Thinking Forward

Last week, we received some peer feedback about our engaged citizenship pledges. To help better myself I would like to reflect on the feedback I received. One of the main points that was brought up in my peer feedback was that my curriculum connections were not explicitly clear.

While looking through the curriculum, my pledge fits very well in the health educatuon curriculum:

USC 7.2-Examine critically and use purposefully blood-borne pathogen information/ education, including HIV and Hepatitis C, for the purpose of committing to behaviours that do not put one at risk of infection or co-infection.

• In this outcome, students are required to learn about symptoms of blood-bourne pathogen diseases. This outcome could focus on the symptoms you do not always see and how even though you may have something inside you that is making you feel ill, you may not look it.

USC 7.4- Demonstrate a personalized and coherent understanding of the importance of nurturing harmony in relationships (with self, others, and the environment), and apply effective strategies to re/establish harmony when conflict arises.

• This outcome focuses on nurturing harmonious relationships. Students could discuss or learn about relationships between people of differing abilities and how those relationships impact their communities as well as how to respect and understand those relationships to a larger degree.

While I only specifically listed the outcomes in the grade 7 health curriculum, there are similar outcomes in grade K-9 health curriculum that could be adapted and fit with my pledge.

 

Staying Engaged

It was really hard for me to come up with a pledge that was close to my heart, but also fit in with our classes idea of being an engaged citizen as well as the curriculum.  My new pledge checks all three of those boxes!

Until i wrote my blog yesterday I never realized how often the idea of “invisible” disabilities impacted the lives of those around us. My family has been impacted by MS for a long time now and people actually say to family members “Oh, you are SO lucky you have MS!” I feel frustrated for them when things like this occur because they do not know if someone just had an attack, is having a bad day with their disease or what is going on in their life. For that reason alone I have chosen this as my pledge.

Through some research I have realized many disabilities and diseases are invisible, they impact the lives of so many of us but also the students that I one day hope to teach. Things such as: ADHD, Dyslexia, Fibromyalgia, the list goes on and on… These students are going to need supports that you Cannot see, and their peers will need to learn empathy in order to be compassionate to their peers.

The video below is a great example of how you cannot always see what students need or are feeling.

Reflecting on my Pledge

Although I haven’t been blogging my journey as often as I would to have liked, that does not mean my pledge is not going well. A few weeks ago I decided that although my pledge did involve being an active citizen it was fairly surface level.

I have decided to tweak my pledge to reflect my views a little more closely. I have broader my pledge from strictly multiple sclerosis to include many diseases and be more responsive and open to the thought that many diseases and disabilities are silent or invisible.

A lot of the time individuals with ‘invisible’ diseases or disabilities are thought of as less than, they are labelled as faking it, or that there is actually nothing wrong with them. My pledge 2.0 will include getting more information about how to not judge or assume things about people unless you know, as well as how this would look or help a classroom and the community.