August: Hyperlinks

1.Best Practices: Creating an LGBT-inclusive School Climate 
http://www.tolerance.org/lgbt-best-practices

This website is an excellent resource for not only making your classroom LGBT friendly but also helping improve your school. Topics covered on the list talk about the importance of gender neutral bathrooms, allowing same-sex couples at prom, forming a Gay-Straight Alliance, and countless other things to improve the school. This goes along with August talking about how it is important to show LGBT students that the school is not just tolerating them but actively seeking to embrace them.

2. 5 Ways to Make Your Classroom LGBT Inclusive
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-nicodemo/5-ways-to-make-your-class_1_b_5713125.html

This article from the Huffington Post hits on some of the same action steps that August mentions at the very end of the chapter. Anthony Nicodermo discusses how it is our job as educators to make sure all our students feel comfortable and be able to be themselves while in the classroom. Both Nicodermo and August mention that it is important to patrol language and not only tell the students not to use terms like "That's gay" but educate them why they should not use it. August mentions how one teacher had his students look up the meaning in the dictionary while Nicodermo mentions in his article a poster in a classroom he went into telling students about all the other word choices they can make in place of gay.

The poster that Nicodermo discussed in his article

3. Being an Ally Teacher for LGBT Students

This video is of Justin Smith, a New York City English teacher and Assistant Principal. In the beginning, Mr. Smith talks about the importance of showing students that you're on their side by your language, opinions, or what you teach in the classroom. The second half of the video talks about one of his former students who came out after high school and how Mr. Smith had a positive impact on him when the students was in junior because of a lesson taught in the classroom. Smith used LGBT friendly curriculum, like what August suggests, and it was successful in creating a more positive classroom.