For the Pro D Day on October 20th, I attended UBC's "Introduction to SOGI in the K-12 Context." It was a really informative workshop, and I took away a lot of ideas on creating safe spaces in the classroom.
As math teachers, we're generally not the first individuals in schools that students seek assistance from when struggling. During my high school years, I'd notice students visit many classrooms after school, but not so much the math classes. In my first dual-degree practicum two years prior, my SA and I would stay late planning after school, without many visitors. For my current practicum, the math classes are located in a module of portables outside the main school building, so once again, not many students are likely to visit. I'm okay with that, however, it suggests to me that my classroom should be even safer, especially since our content causes more stress and anxiety than we'd like.
Some of the takeaways from the first presenter included the importance of: listening, recognizing, sharing, moderating, accommodating, referring, caring, and connecting. We also discussed the notion of "the squeaky wheel gets the grease", so in terms of teaching that meant understanding that students who are more comfortable with expressing themselves tend to get more attention, but that we should not neglect the students who aren't as comfortable sharing their qualms either.
From the second presenter, I learned about creating boundaries in the classroom, especially when parents aren't on the same page about teaching methods or content. Following the article we read in EDCP 342a, "Battleground schools", this idea made a lot more sense. I've mostly thought about how to help students more comfortable with math, but rarely about the interactions with parents and whether or not they'd be happy with my delivery or grading. I also took away how to address students differently; now in the context of the workshop, it was how to not address them as "boys and girls", which I hadn't previously struggled with. However, in discussions, we were able to take the notion farther and inject personality into our classes, by referring to the students as, "budding mathematicians" and "young scientists."
Overall, there was quite a bit to unpack, especially in applying it to a math classroom. But it was a solid perspective shift.
This sounds like an excellent Pro-D workshop, and you've taken away many interesting ideas from it! A reflection of my own on your first point here: when I taught high school math, I had my classroom full of math games, puzzles and toys that kids could use at lunchtime or after school, and I often had a good number of kids coming to my classroom to eat their lunch and try out the puzzles or play chess or other games. There would be lots of informal conversations with students then, and it was a nice relaxed time to hear what kids were concerned about, at some level.
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