Five things I need(ed) to hear when coming out

February 13, 2018November 30, 2018 / fishyteaching / Leave a comment

This is a letter I am writing for my younger self, and for myself in general – at age 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 25, and 27 – all key ages when I “came out” as something to myself and/or the people around me. A student in my world recently asked me for advice related to coming out as trans, and I wrote something specific to that student (shout out if you’re reading this!). I wanted to adapt this to something more general and more specific – an open letter to myself, past, present, and future, for coming out and thriving as myself in the world as it is.

So, here you have it – my message to myself & others as they emerge on a particular place of “coming out,” whether that’s related to gender, sexuality, sexual preferences, or something else entirely!

1. Celebrate! Sometimes when queer and trans folks come out, we start worrying right away about what other people are going to think of us, how much discrimination we’re going to face, or how to deal with all this hecking dysphoria, internalized oppression, and body stuff that inevitably comes up. The first piece of advice, that I myself need to do more often, is to celebrate. Queer and trans people have been valued and revered around the world and throughout history because we have experiences that are unique, beautiful, and sacred. Throw yourself a party, even if it’s just you in attendance. Eat your favorite food, or go for a walk on a beautiful day, or make something with your hands to commemorate the day you felt open enough to start talking with other people about your queer and trans identity. It’s incredible that you exist!

2. Don’t focus on passing, focus on being yourself. If you are confident in who you are, that becomes clear to others that you are defining how you want them to see you. I won’t lie, regardless of what your body looks like, there will be plenty of moments when people misread your gender expression or identity. But in general, it is more important to act the way that feels comfortable than to put on one specific set of behaviors that you believe people will read as a particular gender or sexuality. There is no one way to be masculine, feminine, genderqueer, or agender; you get to decide how that looks on a day-to-day and minute-to-minute basis. I recommend finding clothes you feel confident in, that show your body the way you want it to be seen – that’s how I ended up wearing sweater vests nearly every day, since they are coded masculine, came in bright colors, and hid my pre-surgery chest. This may require a lot of experimentation in the dressing rooms at Goodwill and in front of the mirror at home. 🙂

3. Find a point person to talk to when you need support. This could be a queer or trans person, or it might not – the important thing is that you know who you can turn to when things get hard or you’re feeling stuck. My first support person was my 9th grade religious studies teacher, Pete. When I came out to him as a young person as bisexual, he was kind of baffled, since he himself wasn’t queer – but when I came out as trans later down the line, it made since why I chose him to turn to for support. He embodied a lot of the masculinity that I wanted in my own life, and I feel like I emulate him now as a teacher, a male leader, and a mentor for other students.

4. Be easy on yourself and others. You’re not going to figure everything out overnight. Your friends and family will struggle, and it sucks, but we gotta be easy on them at least to start. Be clear and firm in your wishes and boundaries, but don’t take it too personally if people are stumbling into their accomplice status. Similarly, you may find that as you explore your identity more, things that you took for granted (including your gender identity, sexuality, and other identity markers) may shift. That’s OK. No one is going to ask you to “prove” your trans-ness – and if they do, send them to me so I can give them a piece of my mind!!

5. Remember, nobody knows your experience better than you. It took me a really long time to accept my identity as male (rather than as genderqueer/nonbinary) not because of things cishet people would say to me, or the pressure of my given family to conform – it was mostly other trans and queer peoples’ judgments that held me back. It’s important to remember that the world is large and that there are lots and lots of people in our community who will “get” you – no matter who you are or what you’re experiencing. I was very afraid to lose part of my chosen family if I was open about who I really am. I totally had it backwards – I have only been able to build a strong, beautiful, and resilient chosen family by embracing all that I am, no matter what.

Keep being yourself and finding ways of sharing all that you are – whatever your identity – with the world! It’s the best gift that only you can bring. ❤ If you want a much more comprehensive and in-depth list of affirmations that can be helpful as queer and trans people, here’s a link to an awesome set of cards that I use as a daily practice.

Body breaks: 5 minutes of somatic learning

February 4, 2018February 4, 2018 / fishyteaching / Leave a comment

This year, I’ve changed my daily routine to include five minutes called a “body break”: a physical activity that either increases students’ understanding of current topics or gives them time to explore getting to know their body and brain better.

As students and teachers, we spend a lot of our time in our minds somewhere else, whether that’s on the next step of our lesson plan, the reading we forgot to do the night before, or stressing about an email we have to respond to, like, yesterday. Taking 5 minutes from my regular class time more than makes up for itself during “regular” instruction because it regrounds my students and me in the moment. Pausing to take a breath and think about bodies from a physical perspective allows the brain to relax, focus, and really listen – it gives me and my students fresh eyes during each class period.

