Session 11: What Does Inclusion Mean?

Today in AEE 311 we talked all about inclusion!  Ms. Megan Tanaka spoke with us today about making an effort toward "intentional inclusion", a powerful concept!  Finally, we wrapped class up with 6 different lists to help us create a poem based on our own personal culture; as we know, we can't fully understand the culture of our students without first understanding our own culture!

What are you curious about?

• Is the data collected at National Convention made public?
• Lessons that I could use the sunglasses activities for?
• Be creative!  Inclusion is important in any class but maybe an FFA Leadership class would be a great fit for the lesson!  Or, consider this for a segment on inclusion in the FFA during your FFA Officer retreat. 
• How can we get the "We Are FFA" experience at our state convention?
• To see how my poem will turn out
• We can't wait to hear them all!
• The "We Are FFA" program
• Why did the "We Are FFA" program start?
• Can you change a student's views on diversity when they grew up in a racist household?
• This is a tough questions.  I believe that as teachers we may not always have the ability to change a student's circumstances but we can always provide a safe, constructive, culturally rich learning environment for each one of our students.
• Student recruitment ideas
• Is there a proper network for teacher and students to put program information and share ideas?
• Why yes there is!  Check out this blog about using NAAE Communities of Practice as an AEE 311 student!
• Are members or officers supposed to create the POA?
• Officers should consider the needs and desires of the members but the POA should be developed by the officer team, likely at the officer retreat 
• Can we have more peer to peer or big group discussions?

What did you learn?

• More about intentional inclusion at the national level
• Equity & Anti-racism
• About Megan Tanaka's role at National FFA
• "We Are FFA"
• Diversity in the classroom
• Local involvement with the "We Are FFA" program
• Not to put Vaseline on sunglasses...
• Empathizing with students with disabilities

What do you want to learn more about?

• How to use the "We Are FFA" program locally?
• What is an example lesson of inclusion?
• How did Dr. Foster include others and their diversity into his FFA chapter?
• More about Ms. Tanaka's position
• More about reaching the needs of all students
• Strategies for classroom inclusion
• Ms. Tanaka's Contact info
• mtanaka@ffa.org 

This week there was a lot of great questions about inclusion and the "We Are FFA" program!  I think that the resources listed below can answer a lot of these questions and I encourage you to really dig in and check them out!

FFA LifeKnowledge: Check out this link to a list of a ton of lesson plans that include elements of diversity and inclusion.  One of my favorites is the HS.72 : Appreciating Cultural Diversity lesson


Student Recruitment: Check out some of the resources that National FFA provides for student recruitment strategies 

Check out this video on the "We Are FFA" Program for some more info!