Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Hello. This is to acknowledge and reduce personal bias An
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assumption section as a public school educator, the topic of
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race and socioeconomic status are a regular part of my
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daily life.
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Even though I'm a reflective person by nature, Um, I
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have to admit that there have been times in my
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career where I've let my personal biases or assumptions get
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in the way of me being an effective educator.
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Um, I wish this wasn't the case.
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However, I am human.
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And as humans, we're not perfect.
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Um, it's important that we learn from our experiences and
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our own personal education when glaring thing to me is
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that I have fallen victim to is prior to raising
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a child with special needs.
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I assumed parents a special needs.
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Children just didn't listen to the recommendations of the experts,
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and that's why their Children weren't showing progress.
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Um, I also assumed that parents of difficult Children, um
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and they just weren't strong enough and they didn't have
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the follow through.
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Um, God, in his mercy, knew that I personally needed
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a child with special needs to be able to understand
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where these parents were coming from.
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Um, and so now that I've had that experience.
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I have greater empathy for parents of special needs students
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and parents of difficult students.
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Through my experience as a special needs Mom, it has
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also allowed me to have empathy towards others who, um,
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don't have the same experiences, same ability, Um, same mental
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capacity that I have.
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Um there were definitely times that I witness that that
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I was failing compared to others with similar situations.
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And so that gave me, allowed me to have grace
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for others and definitely built that empathy piece.
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Um, an area I'm currently working through is building relationships
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with students and families of cultures that I'm unfamiliar with.
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Um, I find myself assuming that we're gonna have difficulty
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relating to one another due to different cultures.
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And, um, my action plan to combat this assumption advice
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that I have is thio get my students to share
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their personal experiences and their perspectives as much as possible
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in the classroom.
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Um, I teach first grade for those that don't know.
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And, um, one of our main focus standards is teaching
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family structures.
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So this is a perfect springboard for me.
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Thio learn about my students cultures.
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Um, their family structures, the cultures they come from the
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family history.
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By allowing the students to lead the conversation, I am
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able to learn firsthand knowledge about their cultures and their
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experiences. Um, and, uh, this just reminded me of Paul
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Park in and his little quote that talks about building
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relationships fosters empathy, fostering empathy can change the world.
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And I want to be a part of changing the
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world for the better.
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Excuse me.
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E wanted to change it to be a more empathetic
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place. And so my plan to do my part is
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Thio learn through having my students take the lead in
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the classes, and they will be the teacher for me
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and to build those relationships, relationships.
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They're so important.
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Um, and I just wanted to say that I've really
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appreciated the reflective nature of this course.
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I feel better equipped and definitely more confident to branch
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out beyond just my classroom and the small experiences I
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get within the classroom.
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Um and so I appreciate you all joining me for
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this journey.
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Thank you.