Learning with the body and putting this as the priority has also led me to develop a number of creative ways to think about anatomy, physiology, and health topics in a more kinesthetic and somatic way. I start my classes with five minutes of a “body break” each day. I lead them Monday-Thursday, and a rotating student leader takes it on during Fridays (which are also our reading discussions). Here are a few of my favorites:

Five minutes of mindfulness. Taking a breath and noticing the sensations in your body are a great way to spend 5 minutes regrounding in the present moment. I’ve used body scans, breathing exercises, and simple “body time” (where kids can just notice themselves and be in their own headspace without interacting with others) on many occasions, especially when a class seems particularly rowdy or stressed. I once had a student enter my classroom crying and after just 2 minutes of sitting in silence, she was fine to continue class. Silence is powerful stuff!
Building self-knowledge of one’s own body and how it works. We practice stretching specific muscle groups as a way to learn about the anatomy and physiology of muscles, and look at the differences between muscles, tendons and ligaments in interesting parts of the body like the fingers. We also observe muscle strain and lactic acid buildup during anaerobic exercise by doing wall sits or planks, noticing how different it is to do repetitive motion versus sustained motion. We also do proprioception practice, using balance and self-awareness as a natural relief for those experiencing stress at home or school. Kids also love to share their favorite weird body tricks, including pressure points, double-jointedness, and proportions – did you know that your foot is about the same length as your forearm, for example?
Modeling anatomy and physiology features. In addition to looking at our own bodies, we can model major body systems and tissues using fun and engaging tactics!
- Surface area to volume ratio: dodge ball! When talking about villi being built to maximize surface area, we modeled randomly moving nutrient particles using soft balls that were thrown while blindfolded. We measured how many of the balls made it when student targets stretched out as big as possible, and how many hit when those students were crumpled up tight like a ball. In general, the bigger the surface area, the more successful contact with the “nutrients” there was.
- Peristalsis: hula hoop pass! We played this game while talking about peristalsis, which passes food down the esophagus using muscle motions that move in one direction. Have the class race itself to see how quickly they can move that bolus!
- Polysaccharides & enzymes tag Like “blob tag” – students are all saccharides trying to join as one large chained molecule. 1-3 students are enzymes that can split apart people whose hands are joined, creating a kind of homeostasis if the numbers are just right!
Core skills of medicine. Students can practice the skills that medical practitioners use in their daily operations!
- Measuring heart rate/pulse with the fingers. During our cardiovascular system unit, we discussed a number of things that impact heart rate and why they change it. We measured our pulse one day, then did experiments the rest of the week using aerobic exercise, mindfulness/resting, and even an ice bath!
- Using a stethoscope and measuring blood pressure are fun skills to practice if you have access to stethoscopes and cuffs. Students learn a lot about blood and the heart through the physical nature of these tools.
- Directions of the body can be learned using motions on the body or around the room to learn and review important location terminology (dorsal/ventral, anterior/posterior, superior/inferior, etc.)
Content review. It is always nice to be able to go through recent content with kids while playing a game or moving our bodies!
- “Cerebrum’s Coming”: Uses the same model as “Captain’s Coming,” but the things that are called out are locations in the brain (relative to the whole classroom) or motions associated with parts of the nervous system. (Amygdala = freeze in a “fight” stance, neuron = “nerve cell” with a salute, etc.)
- Pepper is a technique from “Teach Like a Champion” that asks kids fast-paced review questions while tossing a ball back and forth as they answer them. I always play it before quizzes and tests as a way to “warm up” and get kids in the zone for the assessment. It can also be a fun body break reviewing from the previous day, or from a distant unit that kids haven’t thought about in a while!
- Paprika is my riff off of Pepper, where kids are the ones asking the questions. All students stand up, and I start by asking a question and passing the ball to a student. Then, that student asks a question about the unit and passes it on. All students need to both ask a question related to our unit and answer a different person’s question correctly before they can sit down. The benefit of being last? You get to ask me anything you want!
- “Oh Cells” is based on “Oh Deer” , a game I loved as an outdoor educator teaching about ecosystem dynamics. In this game, cells are the ones looking for nutrients, water, and oxygen in the body. When they reach the Hayflick Limit (3 turns), they go through apoptosis. Later in the game, a twist comes in when cells develop mutations that lead to cancer: they don’t “pop” any more and cancer takes over the living system!

Takeaways: One thing that I LOVE about body breaks is that it turns our classroom into a laboratory. As an anatomy & physiology teacher, the kinds of inquiry-based labs I used to do when teaching physics don’t work in the same way… unless kids are doing things that are feasible with their own physical selves.

Another thing that body breaks emphasize is how different each body is from others. Textbooks tend to imply that everyone’s insides are identical, or that the way each brain is wired is precisely the same. In reality, though the basics are the same for every human being, there are distinct differences for each individual that make each body unique. Not weird, or wrong, just different – that’s the beauty of the human experience!

The Human Biology Bill of Rights

December 1, 2017 / fishyteaching / Leave a comment

For the past two years, I have used a tool in my classroom that has been personally enriching, challenging, and resonant with my values: the Human Biology Bill of Rights.

It came out of a conversation I had with a student who was afraid to research marijuana, the drug she was studying for a neuroscience project for my class. We were learning about the differences between drugs’ impact on children and adults and how it can change brain development in teenagers who use them. I said to her: You have the right to accurate information about any question related to human health – not just ones that are considered “kid-appropriate.”

