When it comes to my identities, I have many of them and they all affect my everyday life differently. My race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socio-economic status, and many more all work together to define who I am. However, only few of my identities can physically be seen such as my race or even my able body. This can create an implicit bias amongst individuals. Because of my race, people may assume my character and demeanor, and because of my able body, I may be perceived as more physically capable than I actually am. Having implicit bias negatively impacts the perception of others based on an individual’s experience, knowledge, or the lack there of with that identity. As much as we like to think we’re “woke,” we all have implicit biases.

            When it comes to the role my identity plays in the classroom and in relationship with students, my impact is very prevalent at my school. I am at Drew Charter School where the demographics are very black and white (literally). There is a small percentage of non-black or white students as well. I am an African-American man in a white woman dominated profession. My two identities are minority intersections which play an even bigger role in the impact I have in the school by my presence alone. Although a lot of the educators are black at Drew, my gender is still important when it comes to the balance of masculine presence in the school. As an African-American male in the south, I am implicitly seen as aggressive, dangerous, lazy, and mischievous. However, by being in the classroom presenting myself far from those biases, it creates an eye opening experience every time I am seen in the school acting the opposite of what I am thought to be. This gives other black boys hope that their life doesn’t have to revolve around athletics, music, and entrepreneurship to be successful and an understanding that there are educated, well-spoken black men in their community.

            I firmly believe because of my racial and gender identity, my relationships with the students are unique. A lot of students haven’t even had a male teacher. So me being male AND black is a very important aspect of my relationships with the students. Because of the implicit biases that I am aware of that people have toward black men, I consciously try to dismantle any possible assumptions toward my character. I do this by not only talking to one group of students (white, black, boy, girl). Instead, I even out my interactions between all students regardless of their identities. This makes all students feel seen instead of feeling like I can only effectively interact with black males because I am a black male. Although I am conscious of what I am doing, I am also conscious of not compromising my natural personality to make another group more comfortable. When talking to white students, I try my best not to code switch or even internally put them on a higher pedestal than other students because that can cause bigger issues in the long run such as neglecting other students’ capabilities, feeling pressured to speak a certain kind of way around certain students, and even internalizing my racial oppression and projecting it on my white students. In conclusion, my identities play a role in the classroom and my relationships with students by dismantling any negative/inaccurate assumptions and giving me the space to show students a different perspective to the idea of a man and specifically a black man.

Classroom Facilitation and Leadership

When it comes to my philosophy of teaching, I believe that education should be equitable, engaging, and should encourage kids to critically think. I envision my classroom using diversity as leverage to engage in their learning because they will see themselves as well as their peers represented in their education. For example, when talking about genetics, I could use different traits of my students for them to understand the difference between a phenotype and genotype. In terms of my classroom setup, the classroom is set up in two columns with space in the middle and a table in the middle back of the class. The individual tables are slanted as if an arrow is pointing toward the back of the class. This setup maximizes engagement and while also maximizing the floor space to make the room feel more open. This setup also fosters a safe learning environment and symbolizes the culture of my classroom as being free and open-minded. Since I am only a teacher intern, I don’t have too much of an influence on the culture of the classroom but I have contributed to it. I’ve encouraged engagement, positivity, and asking questions in order for a safe space for quality education to be created.

Class Charter

At Drew Charter Schools, we have something we call “Circle Talk” or Talk it Up Tuesday.” Every Tuesday at the end of the day, we have our homeroom sit in a circle and we discuss a social-emotional topic. However, before we go into the social-emotional learning (SEL), we collectively made a class charter. This charter consisted of norms and non-negotiables as we are talking in the circle. Before every circle talk, we go over our charter to enforce the norms we put in place. We established 5 main norms. With these norms, we are fostering an intentional safe space for students to engage the social-emotional aspect of their being.

"Grateful Circle"