Greetings, Gender-Inclusive Biology teaching community!
Here is the November edition of our newsletter centering resources and strategies to support all students, especially those who are transgender, intersex, Two-Spirit, or gender non-conforming.
Holiday Preparations - It's nearing the end of November, and that means that the winter holiday season is fast-approaching. Gender Spectrum is an awesome organization that supports transgender and gender non-conforming youth and their families. They have made several videos and webinars for families and professionals with tips and guidance to use before, during, and after the holidays. Though they are mostly family-facing, they can also be useful for trans youth preparing to approach their families on these days that are often fraught for us trans folks. Check out the video list (video for professionals is at the end) as well as their written guide for parents & caregivers and blog post about conversations about gender at holiday get-togethers. These tools may also be useful for framing conversations with colleagues who may be resistant to using gender-congruent language for students at school, so check them out!
Name changes at school - One approach to officially changing students' name and pronouns at school - In the state of California, AB-1266 (the School Success and Opportunity Act) explicitly protects a student's right to gender-congruent treatment in school, even if a legal name change has not occurred. Read Lewis's blog post about the Vista Unified School District's procedure and recommendations for educators advocating for an inclusive approach to students changing the name or pronouns they are using at school.
Pronoun practice - Many trans people using pronouns other than she/her or he/him meet resistance or inexperience from folks in their communities about speaking about them in gender-congruent ways. Read this blog post from They is My Pronoun about tips for practicing they/them pronouns and this list compiling examples of media that people can read or listen to that correctly uses nonbinary pronouns. Lewis also recommends the book A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns, a graphic story co-created by a nonbinary author and a cisgender male author.
Recent media related to gender-inclusive biology:
Diversity Is What Makes It Interesting to Study Living Things is a brand-new article in Rethinking Schools by Sam about his work in biology class!
Transgender Teachers Need to Speak Out On What They Need From School Leaders is an article in Edweek that features an interview with Sam
Lesson: Impossible podcast interviewed Lewis on his strategies for creating a inclusive science classroom, with a bonus episode on Sex Ed
See you at these upcoming GIC conference presentations:
NSTA Regional Conference, Seattle, WA, December 12-14: Lewis will be co-presenting a session on designing inclusive biology classrooms with Christine Zarker Primomo
Time to Thrive Conference, Washington, DC, February 14-16
Pending: Cross-Border Conference, Surrey, BC, February 29th
STAO Conference, Toronto, ON, March 26-27th
NSTA National Conference, Boston, MA, April 2-5th
Have a great week!
— Lewis & Sam