From there came this list – the ones with a * were added or edited by my students over the past 2 years.

Human Biology Students’ Bill of Rights

As a student in this classroom, you have the right to…

Accurate sources of information about all topics related to human health and the body.
Ask questions that interest you and have them answered to the best of our collective abilities as a group of scientists.
Study topics relevant to your real life and well-being.
Resources that reflect your identity and lived experience.
Engage in discussion without fear of teasing, harassment, or judgment.
Have your ideas be treated separately from you as a person, especially in times of disagreement.*
Disagree respectfully with other students or the teacher.*
Take breaks when you need to and choose to opt out of discussions or readings that make you feel emotionally or physically unsafe.
Be able to talk to an adult that you trust in situations when you need support.
Speak from your own experience and have others believe what you share and treat it with respect and dignity.
A workload that challenges you, but does not ask you to do “busy work” or do more work than you can complete while staying healthy.

I revisit the BoR every trimester, asking students for their input and understanding of the items listed there. I had some really rich conversations with kids this week about the reasons why each of these things is included in the list, and remind them whenever we are participating in something that might be harder for some students (such as conversations around medically/traumatic events, race/racism, drug use and its effects, or a variety of sexual topics). I also use it for more mundane moments, like when kids are complaining about a homework assignment like my weekly reflections, or like my first student, afraid to do the research they were assigned for fear of being “found out” by a parent or administrator. One kid asked if this could apply in every class, since he felt like he was expected to “busy work” in several of his classes – I recommended he took his concerns to his teacher, as it perhaps hadn’t occurred to him that he had the right to ask for something different.

I hope that as educators, we continue to frame conversations around things kids have the right to in every class, rather than just their responsibilities. As young people, they are reminded too often of the things they are falling short on or still growing into. Every child deserves some basic rights that are fundamental to education, especially in the realm of human biology.

Reflections on NSTA Milwaukee

November 12, 2017 / fishyteaching / Leave a comment

I just wrapped up my third NSTA regional conference, this time in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As always, I left feeling refreshed and energized in my chosen profession – there are few groups of people more innovative, passionate, fun-loving, and caring than science teachers and I learned a lot from my colleagues and elders in the field. Here are a few of my highlights from this year’s conference that I wanted to share!

Using linguistics to teach science. I went to an awesome presentation put on by Suzanne Loosen and Kelsie Pattillo, two Wisconsin linguistics teachers who connected the study of language to anatomy, physiology, computational thinking, logic, zoology… and more! I love thinking about the systems that we are immersed in every day and their connection to science – students kept language diaries in their classes to observe differences in how language is used in different contexts, watched language development in young children (! metacognition, anyone?!), and used activated charcoal to track how sounds are made in the mouth. The North American Computational linguistics Olympiad has a lot of cool resources to get kids thinking about how language works – their problem sets would make good warm-ups, teambuilding activities, or building blocks for logical thinking and proofs in math or computer science. Also, linguists apparently love coming in as guest speakers. 🙂 Will definitely use this in both my human biology classes and my computer science elective!

Equity conversations: why do we always focus on undergraduates and professionals? We had the honor of hearing from Jo Handelsman, a groundbreaking bacteriologist and the Associate Director for Science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Obama. Her talk, titled “The Fallacy of Fairness,” provided some basic statistics and information about inequities that persist in academic science and the ideologies that scientists at major research universities use to justify perpetuating inequalities between men and women and between white folks and people of color in academic science.

Her talk did a fabulous job outlining what research exists to try and demonstrate the existence of bias that hurts women and people of color (her term was “minorities,” which I intentionally do not use) – especially the defensive backlash that she received over and over again from (presumably straight, middle-/upper-class, cis) white men that a. they themselves/their organization do not have personal bias, and b. they earned whatever honors they have and bias did not benefit them in any way. She also found that when videos were made featuring stories of women’s experiences in the STEM workforce, men who watched them consistently did not believe that the stories could be true while women overwhelmingly confirmed having had similar experiences.

Important takeaways from the research she cited included that people justify hiring decisions that favor white people and men after hiring decisions are complete by identifying the characteristics those candidates had and asserting that those characteristics were the most important in the search. Identifying those key components before the search begins removed much of that bias. She also found that scientists who denied personal bias had deeply entrenched ideas about being bias-free that are rooted in self-identity as a rational scientist, despite the fact that when scientific research was done on their own institutions/the individuals themselves, it was shown that bias existed. This paradox was particularly striking… and shows that something major has to shift in how those who benefit from bias are taught as children to cope with this reality.

I left the talk feeling a little baffled by how little research is typically presented about the impact of bias on students in K-12 settings. It is one thing to talk about the impact of bias on professionals who have graduated with advanced degrees in STEM fields (or are even undergraduates in those programs) – it’s another thing to investigate the ways that bias inevitably appears in our classrooms, the language and actions used to encourage or discourage students, and the ways that STEM topics are framed. Moreover, I felt as though classroom culture and peer relationships were not acknowledged at all, which must have a huge impact on students’ self-identification with science and their experience of bias and marginalization in STEM spaces. If you have resources that are easy to read on these topics, PLEASE share them with me!!

