding the males in public while quietly confronting the females because they think it may hurt their feelings.  Generally males are the recipients of teacher disfavor because of classroom management, teachers are often more critical of boys (LaFrance, 1985).  As a physical education teacher, during my observation period I see intentional and unintentional sexism quite often, therefore it makes me determined to eliminate it from my own classroom.             

            An article by Klein & Markowitz focuses on the need to change teacher’s language for a more inclusive environment.  More often then not, heterosexist language is commonly embedded in teacher’s statements, and it is up to us to recognize it and replace those statements.  73% of teachers believe that creating a safe environment for all students is a teacher’s obligation, however what they don’t factor in is that using heterosexual language in the classroom contributes to a unsafe environment (Klein & Markowitz, 2009).  An unsafe environment is serious for LGBTQ students because it can affect those students’ educational attainment as well as their emotional and physical well-being.  We see an example of this in the blog titled ‘We’re All the Same Egg on the Inside.’  A grade 11 expresses her feeling where she felt as though she was being bullied by her teacher.  That teacher’s would whisper as she walked by and this resulted in poor academic grades and low attendance.  As teachers, we need to understand that heterosexist language happens intentionally and unintentionally. Emphasized traditional gender roles within the classroom do not make it inclusive for all students, it can leave certain students feeling uncomfortable and unwanted.  Creating a welcoming environment for the student reflects on their overall wellbeing including academic standing.   

            The LGBTQ community is more accepted now then ever before, especially within the schools with clubs such as the Gay-Straight Alliance.  Even though it is more accepting, there is still lots of room for improvement.  86% of LGBTQ students reported that they have been harassed verbally at their school, and 44% reported they have been harassed physically (Klein & Markowitz, 2009).  LGBTQ students are at a high risk for dropping out of school, suicidal thoughts and actions, depression, self mutilation, drug and alcohol abuse, feelings of isolation and unsafe sex (Stufft & Graff, 2011).   An equal and inclusive education is not possible for LGBTQ students when their physical and emotional safety is frequently compromised within the classroom, therefore as educators we always need to be a step ahead of the students, so we know how to control our classroom and create a welcoming environment for everyone.  Stufft & Graff gave suggests that teachers can make for improvement that I have also touched on in my blog entries.  Some of the common themes we both believe would make the classroom more inclusive are:  that educators should first work on themselves; examining their own prejudices and misconceptions, that teachers attitudes towards homosexually contributes significantly to the classroom environment, that teacher need to be aware of the language they use in a classroom, and that teachers need to seek a more diverse curriculum that is inclusive of all students and their families (Stufft & Graff, 2011).  Throughout my blogs I have included steps that you can take as a young teacher to create a more inclusive and welcoming classroom.  There are many different academic resources, and other resources for you to look for additional help.

            The majority of my blog reaches out to teachers, and discusses the importance of creating a welcoming, inclusive environment.  Meyer, Taylor, & Peter through their article also stress the importance of Canadian teacher addressing issues of diversity, human rights, and social justice in the classroom.  Many educators believe that LGBTQ rights are human rights and should be incorporated in diversity education efforts in the classroom (Meyer et al, 2015).  It is important to understand how classrooms can be seen as a hostile environment for LGBTQ youth, once you are able to understanding what is happening, teachers are able to make the change to help eliminate toxic school views towards diversity.  The teacher has so much power within the school, and it is up to them to use that power to create a safe and welcoming environment for all of the students.

References:

Klein, N. A., & Markowitz, L. (2009). 'Rewind and replay:' changing teachers' heterosexist language    to create an inclusive classroom environment. American Journal Of Health Education, (6), 329.

LaFrance, M. (1985). The school of hard knocks: nonverbal sexism in the classroom. Theory Into   Practice, 2440-44. doi:10.1080/00405848509543144

   

Meyer, E., Taylor, C., & Peter, T. (2015). Perspectives on gender and sexual diversity (GSD)-inclusive education: comparisons between gay/lesbian/bisexual and straight educators. Sex Education-Sexuality Society And Learning, 15(3), 221-234.

Stufft, D. d., & Graff, C. M. (2011). Increasing Visibility for LGBTQ Students: What Schools Can Do To Create Inclusive Classroom Communities. Current Issues In Education, 14(1), 1-26.

