Focusing on Students

I decided to focus on LGBTQ students for a portion of my TaA (Teacher as Ally) badge. So, one of the checkpoints of this assignment is to Google: “Supporting (your group of students here) students.” The point of this is to find possible resources that can be helpful for understanding how to better understand that particular group and help them be better students and make myself a better teacher. So, I found these sources plus a few more that I found helpful and insightful into understanding and supporting LGBTQ students.

Best Practices: Creating an LGBT-inclusive School Climate 

Supporting LGBTQ youth BEST PRACTICES AND GUIDELINES GLSEN’s Back-To-School-Guide for Creating LGBT Inclusive Environments

Creating Safe Space for GLBTQ Youth: A Toolkit

10 Keys to Creating an Inclusive Classroom Community for LGBTQ Students 

CSU Pride Resource Center

The titles are pretty self explanatory, some have more than you would think, and if you go through all of them you’ll find that they all have the same underlying messages, and many contain a lot of the same ideas as to how to support LGBTQ students. Most of these sources have advice on how to make your classroom a more inclusive and comfortable space for LGBTQ students, which will also help heterosexual students, because all students deserve support, caring, and protection from bullying. I also linked CSU’s Pride Resource Center because it has a lot of resources for college students; including things like support groups, special events, and workshops for people who aren’t necessarily a part of the LGBTQ community but want to expand their knowledge and become more understanding.

My ‘Top 5 Takeaways” are:

1. All you really need to start is to be sensitive with your students
2. Look out for your students, if you see negative behavior confront it.
3. Open dialogue can help with any of that negative behavior I mentioned before, and can help other students and you understand exactly what is going on.
4. Be consistent. Just like any teacher, you need to be consistent, live by your word, and never falter between two different views. If one day you tell a student not to do something and they do it again the next day or someone else does the same thing you need to tell them again, not to do it.
5. Finally, have a supportive space specifically designated for supporting LGBTQ students and allies, including allies will help other students to better understand LGBTQ students and create a safe space to help cultivate understanding and better student relationships.

So, I will leave those for you, signing off, Jaile.