Discrepant events rock! There was a really great “Exploratorium” put on by preservice teachers at a local university that showed discrepant events for a variety of phenomena. These engaging “hooks” get kids interested and can even serve as the overarching phenomenon for an entire unit on a traditional subject like optics, density, or the laws of motion. My favorites from the many excellent demos were this density bottle, a battery-magnet monorail, the floating rice bottle, and a pendulum catch. I especially appreciated the biology-focused ones, including a bobby-pin nerve test to measure two-point discrimination, many optical illusions, a brain-body connection test, and the classic, fun, and squicky “naked egg” demo.

Real-world connections and strong story-telling are the keys to good (science) teaching. I was lucky enough to go to two of six sessions put on by Debbie Goodwin and Andrew Nydam (both Polymer Ambassadors) related to materials science, the chemistry of solids, and teaching the science and engineering behind how cars work. All I can say is – WOW! The compelling way they interweave very advanced science into everyday phenomena – teaching content that is new to many experienced physical and chemical science teachers – is stunning. If you have a chance to hear them speak or attend one of the free week-long summer trainings they are a part of offering – do it! The major takeaway of their presentation for me is how disconnected traditional science curricula are from the real-world materials that kids will encounter throughout their lives, whether that’s as engineers and scientists, car or home owners/renters, or simply as people curious about what 90% of the world is made of. To truly understand a subject, students need to be able to apply it to the real-world things they encounter and have an intuition about how things fit together. Whether it was a new way of thinking about chemical compounds through solids, applying energy conversions in the process of the sun’s energy becoming the fuel in a car, or why plates break when they drop to the ground, these folks are thinking holistically about chemistry in a real-world way.

Double Dare is the perfect teambuilding resource. This is not from NSTA, but “Ask Me Another,” my favorite game show, did a segment on Double Dare games that reminded me how weird and perfect Double Dare physical challenges were for engaging the child-animal brain. I use teambuilding activities as a way to bring my advisory together, help lab groups communicate, or review content, and I am always looking for new games to play with kids that are cheap, fast, and engaging. Many of the challenges are pretty messy, so I wouldn’t necessarily use them as-is, but the basic principles of games can extend pretty far in the classroom! Here are some lists of physical challenges from the show.

Science Square Dancing: Learning and Moving to the Music!

November 9, 2017November 30, 2018 / fishyteaching / 1 Comment

Six young people have their hands in a hexagon, with each person's hand grabbing onto the wrist of the person in front of them. A brightly colored floor is in the background.

This week, I have the pleasure of presenting my favorite lesson of the entire school year at the regional National Science Teachers’ Association (NSTA) Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That lesson is: Science Square Dancing!

I learned to square and contra dance as a high schooler and immediately fell in love with the quirky community, safe physical connection to others, and rich music and dance heritage that connects many generations of social dancers. I learned to call in college and found that many of the skills I used as a dance caller applied in classroom teaching. I began to wonder… could I combine the two worlds?

Turns out, it was a perfect match. As a 6th grade science teacher, I used square dance moves as a platform for reviewing cell organelles and the families of the Periodic Table. In addition to learning and reviewing these basic concepts, kids also practiced important skills:

Dancing with their peers, regardless of their relationship, and overcoming interpersonal conflict or discomfort
Practicing asking for consent before engaging physically with someone, and learning to say and hear “no”
Being willing to make mistakes publically and look a little bit foolish – all in the name of science!

Attached are the handout and slide deck I made for my presentation, which led the group through the process of teaching square dancing to a class for the first time. We did the Periodic Table lesson as an example, but square dance moves can easily be applied to any number of content areas – the possibilities are endless! The best candidates have a large number of important vocabulary words that are meaningfully different from one another in their function.

Six young people are holding hands in a circle in a colorful science classroom.

Here is a blank template with the Periodic Table samples as a reference for thinking through your own possible curricular ties – be sure to share them back so that others can use them in their own dancing adventures!

The slide deck and handouts include links to videos where appropriate. More information about square and contra dance moves are available online – two examples that work well for my brain are here & over here.

You can also find a dance near you and practice on your own! The best way to learn is by doing and practicing the moves yourself – and bring a friend along for the fun. Who knows where square dancing will go next?

Some thoughts on sex ed from a queer/trans* perspective

November 1, 2017October 9, 2018 / fishyteaching / Leave a comment

A while back, I wrote a guest post on the GLSEN blog entitled “6 Ways I Make My Science Class LGBTQ-inclusive as a Trans* Teacher.” (Technically my title used the acronym LGBTQIA+, but moving on…)

I love the ways that being openly queer and trans allows me to teach sex ed in a different way than if I was closeted. I also love the ways that my experiences as a queer and trans person whose truth is CONSTANTLY minimalized or erased in biology and health language, medical studies and research, health curricula, and textbooks allows me to see through a lot of attempts at including LGTBQIA+ voices that don’t actually meet our needs.

