20 Conversations for 2020 Challenge -- Conversation #5 Gender Neutral Pronouns

Conversation #5 Gender Neutral Pronouns

I have to admit to a huge blind spot on this issue that I have gotten better about but still find myself struggling with. It isn't the concept I have a problem with, it's the practice of it. I totally get why we should use more gender neutral pronouns, but I have habits that have been formed by 48 years of life that don't easily change overnight. Not using that as an excuse, just stating a simple fact about my life. I've moved a long way toward improvement, because I used to address the entire class as "guys". Ugh! I know, I know, I know... But when I was studying Spanish, it really made me think about that blind spot; because in Spanish, if there is one male person present in a room full of many non-male people, the gender of the pronoun used automatically switches to male... That really got me thinking. So I worked hard to say "guys and gals"; still not great, but much better. Lately I have been

working on being sensitive to gender neutral pronouns in my professional and personal life. I'm getting better at asking people upfront what gender pronouns they would like to have used about them. I was listening to Just Between Us (one of my favorite podcasts) and Gaby Dunn's partner was a guest on the show. Mal Blum is a non-binary musician who uses they, them, their as their personal pronouns. It was really interesting to hear how the hosts were making sure to use the correct pronouns with Mal throughout the show. The simple guide that Tricia shared in this challenge conversation is a excellent and simple tool for reminding yourself to use more gender neutral language with your students, colleagues, and parents. Currently I'm the Director of EdTech at my school, but next year my role will change to be the Director of Professional Learning. In that role, I plan to introduce the idea of gender neutral language to the faculty and I already know there will be some people who really push back on it, but the majority of our faculty will completely understand it and be on board; some members are already aware and sensitive to gender neutral language, so a core group of allies exists to build from at school.

#12dayslearning Day 3 -- Pencils or Dry Erase Markers

Day 3 -- Would you rather have... Pencils that are always sharp or dry erase markers that always have ink?

This is a tough question, because usually in my classroom the students have the pencils, but I have the dry erase markers. So do I go with what is good for the kids or what is good for me? I'm going to be selfish and pick dry erase markers that always have ink. This works for the students as well because sometimes they do use them as well.

On an interesting side note, once an administrator purchased all the teachers in our school dry erase markers that were not the standard colors of red, blue, black, and green. These things were like gold, because most of the teachers burned through them very quickly, but I didn't allow my students to ever touch the other markers and it became a thing with them. They would literally beg to use the other markers when they were going to do something on the white board.

#12dayslearning Day 1 What is one action you took in 2018 that was inspired by new learning?

Thanks to @Edurolearning

I saw my friends at Eduro Learning were getting this 12 Days of Learning challenge going this December and I wanted to join in as well as spread the word to others.

The first question is what is on action you took in 2018 that was inspired by new learning? What impact did it have on student learning?

Great question! 2018 saw the development of several new actions for me professionally. I managed to get a classroom set of Google Cardboards (20 with a router for them) and started playing with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in the classroom. The trick here is that I don't have may own classroom, so I need to convince other teachers of the value of something. This was pretty easily done. I offered a week's worth of PD session in The Zone to give teachers a demo of what AR & VR could do. The response from teachers was quite good; everyone was really impressed with the power of the experience, but it really only translated into one teacher really adopting in her teaching. But for now, I will call that a small but important victory, because Karissa Van Liew really was willing to try something very new and different in her music lessons.

Karissa took her G5 students to New Orleans with our Google Cardboards. The students were studying a unit on Jazz music, so Karissa took them to New Orleans to tour the hometown of Jazz music. The students love it! They did all the things we all do the first time we see VR -- loads of ahhh's and ohhh's as they attempted to walk around in the new environment. They talked to each other about what they were seeing and how the buildings and city looked compared to Cheongna and in general -- just had a great time.

So what impact did it have on student learning? Early results are limited, but the students did enjoy the experience and kept asking me when they would do it again every time they saw me in the hallway. I say that is a positive response. I got one teacher to buy in to the idea, so based on her experiences my hope is to get the Social Studies and Science teachers to try out some lessons utilizing the Cardboards in the coming spring semester.