Coming into the first class of SSED 440 I really did not know what to expect. You hear a lot of things about a lot of classes within this program, but not this one. I am excited to take a class that I do not know much about. I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised, and leave this semester with a lot of knowledge and new understanding on teaching social studies. Social Studies is a subject that has never been very memorable for me. I enjoy it, and I enjoy learning about it, but for whatever reason it just doesn't stick. When I think back on my social studies classes I have taken throughout my education, I only remember tiny bits. I remember having to pick a historical figure and dress up like them in class in order to give a report. I remember …show more content…
This was not a topic that was completely foreign to me because as humans we make assumptions. However, it was something I had never seen written out before. Seeing the ladder visually helped to cement my understanding of it, and seeing the cartoon helped further. In my opinion, keeping that ladder in mind when interacting with people in your everyday life, makes you a better human being. We should not be so quick to judge and assume things about people, but we all do it. Keeping that ladder in mind is an important task for people in general to remember, but especially teachers. We have to be extra careful to leave our biases at the door and not get off track on the ladder, in order to have an equitable classroom. In the survey, you asked us what biases we have to check as teachers; I had a really hard time coming up with one. I know I have some, I am only human after all, but it was difficult. I grew up in Southern California, always attended very diverse schools, had friends from many different backgrounds, and was low-income. In middle school we lived in a mobile home park on the outskirts of a very wealthy city. I attended 6th grade with kids that came from extremely affluent