I think of sex ed in terms of universal design – how do I present information in a way that makes sense for the needs of any student walking in my door? The lessons I teach should be relevant to an intersex student without throwing something in about intersex conditions as an afterthought. Trans* kids should see themselves reflected there, and so should cisgender students. A well-designed curriculum doesn’t even need the term “inclusive” – that implies that it takes extra work to put marginalized voices into what’s there. Instead, it should intentionally point out that all bodies are different while sharing common principles, something that I try and weave into everything I teach about human anatomy and health.

So when I was able to meet with a group of young people who wanted to talk sex ed at an interscholastic GSA social event, I was *stoked.* Here is a run-down of the things we talked about, in a group of middle- and high-school students grades 6-12 (mostly grades 6 and 7) – the black “-” column were negatives from their experiences with sex ed in the past, and the blue “+” column were positives or aspirations for the future:

Stuff that works:

The biggest thing that kids wanted was teachers who were comfortable talking about sex with kids. It is unsurprising that many teachers end up teaching sex ed who aren’t actually comfortable, excited, or qualified to do that work. Recruiting sex educators should be a priority for schools so that students receive a comprehensive education that doesn’t perpetuate discomfort in talking about sex.
Having lessons about all kinds of experiences – not just those of a student’s presumed gender or assigned sex at birth – is really important, especially to kids questioning their gender identities. Several kids expressed disdain over the combination dysphoric-and-potentially-triggering experience of being segregated into a group of people based on assumed gender and then talking about genitalia and hormonal changes that they detest for hours. Don’t force kids to segregate by (assumed) assigned sex at birth. You may find that having a single-saab group available is helpful for some students; you can offer this as an opt-in space that kids can go to if they would like (and let them choose which group to attend!).
Similarly, talking about the experiences/identities of queer, trans, and intersex people is important for all kids in the room, regardless of who they present as in the moment.
Acknowledging that sex is not just for reproduction, not all sex carries a risk of reproduction, and not all queer sex lacks a risk for reproduction… again, think “universal design”! The same goes for talking about sex: don’t start with “normal” sex and get into the “weird” stuff. Talk about sex in a universal way – pleasure, reproduction, and consent. They apply to everyone who chooses to have sex, period.
A subset of this thinking for me as a teacher is also explicitly naming that what “sex” means to different people is different. I do an activity that was modeled for me in high school where students receive an envelope with different intimate activities in it, ranging from cuddling with clothes on, to masturbating alone, to penis-in-anus sexual contact. They have to rank the acts in terms of their own sense of how intimate they are, and then mark where “sex” starts for them. Then, they look around the room: not a single list is the same, including the line of where “non-sex” ends and “sex” begins. It’s a beginning to an important conversation about communication, clarity in how you talk to potential partners, and how we define our own relationship to sex and sexuality.

I’m still learning and growing as a sexual health educator – and I’d love to hear your thoughts about what resources have been helpful in your own sex education. I’ll leave my favorite resource, Scarleteen, here – share others in the comments!

Student recommendations for creating inclusive classrooms for queer, trans, and questioning youth

April 2, 2017November 30, 2018 / fishyteaching / Leave a comment

I have the privilege of being the faculty advisor to our middle school Queer-Straight Alliance (QSA), a space set aside for kids who want to co-create a safer school for queer, trans, and questioning students. I asked them for their recommendations of ways that faculty and staff can help create safer spaces for all students, especially those who might be questioning their gender or sexuality or have a gender or sexual identity other than cisgender and straight. Here is a list of their suggestions:

