If we were all the same the world would be boring: A student teacher's story

Hi! If you don't follow NutMeg012 on Instagram then you need to. Her positivity and never give up attitude is contagious! This week I thought I would share about her lesson called, "Celebrating differences". So, without further ado, here she is Meg Grannan.

"Hi! So before I begin this post you must know that I have a rare form of dwarfism called Metatropic Dysplasia so when I walk into a classroom students look and stare. Children are curious and they want to know why I am small.

During my student teaching semester, I taught in a kindergarten class. In the beginning, we had a talk about how I was different. They might be the same height as me or taller, but I was still the teacher. After a month, I realized that some students still weren’t listening or respecting me. My mentor teacher and I had a talk with the class and they thought I was a student. I decided to come up with a lesson called

Celebrating Our Differences

I started the lesson by talking to the class about how we are all different. I asked the students to tell me differences that they see about me. The students said that I was small, had blonde hair, had blue eyes, and many other things. I then asked them to look at the student next to them and talk about what makes them different from each other. The main theme being we are all different, but that' s OK. We may look different on the outside, but what is on the inside is what matters most.

Afterwards we read the book Not Too Big…Not Too Small…just right for me! by Understanding Dwarfism. As we read, I asked the students questions about what they saw and we talked about how everyone is different in their own way - and that is OK. Right before we were finished, one student yelled, "He is small just like you!" My teaching heart exploded that they were getting what I was talking about.

After we were done reading, I wrote on the board their sentence starter so they could see it while they were writing and drawing their pictures. I used the sentence starter I am different because…

While the students were working, I walked around and listened to what they were talking about and watched what they were writing as well. Several students shared what they wrote and their pictures. I ended the lesson by saying if we were all the same the world would be boring! "

Thank you Megan for a great and insightful post.

About guest blogger Megan Grannan