The Reflection & Implications The Knowledge Has for Me as an Educator

            As you know from following along with my blog, it has been full of reflections for each post.  I put a lot of thought into my journey about learning about gender.  However now I’m going to take a step back and reflect on the overall process; the things I have learned by writing this blog, and where I still believe there is room for improvement.  The three major ideas that I learned through the process of my blog are; the power of resources, that heterosexism & sexism can be done intentionally and unintentionally, and that a teachers actions mean everything to a student, that we always have to have our eyes on the prize; developing a safe and inclusive classroom.

            One thing that I have learned is that there is an abundance of resources out there that will help us as teachers.  They can help with the whole process; from big ideas, deciding how to go about the topic, and even step-by-step lesson plans that we are able to use.  You are never alone as a teacher, with all the resources that are available for us to use with a click of a button these days.  I am a big believer of using videos in the classroom, I believe that they are an excellent source to allow the students to learn visually while usually providing them with an expert on the topic.  Someone that has a lot more credit for teaching the students something specific then I do.  There are a number of amazing videos that I have found while creating this blog that I believe will be very beneficial to use in my classroom.  I started out my first blog with a music video by Miranda Lambert, and I wouldn’t want to start it out any other way.  The song is called ‘All Kinds of Kinds’, and that is exactly what it is about.  That not two people are the same, we are all different and that’s what makes life so exciting and fun.  It is a great way to get this message across to students, to show them a video of someone they can relate to in Hollywood and allow them to make connections with.  There are so many opportunities as teachers to relate whatever you are trying to teach with pop culture, which in most cases gains students respect, as you are able to relate to their interests.  In many cases you do not want to draw close attention t  pop culture, but there are so many inspiring celebrities that their actions would be beneficial to bring up  a conversation about diversity in the classroom.

            Another major theme that I have learned and gained knowledge on throughout my blog is that sexism and heterosexism occurs intentionally and unintentionally.  There are so many cases where our unconscious actions have the potential to exclude and hurt a student.  Something as simple as saying ‘Happy Fathers Day’ has the potential to emotionally hurt a student as much as verbal bullying from a peer.  You never know how students will react to the genderized norms in our society.  As a teacher you want to do whatever you can to bring the conscious mind out in full force for the entire school day to ensure that none of your actions and words will cause harm to the students. 

            The final important theme that I believe to have a complete understanding of is that teacher’s actions mean everything to their students.  Teachers are looked up to as role models within the school.  One of the videos that I shared on my blog showed how a student felt bullied by a teacher because the teacher was whispering about her, this caused the student to not pay attention in class, have no respect for the teachers and therefore this lead to the student doing very poorly academically.  It is up to us as teachers to include every student.  We cannot act in a way that would make them feel unsafe, whether it be intentionally and unintentionally.  Our actions within the school affect every student, regardless of their sexual orientation.  We need to act as role models and set up an example for every person in the building on how to be inclusive and welcoming.  

            This blog has opened my eyes on a wide variety of levels.  From generating my awareness of gender issues within a classroom, to providing myself with resources to teach my students about the issues, this blog has tracked my journey from grasshopper to master.  I can confidently say that I understand many of the issues about gender more then I ever have before, and I understand what steps to take in order to make my classroom inclusive regardless of the student’s sexual orientation.  I know who I want to become as a teacher and have a plethora of materials that I can utilize in order to become the teacher that I strive to be.  This blog allowed me to explore a topic that I did not know a whole lot about and definitely did not feel comfortable teaching.  Now I want to teach students about this topic.  I feel as though it is very important to address these gender issues early on in order to raise awareness and express the importance of not only having an inclusive classroom but also living an inclusive life.

Teaching Tolerance; Great Resource #2

The second resource that I want to share with you is called Teaching Tolerance.  Teaching Tolerance is a website that educators use to who care about diversity, equity and justice.  The website provides educators with a magazine, professional development, classroom resources, film kitts, publications and webinars to help teach teachers how to address diversity issues within a classroom.  And the best part; ALL the resources are free for educators.    You are able to subscribe to the website so you never miss a post!

http://www.tolerance.org

How is this beneficial for teaching about the LGBTQ community and making them feel comfortable in my classroom?  Well let me explain to you through various examples that I found on the website.