Listen to students’ comments to each other. Call out bigotry when you hear it. This is the comment I hear the most from students about how adults can help create a more supportive community at our school for everyone. Speaking up when you hear unkind comments about a particular identity (and this extends far beyond gender and sexuality!) really demonstrates to students that you care about them and will stand up for them when they need it. (For more information/ resources, check out “Speak Up at School” for teachers).
- Students also recommended that adults get “up to date” on what hateful language might look like for the particular age group they teach. Asking students for help identifying those moments is a great collaborative project and can lead to some powerful conversations.
- Another part of being ready for these moments is being knowledgeable about and comfortable with discussing topics related to identity – and gender, sex, sexuality are just the beginning. May I recommend The Gender Unicorn?
Even if you don’t hear the things that happen, show your students that you care and that you will listen when they bring things to you that they’ve seen or heard. Follow up with them to try and create a classroom and school environment where students are accountable for their words and actions.
At beginning of the year, ask students for preferred name and gender pronouns. This is one way to include space for students’ identity to be affirmed in your class from day one.
1. Model how to share preferred gender pronouns before students share their own, and explain how they work and why we ask for them. (This is a great bonus lesson in grammar!) Be sure to follow up with students who may joke about pronouns or not understand the process.
2. Make explicit that pronouns change & kids can approach teachers if that happens.
3. Practice using students’ preferred pronouns, and gently correct students who mispronoun other students in the moment.
4. If students have pronouns that they use at school but not at home, please ask them to make that clear. An adult they trust should follow up and encourage them to discuss with parents ASAP, as long as it is a safe/supportive environment.
Don’t make groups by (assumed) gender. Similarly, don’t assign tasks, costumes, vocal parts, or sports teams that way. Here are some suggestions for other ways of splitting the class into multiple groups:
1. Month of your birthday
2. First letter of your first name
3. Favorite ice cream flavor
4. Using playing cards/picture cards made in advance
5. Other ideas here, here, and here.
Don’t assume gender! Gender identity and gender presentation are different. That’s why it’s important to ask all students for their gender pronouns (if they are comfortable sharing them), and not just kids that you perceive to be trans or gender non-conforming.
Normalize conversations that include non-normative genders and sexualities. Use examples that include queer or trans people, but not in a “look a gay example!” way: this can be seen as tokenizing and harmful. Practice being comfortable talking about identities different than your own so that when those topics come up, you can model conversations about those topics in a respectful, non-aggrandizing way. Practice using “they/them” pronouns for people in the third person and practice using those pronouns during everyday conversations with students.
Incorporate diverse forms of gender identity and sexuality into your curriculum. For humanities teachers, this means providing examples of literature and historical figures/events that represent a diversity of LGBTQ identities. For STEM teachers, this means using inclusive language when describing phenomena, not oversimplifying biology, and not using simplistic ideas of gender and sexuality when taking data and analyzing statistics. For all teachers, this includes evaluating current materials and ensuring they don’t center specific kinds of relationships and families at the expense of others. Check out the Safe Schools Coalition Curricular Resources for more information.
Be open to students’ feedback. Ask for feedback regularly, and provide ways for students to let you know when things that you’ve done have un/intentionally excluded them from being comfortable in your space. This happened to me multiple times this year. It was super hard, and it was an incredible gift from those students that have helped me become a better teacher. It is also awesome to model making mistakes and changing behavior for students.
- Feeling like practicing new words or pronouns is hard? That’s OK. Keep working on it. You can share that it’s challenging with your students, but please don’t say it’s “too hard” for you. You just haven’t mastered it yet, much like our students working on any number of skills that make them vulnerable and ask them to practice making mistakes on the daily.
Honor students’ expertise. Sentences like “You’re too young to know X” or “Let me tell you what you are feeling right now” are patronizing and remove agency from students who know themselves better than anybody else.
Honor students’ right to confidentiality. If a student discloses their identity or questioning status, even in front of other people, it is always a good idea to check in with them before sharing that with another faculty/staff member or student. This is especially important when interacting with other members of their family, since not all homes are open to diverse sexual and gender identities.
As much as possible, eliminate institutionalized heterosexism and cissexism. Are intake forms for your school inclusive of many gender identities? Do students need to report their legal name instead of their preferred name in public spaces like class or email? Are there bathroom and locker room options available for students that work for their access needs?
Be gentle with yourself. One of my favorite things about my students is that they really see teachers as people, and know that making mistakes is a part of this process. They want you to know that you can do it! Treat yourself gently and take care of your own emotions while going through this process.

A glimpse into my reading list

April 1, 2017 / fishyteaching / Leave a comment

I am in the process of writing a conceptual framework for a research capstone that’s focused on inclusion, belonging, and self-identity as a scientist in the science classroom. As such, I am reading a lot of good literature and I wanted to share some of my favorites with you! Feel free to comment below if you have other suggestions of literature on this topic that you’d like to share.

Make Me: Understanding and Engaging Student Resistance in School

This book by Eric Toshalis was recommended to me through a friend who works in special education – it’s a fabulous read on the political, social, psychological, and pedagogical foundations that lead to student resistance in the classroom – and how to work with that resistance in a productive way that centers students’ desires and agency.

feminist theory: from margin to center

I’ve used the analogy of margin and center for years now, without ever having taken the time to read this classic of intersectional feminism. bell hooks is a brilliant and prophetic author, whose work has paved the way for more inclusive spaces within feminism for a multitude of underrepresented voices.

Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

I read this book as a young teacher, and it informed the way I think about framing lessons and communicating with students and parents in a way that is clear and holds all students to high expectations. Rereading it now after teaching for 5 years provides new levels of depth and meaning – and is an important reminder of the ways I have not been holding myself to a high enough standard in scaffolding teaching and communication to include all of my students. Lisa Delpit also has an awesome book that I just started called “Multiplication is for White People: Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children” and I was almost late for work on Friday because I couldn’t put it down!

Small World: Constructing an Inclusive Classroom (No Matter What You Teach)

This article by Mary Armstrong creates an easy-to-read and follow framework for thinking about constructing an inclusive classroom space. I think it would be a great read for a group of teachers trying to think about inclusive curriculum/classroom practices, even if some of them are thinking about that for the first time. I didn’t want to lose track of it, so I’m putting it here 🙂

Creating Inclusive College Classrooms

This article, by Shari Saunders and Diana Kardia at the University of Michigan, outlines a number of interventions and techniques for constructing inclusive classrooms at the undergraduate level. It brought up a number of memories for me about ways in which my college classrooms were mostly constructed in a way that felt exclusive and hard to access… and also raised questions about what the equivalent practices might look like in middle school. Really excellent read if you’re interested in thinking through what a number of researchers have put together for thinking about inclusion on an institutional level.

