Artifact #1

Artifact # 1 - Social Justice - Positive Pizzas 

TEP believes that educators must be open to and respectful of diversity and difference.  Educators require the ability to see beyond their own ways of defining the world and to be advocates of social justice and the inclusive classroom.  A high value is placed on the ethical responsibility of educators.  

Social Justice is a very important goal for educators, as they act as advocates for their students and for inclusivity in the classroom.  In their profession they must look beyond their own way of defining the world and be open to and respectful of the diversity they experience in the classroom. 

My own experiences with social justice include the promotion and encouragement of all my students, showing them the value they carry in spite of and often because they are so diverse and different from anyone else.  One way I found to celebrate this difference was through an activity we completed in our Health and Careers class.  

My students were given a (paper) “pizza slice” that had no toppings on it.  The students were given coloured paper and told to create toppings to put on their slice of pizza.  Students were told that for every topping they put on their pizza they had to include one “green thought” or positive thought about themselves.  Students rose to the challenge and created beautiful pizza slices.  After the activity was completed it was beautiful to see how the pizza slices fit together to make one pizza and the diversity of every student was present.  The students were proud of what they created and seeing it up on the wall so that they could share their personal preferences and positive thoughts about themselves with their classmates and with the world.