• Bullied: A Students, a School and a Case That Made History.  This is a documentary that "chronicles one student's ordeal at the hands of anti-gay bullies and offers an inspiring message of hope to those fighting harassment today."  The film is powerful and very realistic.  It is designed to help teachers create a safer environment for all students, not just those in the LGBTQ community.  The best part?  It is not just a documentary; it also includes a viewers guide with lesson plans and activities.
• Lorraine Hansberry: LGBT Politics and Civil Rights.  Although they are forgetting the Q in LGBTQ, this is still an amazing resource!!!! Students will look at the role of gay men and lesbians in the Civil Rights Movement.  It introduces students to four LGBT people of African Descent and their allies through playwright.  The students will make the connection between civil rights, women's rights and gay rights while examining the role African-American women played in the movements for racial, gender, and sexual equality.  What a powerful lesson! So much amazing learning and reflecting to be done.  And this website provides you with all the information needed to successfully accomplish this lesson.
• Reducing Gender Stereotyping and Homophobia in Sports.  This is an excellent resource seeing as many students are turned off of sport and physical education at a high school level because of sexual orientation and gender expression.  This lesson asks students to identify and discuss homophobia and gender stereotyping in athletics, and think about how to combat these attitudes and behaviours at their own school.  By the end of the unit students will understand how stereotypes harm and limit people, understand their own stereotypes about gender and sexual orientation, and make a plan to debunk these stereotypes about gender and sexual orientation within their school community.

Under the classroom resource tab you are able to pick from many topics.  The ones I suggested looking at while teaching about gender are; sexual orientation, gender expression, and gender equality.  There are an abundance of resources on this website that tie in gender in so many ways that half the time students won't even realize that it was the objective; to address sexism and LGBTQ within the school! 

Gender Resource Alert; Worth Taking a Look @

For my last two blogs I'm going to share two different resources that I found.  I believe that both of the resources are great for teachers to use; whether it is just using the idea or using the lesson plan and resources that projects provide.

http://www.safeatschool.ca/about-safeschool

This blog I am going to analyze a resource called Safe@School, it is a module intended for educators who want to ensure all students have the opportunity to reach their full potential.  It provides resources for students who face barriers due to form of injustice such as sexism, racism and homophobia.  The goal is to create a classroom where there is a sense of fairness, respect, and belonging.  Safe@School was a project launched in 2007 led by the Ontario Teacher's Federation (OTF)  and is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education.  It provides Professional Learning Training Modules for teachers as well as many resources that can be used to create an inclusive environment.

Although as mentioned before this website focuses on racism, homophobia, sexism and other general resources.  I'm going to look specifically at sexism as that is what my blog is developed around; demolishing sexism in the classroom.  There are three different subsections under sexism; reference materials, lesson plans and tool kits, and resources for youth.  I can't even count the endless number of resources that this website provides.   I'm going to list a few of the titles of the lesson plans that stood out to me that would be a great tool to teach sexism in the classroom; benefits of being male, children's books that break gender role stereotypes, gender representation in the media, the jokes over: student to student sexual harassment in secondary schools, sexy inc.: our children under influence, what are stereotypes and gender roles?, etc.  There are so many great resources that I really suggest you check out for some great ideas if you are going to teach sexism in the classroom.

One of the lesson plans from the toolkit that really stuck out to me is Love You Give.  It is a website developed by and for Inuit, Metis and First Nation youth to prevent violence and promote healthy, equal relationships.  The website is minwaashin.wordpress.com.  Definitely worth looking into for some great ideas!

Another resource I wanted to share with you is Adios Barbie: Gender Roles.  It is a website that explores body image issues in a intersectional manner including gender roles and representations of gender in popular culture.  The website is adiosbarbie.com.  It includes information about activism, aging, body image, disabilities, eating disorders, gender roles, LGBTQ, media literacy, race & culture, sexuality and size.  All of these things will be issues we have to deal with as a high school teacher.  We need to know how to handle them properly and how to address them with the youth.  This resource is a great staring point to look for ideas about how to address them in our classroom and provide us with activities that you can use to teach all of your students about the topic.

I hope this blog gave you a few resources that you can use to address gender within the classroom.  New resources are becoming available everyday and it is up to us as teachers to find them and utilize them within our classroom.