On being a white dude who teaches science

March 26, 2017November 30, 2018 / fishyteaching / Leave a comment

This weekend, I had the pleasure of participating in my first-ever unconference, titled “Unconference for the Resistance.” It was put on by the fabulous Lake Washington Girls Middle School, whose faculty and students continue to amaze me in their dedication to social justice, top-of-the-notch teaching methodologies, and extraordinary humility about what they are doing in the world.

As a part of the conference, one attender convened a space called a “Men’s Caucus,” where male-identified or presenting teachers could gather to discuss our experiences of teaching with masculine power. I didn’t realize it until I walked into that room, but I had been craving such a space for years of my teaching career. As a transmasculine person, I have experienced what it is like to be a teacher that students perceive as a woman and as a man, and I know the pain of being on the other side of what I would describe as “masculine capital” – power that men hold in positions of authority with children just because they are seen as men. This intersects with my race as well; as a white person, I went from being a white woman in the classroom to a white man in the classroom, which was a step from one form of relative power and authority into one with even more power.

After our conversation, there are a few thoughts I’d like to share on my own reflections of how masculine power operates in schools that I’ve worked in. These are my reflections after sharing space with other men in the caucus, and then gathering with the “Oppressed by Gender Caucus” that met at the same time across the hall. Many thanks to all who participated and held that space for us to break down some of the ways gender intersects with teaching.

Masculinity, charisma, and what makes a “good teacher” all intersect when a cult of personality forms around a particular person.

Many spaces I’ve worked in, whether they are schools, outdoor education organizations, or communities of faith, have a tendency to pour affection or grandeur on specific teachers based on their ability to work well with kids. These teachers overwhelmingly tend to be male. As it turns out, kids are not immune to the ways sexism overvalues masculinity, as is indicated in studies where male teachers are shown to consistently get higher reviews and different descriptors than female teachers… including online classes where the “male teacher” was actually a woman behind the computer screen.

I painfully remember working alongside men in science education who would do little to no rigorous content with their students, accomplish little during the day, and get tons of credit from students and administrators alike for the work that they were doing. Meanwhile, I was being harassed by my students for being gender non-conforming, trying to squeeze in content that was both rigorous and engaging, and would constantly be questioned by students as to my expertise or competence. It was total hell.

And now? Now I work on the other side of that divide. Strangers who I am meeting for the first time often tell me that I “must be a great teacher,” which can only be a reflection of how they read my personality, race, and gender expression. Administrators and parents who have never seen me teach gush about my gifts in teaching, while female colleagues’ talents are taken for granted or left unnoticed. I often sit with this discomfort and am kind of at loose ends about how to wield this power I now have. I try to spread the word about the awesome projects my female colleagues create, and highlight their hard work and talents for teaching. I try to use my voice to step in when kids are perpetuating ideas about teachers or students that aren’t based in evidence, but on charisma. However, since stepping out of the discomfort of never being believed and stepping into this privileged spotlight, I will admit that it is challenging to stay in touch with the experience of what it is like on the other side.

As a white male teacher, my words hold power to white boys that others’ don’t. This power should never be held lightly.

First off, I want to acknowledge that the experiences of my students are each unique, and when I make generalizations, I am pointing out trends that are not absolute. In fact, these trends don’t point to any particular student on an individual level, only to larger societal structures that create the conditions for these things to exist and appear as patterns in my instructional space. That said, there is a tendency in my student body for white boys to walk into my classroom expecting to be comfortable, expecting to have their opinions heard and supported, and to be confident in their own correctness. This includes moments when those boys’ ideas perpetuate systems of power or put down others seen as inferior, either because they are not perceived as being in the room or because of structural inequality created by sexism, racism, ableism, etc. This confidence and comfort is not a given for students who aren’t at the center of power, like girls (especially in STEM spaces) or kids of color.

As a white male teacher, I am in a position to challenge that comfort in a way that kids will respect more than if I was seen as female or non-white. This is troubling, since as a white male teacher, I have the least experience with day-to-day oppression and the ways that can show up in language and action. It is clear that with the power I carry comes a responsibility for careful listening, self-education, and humbling myself to the reality that I will continue to mess up in trying to push the comfort zones of all white guys in the room, myself included.

The power of an individual and the power of a subject can intersect as well.

Because STEM is connected to masculinity, STEM also holds masculine power. As a white guy teaching science and computer science, there are so many layers to the intersections of my power in the classroom. When a history teacher discusses issues of race and social justice, that is something that is expected or taken for granted. When I talk about issues of race and social justice from a scientific perspective, that seems radical and new. Moreover, the logic and reason associated with science make my arguments about how race and racism impacts health, well-being, and the history of science seen as more “real” than the “soft” study of history, social studies, or anthropology.

As a trans person, I have the distance from what is considered a “normal boyhood” that could empower me to redefine what creates a healthy development as a boy-identifying child.

