• In this month’s blog post we ask teachers about their use of Anne Sibley O’Brien and Dr. Andrea Breau’s protocol in their classrooms. If you did not use her protocol, we would like you to write about how you have been using the “I’m Your Neighbor, Exploring this Story & Your Own” guides at the back of each picture book. 

          I have not used the RENEW protocol in my classroom yet, but I have been utilizing the “I’m Your Neighbor, Exploring this Story & Your Own” guides at the back of the book to help me facilitate discussions about the stories that we’re reading. I have used them in a few different ways. Sometimes I will read a question from the guide to the students before we start the story, write it up on our board, and ask them to be thinking about that question while we read the story, and then come back to that question after the story to talk about what we thought of. Other times, I will read the story all the way through and then pick a few questions from the guide to lead our post-story discussions.

          Sometimes I will use those questions, and our conversations as a segway to a craft that is related to the story as well. We did this with In My Mosque, after discussing peace and kindness and what it means to say “Peace be upon you”, we used the outline of a dove from the story to write and draw about peace. The students really love this, and I think it keeps them thinking about the story and the questions long after the discussion has ended. I have greatly appreciated these guides, and even though I don’t always use each question from them, I think they are incredibly thoughtful and they seem to get to the heart of the matter in a way that is gentle, age appropriate, but also, still very powerful. 

• Write 250-1000 words about the Muslim faith and community. Please remember that the expectation for blog posts is that they are 250-500 words. This post allows you to write 250-1000 words but if you need to or want to write more, we understand. Some folks may have a lot to write, and we do not want anyone to feel limited. There is no expectation that you write more than you need. What do you now know or notice? How do you feel and what do you think about Ramadan and the Muslim faith and community? What do you wonder?

             I feel like I have to start this with the acknowledgement that I knew next to nothing about Islam prior to reading In My Mosque and listening to our incredible guest speakers. I also have to admit that what I assumed about Islam was highly stereotypical, and I know now, incredibly inaccurate. I learned so much from our time with M.O. Yuksel and Deqa Dhalac. I wrongly assumed that the Muslim faith was essentially limited to the Middle East, but I now know that it is a religion that is practiced around the world by some 8 billion people. I never would have guessed that Islam is the second largest religion in the world. Learning this highlighted all the more importance to the need for me to educate myself because otherwise I am completely ignorant to the lives of a huge population of people that I share this world with. I learned that despite my biased notions of Islam as oppressive to women, there are/have been Muslim female presidents and leaders around the world, when we ourselves have yet to see a female president here in The United States of America. 

             I was truly shocked to learn about the disproportionate amount of negative media coverage that is directed towards the Muslims and the Islamic faith. When it was compared to the amount of negative coverage to something like North Korea, a viable nuclear threat, it really opened my eyes to how much I have been influenced in my own perception. It was so incredible to see mosques around the world and to read about the love and desire for peace inside of them, as described by M.O. Yuksel. 

            I had no inclination of what Ramadan is or entails, and I still know very little. But I do know that it lasts for 30 days, and that it involves fasting. I also know (thanks to Deqa!) that students can still go to school during Ramadan. I would love to know more about why it is observed for that length of time, and more details about the fasting itself. I am so intrigued by Islam, and I am going to work to educate myself further. I think there are so many beautiful aspects to the faith and Muslim community, that I never realized before.

            I didn’t realize how narrow minded my own beliefs were, and how they completely represented the “monolith” that M.O. showed us, is completely inaccurate and fails to acknowledge that this is a religion practiced by diverse populations in nations all over the world. There are so many differences within that singular group that it is foolish to try to define it. I want to question/ research what I am shown about any population before I adopt it as a belief of my own. We have a responsibility to question the dialogue presented to us by the media in order for us to be responsible and informed educators, and global citizens.