We're All the Same Egg on the Inside

As I grow as a person, I'm learning about what traits I value in myself and others, and how I want to portray myself to the world.  Still being in teachers college I think about what I'm going to do to grow as a teacher. In school I am learning a lot of practical information such as assessment, rules & regulations, and how to go about your day to day in terms of routine and discipline.  However I can tell you first hand that life doesn't follow a routine, and all the rules in the world can't help you understand something that you know nothing about.  Sure theory is great, but we as young teachers need to dig deeper.  We need to learn and understand which traits and qualities we need to portray to our students to be the accepting, approaching and warm teachers we wish to be.  Because even if you slip up for one minute, you can loose the students trust and portray an image of yourself to the vulnerable youth that you never wished to portray.

This video hit home for me.  It validated everything that I stress about as a young teacher going into a school for the second time.  That there are teachers out there who do not care, they still have the mindset that students are kids and teachers are adults.  When I consider those socially constructed terms, I know a lot of teachers who know a whole lot less about life then the teenagers they teach.  We are all humans, we all have emotions, up ands down, good days and bad.  We need to act as a role model to the students who are going through difficult times, show compassion and interest, and allow them to know that we want whats best for them!

I wanted to take a paragraph to go into a bit more detail about some of the things the students said in the video.  About how they did not feel supported by the teachers, and what we can do to change this attitude.  One of the students said that she would hear teachers whispering about her as she walked by.  This is very childish of the teacher, how can you except students to not bully and behave properly if you cannot do it yourself.  You may think that students can't hear what you say or see what your doing, however that is not normally the case, they are quite observant.  Students look up to teachers as role models, therefore you should treat the students with the same respect you'd want them to give you.  The student in the video went on to explain how the teachers actions affect her learning- it made her not want to come to school which resulted in not paying attention.  This is the exact opposite of what you want to accomplish as a teacher.  You want them to feel same in a comfortable,  in a welcoming environment.  The grade 11 student said that she doesn't understand how you can judge someone just from their sexuality.  This reminded me of an awesome activity that I learned this year.  You need different coloured eggs- that represent different people in terms of; race, skin colour, eye colour, sexuality, etc.  So they would be labeled from the outside but as soon as the students crack them they see that they are all the same colour on the inside.  There are so many activities you can do to show your students first hand that we are all the same, its up to you as a teacher to make an effort to do them and discuss with your students.

I'm going to finish this blog with a powerful quote that the student said about her experience with teachers.  I want to end with this so you can reflect on your classroom.  Think about your actions and if there is anything you could do to make all students more comfortable.

"Sit in our seat and let us show you what your doing to us- I know a lot of teens don't feel comfortable at all."

Gender- Neutral Washrooms

Through the past 6 blog posts I've stressed the need for teachers to create safe, welcoming, and comfortable spaces at school.  This may seem like a given, however what I stress is that this needs to be done for ALL students.  Have you ever felt unsafe while going to the bathroom at school?  This is a human basic need, all humans need to use the washroom at some point throughout the school day.  However something very human has to do can cause certain students a great deal of stress.  The LGBTQ community have been fighting for the right of gender neutral washrooms for a long time, however it seems only recently they have been incorporated into our Canadian secondary school system, and some high schools haven't jumped on the bandwagon at all.  The increasing acceptedness of the LGBTQ community resulted in gender neural washroom becoming more of a norm then ever before, but like a lot of things, there is still room to grow with the acceptance and accommodations that we as the education system need to provide.

Support is becoming the norm for transgendered teens and a big part of this is gender neutral washrooms within our school system.  It creates a place where they are able to feel safe without the fear of having to identify or be perceived as possibly not conforming to socialized gender norms that your basic female/male washrooms represent (Huges 2014).  A powerful quote that I found while researching more about gender neutral washrooms in Canadian school's is as follows "Bathrooms are more dangerous when they are segregated.  They actually become safer when they are unsegregated, including showers and bathrooms, with fewer incidences of sexual assault.  It is a myth that we need to segregate by gender." (Hughes, 2014).  Creating gender neutral washrooms within a school takes such a small effort to make happen but can make such a huge different for the students by providing them a safe place to take care of a basic human need, needing to use the washroom.

