My Experience at the "Understanding Muslim Students" Workshop

The first workshop I attended was titled "Understanding Muslim Students." I learned many valuable facts, including the percentage of Muslim people in the world and in our country. I learned that there are only 1.8 million Muslim people in Canada and was quite surprised at this statistic, as it was lower than I had previously thought. I also learned some unfortunate information, such as the fact that Muslim people have experienced the most hate crimes in Canada in the past 5 years than any other G-7 country. This was upsetting to hear and shed awareness on the reality of being Muslim in this country. It is my job as an educator to ensure Muslim students do not feel left out or discriminated against due to their religion. I will ensure that my students are supported during cultural celebrations, such as Eid and Ramadan, and help them through this time as they may be feeling more tired and lacking energy. I will be mindful of this as I plan lessons and try to completely limit the mention of food and food as a topic to help them during this time.

During this first workshop, we played a game that involved us moving to the side of the classroom depending on whether we thought a certain individual was Muslim or not. This also helped bring awareness to the fact that people cannot tell by looking at someone if they are Muslim or not, just like any other religion. Additionally, I thought this game was great to get teachers up and out of their seats, and got us to address common stereotypes about Muslim individuals.

Another game we played during the 'Understanding Muslim Students' workshop was "put down your finger." During this game, people could anonymously put down their finger when they agreed with a statement about Muslim students. This made us all reflect on our internal biases and think deeply about our preconceived notions of Muslim individuals. This activity would be beneficial for everybody to take part in, as everybody has biases that need to be addressed and reflected on to ensure we try our best to remain impartial and judgment-free individuals. As teachers, we cannot treat individuals differently based on any factor, therefore, I believe this activity was quite helpful to have at a teachers' conference. 

By Stephanie @ NUO-2025