The focus of the information was how to connect with excluded youth. He suggested things like the jigsaw method, walk abouts and flexible groupings. These methods force students to interact with each other. It also gives you the opportunity to talk and connect with your students one on one. Making connection with your students, he stressed, is essential. You can become a role model to others if you take the opportunity to connect with excluded youth.
I was hoping to learn more about how to directly get students in the "majority" to accept others. This we did not get much counselling on. Brock said he wished he could give us the answer to this but as far as he knew there wasn't one yet. If we knew how to get the "majority" to accept the "minority" then we would not have this issue in the first place. The best thing he suggested you can do is be a role model to others.
Either way the session was amazing. It gave me some things to ponder and some hope that we as teachers can make a difference in our society if we make inclusion a priority in our classrooms
Thanks Brock
Sounds like an awesome session! I was able to attend some sessions at the EduCon conference this weekend. One of the sessions I attended was The Rise of the Introvert which spoke to a lot of the same ideas as the session you attended I think. A lot of good information about how to be aware of differences in your classroom.
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