Although gender neutral washrooms are needed for inclusivity, there are instances where it is taken advantage of.  For example at the beginning of this school year, U of T decided to make all bathrooms gender neutral at the residents.  However within the first week, two different girls reported seeing a cell phone peeping over the stall as they were showering.  This resulted in U of T going back to female and male identified washrooms with the exception of one single stalled gender neutral washroom per floor.  This is a very unfortunate step back, gender neutral washrooms exist in order to give transgender people a place where they feel included and won't be misgendered. The students of U of T are very passionate about gender neutral washrooms and have put together a project called the Washroom Inclusivity Project where they inform students about the need for gender neutral washrooms, decide where they need to be placed, and work with the school in order to make that happen.  Their overall goal is to create a more inclusive and safer campus.  Shouldn't that be the goal for Canadian schools country wide?

http://blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca/washroom/about-us/

Reference:

Hughes, T. (2014). Gender-neutral washrooms.  Education Forum, 40(2), 9-10.

Adam & Zoe at Wonderland High School

I want to use this post to reflect on something that happened during my first placement.  I'm going to make up students names and the name of the school for privacy sake.  I will firstly tell the story as to what happened and secondly reflect on it in terms of how it was handled and how I believe it could have been handled better.

My first placement ever was in a grade 9 geography classroom at Wonderland High School. This high school was in a suburban upper-middle class community, where the parents were very involved in their children's school work and the school was able to provide a lot of resources for the students such as iPads. Every lunch period the teachers were often exhausted from their morning but took this time to talk with their co-workers about the Raptors, Mexico, what their children were up to the night before, and less often then not their students.  This one teacher (I'm going to call Mr. Sun), who is not one to discuss his morning with the rest of us started bring up his one students named Zoe.  Zoe had 2 brothers at the school, and was in grade 9.  Mr. Sun noticed that Zoe was starting to dress differently and had suddenly cut her hair quite short.  Mr. Sun asked Zoe to stay after class just to check in,  Zoe told Mr. Sun after class that she now wanted to be called Adam.  Mr. Sun was a little shocked but did not show that to Adam.  He respected his wishes and did so.  Mr. Sun is a young teacher, actually on a LTO contract.  Mr. Sun continued on with his week addressing Adam by Adam in front of the class.  The next week Mr. Sun overheard some students talking to Adam, asking him questions such as "I don't get it, aren't you a girl?" & "Your brother said you were still a girl and to call you Zoe."  Adam then raised his voice and said "I'm a boy, got it?".  This was towards the end of the period (period 3),  Mr. Sun did not know what to say or how to intervene, therefore once the students settled down and got back to work, the bell rang not 5 minutes later.  During 4th period I took my class to the computer lab, when all of the sudden an ambulance appeared outside the school, later to find out that Adam OD'ed in the washroom and was rushed to the hospital.  That was actually my last day of placement, therefore have not heard anything else about it.

Pretty deep story I know- its important to grasp the fact that LGBTQ students need support and its up to us as teachers to create a safe environment for them.  I'm not saying that anyone faculty member is at fault for what happened, but there could have been preventative measures taken. For example; Mr. Sun knew that Adam was frustrated, he could have asked to talk to her after class.  Or if he were uncomfortable doing so, talk to the principal or guidance counsellor to make them aware of the situation and see if one of them would have Adam in for a meeting.  As a young teacher I know that some situations are going to arise that we are uncomfortable with or have never had to handle before, but we need to be on our toes with our thinking caps on in order to meet the needs of every students, and to take proactive measure to ensure the success of our students.


I want to stress what you already know from previous posts, that I am from a small town and do not have much experience/knowledge about the LGBTQ community.  That being said I want to learn, I strive to be an open-minded person, I believe that everyone is beautiful and should be treated equally.  I want you to know all of this not because I want you to get to know me, I want you to get to know the teacher who I want to become and the steps that I need to take to get there.  Although my background does not benefit me while connecting with the LGBTQ community, I'm willing to learn and do whatever I can to create a welcoming classroom for ALL.