This is one topic we talked about a fair amount, and something that I want to pursue further. When engaging with boys in my classroom, there is a tacit assumption that as a male teacher, I “understand” boyhood from a first-person perspective. In reality, I never experienced a boyhood – I was assumed to be a girl all throughout my childhood, and was treated through that lens until I was an adult.

While some might consider this distance a weakness (I certainly did in my first year as a male teacher… I was so afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing!!), I would like to frame it as an advantage as a person who teaches boys. Because I am able to observe boyhood from the outside, I am able to see more clearly the ways in which the practices of raising young men can fail to instill empathy, humility, and a healthy relationship to masculine power than cis men who see those things as “normal.” I can call out those moments in a safe-r way for boys than other teachers might, since they see me as an ally based on our shared identity as male.

Tangentially to this, one thing I tried to imagine was what a productive all-boys educational space might look like, where boyhood was both celebrated and created in a way that was not destructive to gender diversity or femininity among those students or more broadly. This is not something I’ve explored deeply & would love any resources you have for thinking about this in the comments/in a private message. What would/does anti-oppression child-centered single-gender boys’ education look like? Because the goals of co-education don’t always meet the needs of the boys in my classroom well! That’s a whole new blog post right there…!

Male teachers need spaces to talk about masculinity and power.

Overall, I left the caucus incredibly grateful for the space and eager to dive into these topics further. I want to invite other men that I work with to have these kinds of conversations in a way that is productive and allows us to start disentangling the many threads of the web of masculinity and power.

What are your thoughts? How has gender, perceived or projected, impacted your relationship to teaching? How can we create a healthy relationship to masculine power with the assumption that sexism exists, persists, and should be dismantled?

Journey-mapping in the science classroom

March 12, 2017November 30, 2018 / fishyteaching / Leave a comment

Hi, everyone! It’s been a while. Here’s some updates on things I’ve been thinking about in my classroom and my graduate program.

Back in November, I went to a workshop with the fabulous Deb Morrison, a professor at the University of Washington College of Education. The focus was on activities and practices that increase equity in the science classroom. I left with a number of amazing tools, which are cataloged in this Google Doc which you should feel free to use and distribute, with attribution! The one I want to focus on today is “The Path Here – Educational Journey Maps.”

As a part of the activity, students are asked to map out the “key events, people or things in your life that have contributed to your science education.” This allows students to examine the ways they have been encouraged or discouraged in science, provides information to teachers about students’ personal relationships with science topics, and allows students to see trends in the ways different students have engaged with science in the past/reflect on how that impacts students’ current work and sense of belonging in the classroom.

I hope to use this with my students next fall, but as an experiment, I decided to create my own journey map of how I came to be a science teacher. Here’s what I have so far:

Until I completed the activity, I would never have noticed a few striking trends:

Middle school is basically absent from my timeline – it is like a gap in my experience of education. Many of my middle school memories have been blocked out, in large part because of hormones (or at least that’s my theory)
I have had very few positive relationships with science teachers. With the exception of two or three college professors and my 5th grade teacher, no conventional science teacher has really had a positive relationship with me as a student. This is striking, given how much I enjoy teaching science now.
I had a lot of pressure growing up to become a scientist, and I was very resistant to that pressure. My mother’s parents were both scientists, and I was a bright student as a kid, and as a result I was pushed hard into STEM topics. As a result, I pushed hard back. Especially as a school-aged girl, I felt like there was an expectation that I would go into STEM to break stereotypes about women in those fields.
Interestingly, I spent a lot of my free time as a kid working on STEM-related projects, like taking apart electronics, spending time in the woods, and learning to identify birds. However, I never really got to connect those passions to the work we were doing in classroom science until I got to college. I spent a lot of high school avoiding science by testing out of those classes based on knowledge I had from reading and being cared for by my grandparents. As a result, my best connections are with humanities teachers who allow me to pursue topics of interest and push me to critically think about issues of justice and representation.

Based on this work, I included a question about teachers’ paths to science on a recent interview done with 6 teachers in my professional learning community. I was working on some interview practice for an upcoming research capstone in my graduate program, and was asking teachers to reflect on their inclusive practices in their classrooms. Below is a table summarizing those teachers’ responses to thinking about moments when they were especially included or excluded from the grade school science classroom:

The most striking trend I noticed was in teachers discussing a specific project, paper, or lab that drew them into the practice of science. One teacher described breeding a specific kind of fruit fly on her own using multiple generations of reproduction and her knowledge of genetics. Another talked about a paper written in a seminar that she had worked especially hard on that had been appreciated by her professor.

As I enter into leading a long-term research project for the first time as a science teacher, I am excited to try and create this sense of excitement, personal investment, and challenge for my students. It would not have occurred to me before completing this exercise that this could be listed as an inclusive practice within science teaching, but it is clear that both in the experience and teaching of science content, having authentically engaging and challenging independent tasks is a keystone for many students’ ability to see themselves belonging in that space. More to come on how that plays out in the near future!

What are the key moments from your own STEM education that led you to feel included or excluded in that space? Share in the comments!

Fishing for Rainbows

Teaching that centers social justice, science, and play

Author: fishyteaching