Teaching Respect- for Ourselves and Others

You hear it all the time as teachers.... "Ms., when I'm I going to need to know this in real life."  I can remember saying it to my grade 11 math teacher as we were going over the Pythagoras Theorem, therefore I do totally understand the struggle that some students may face understanding the importance of what we teach.  Although I understand the need to teach to the curriculum, I also believe that there are endless ways in your classroom that you are able to teach students life lessons- such as mindfulness, and important lessons that they may not get from anywhere else.  Such as respect for themselves and others,  the idea of meditation, self love, and yes, how to treat others to form lifelong relationships.  My personal hero once said "Happiness is only real when shared".  This quote really hits home for me- it taught me to embrace interdependence and how relationships are one the of most (the most for me) important things in our lives.  However you can't have a meaningful relationship without respect and trust.  Therefore as a teacher I believe it is up to me to continue teaching the students how to treat one another on how to be their best selves.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dalhousie-university-probes-misogynistic-student-gentlemen-s-club-1.2873918

I want to give an example of a set of students who may have missed many lessons on how to treat others- or did not care enough to listen.  As any Canadian who paid attention to the news of early 2015 will know; the scandal of the dentistry school at Dalhousie University.  Long story short; the Class of DDS 2015 Gentleman, is a Facebook group that was used by some of the men of the dentistry school.  The group had many posts regarding sexual harassment and homophobic slurs.  The Facebook page was taken down and under investigation.  Some of the students were suspended from practicum, although 12 out of 13 of the students who were under allegations graduated last spring (which was when they were supposed to graduate with their peers).  Some of the comments included; "Bang until stress is relieved or unconscious (girl)" & "Does this mask smell like nitrous oxide to you?".  

What does this say for the university? How does it reflect on all of the students of the dentistry school?  How will it effect the number of applicants for the following year to this program?  

These quotes suggest rape and taking advantage of their professional authority, are these the kind of people we want out in the world, that you should be able to trust in the medical field?  I do believe that everyone can change for the better through reflection, self development and self love.  I do understand that there are two sides to every story, and that they could have easily gotten carried away with their comments and would never do it in real life.  However what these boys suggested on the Facebook site it deeply disturbing.  I by no means am saying that this problem is their previous teachers faults.  However I am stressing the need for teachers to teach life skills along with the curriculum; such as respect for one another and themselves, and the understanding that one little thing has the potential to change the rest of your life.  The need to strive to be the best person they can be and how that reflects on how they live and enjoy their life.  There is so much we can teach our students about relationships, self love, and positive mental health.  Although not everyone will have the same beliefs, who doesn't want to be able to achieve their best possible self?

little Comments; BIG Effects

As outlined in the previous two blogs; sex/gender effects teachers and how they're viewed in the community as well as the workplace.  After thinking deeper about how we as teachers experience sexism, it made me think of how students are also exposed to it.  Its enough that as grown adults we have to learn to deal with sexism within society, but students are also exposed to sexism.  As teachers we need to set examples for our students (who often struggle with their identity through high school) by being there for them and ensuring that we are not subtly contributing to the sexist slurs that consciously as well as unconsciously occur in todays day in age, in and out of the classroom.

I'm about to share with you two videos that I really suggest taking a look at.  They are made by Huffington Post, and share real life sexist comments that real life people have made, which resulted in these peoples feeling being hurt.  It is a powerful video that shows us the need for us as teachers and members of the society to really think about what were going to say before we say anything.

While you are watching the two videos that I am about to post, please consider the following things:
1)  The age where sexism occurs within both of the video 
2)  How sexist comments change form gender
2) How different people are offended by different comments
3) Are there any phrases used in either of these videos that you have been guilty of using?

Side Note:  I know that these video are only shown from two different genders- I understand that the LGBTQ community also experience sexism, however for this post I am solely focusing on males and females because of the videos that I have found.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yMFw_vWboE

The reason why I wanted to share these videos is because as teachers the goal is to create a welcoming and comfortable classroom for all your students.  Comments regarding negative stereotypes to any gender is offensive and can result in distrust and disrespect from your students.  Although some things we say we may not have meant them as hurtful- people interpret things differently.  These videos are VERY powerful in the sense that it shows how your speech is able to cause people of all ages anger and sadness. Therefore you should think before you speak to ensure that it is how your want to portray yourself to your students.

I wanted to end this post with a powerful quote from a very wise man; Buddha himself.  "If you propose to speak always ask yourself, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind."   I can't stress enough to think before you speak- one little comment that you might not have thought of as being hurtful can negatively effect a young persons well-being if taken the wrong way.  You should always strive to be the best teacher you can be, and this starts with the little things such as watching your speech; to ensure it is not sexist or negative towards any student.

Ending Note:  Here is another quote regarding speech from a wise man- however he may need a lesson or two in the sexism department ;)

“A good speech should be like a woman's skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest.”  - Winston S. Churchhill