Education

Top Ways to Help Students in Poverty During the Corona Virus Crisis

Donna — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 23:39:58 +0000

Top Ways to Help Students in Poverty During the Corona Virus Crisis Donna Fri, 04/03/2020 - 16:39

Top Ways to Help Students in Poverty During the Corona Virus Crisis

Communication Strategies to Assist Students with their Learning.

Poverty did not go away with the Covid-19 Pandemic, it expanded to people not experiencing it before and deepened for many who have been fighting it daily. Educators have contacted me asking for advice on how best help students who are no longer in school, yet still need to eat and learn. Here are some top tips that you can do right away. Stay tuned for online education on this and other poverty related topics.

As their teacher, be accessible by phone and internet for questions. The more verbal the instructions, the better. Students in poverty may not have someone at home who understands the assignments and can help them. For students who do not have phones, leave packets (gift wrap if possible) with step by step instructions and your contact information in case they get access to a phone and have questions.
Email daily or weekly activities with ideas for learning. Use some of the online resources listed above. Start the email with a check in. Give students an example of how you are doing and ask about their feelings/experiences. Show you care.
Create flyers with pictures and bullet steps or videos for how to log in and do the curriculum.
Turn the learning into a game. Ensure that the game/assignment does not require buying anything.
Make challenges for reading and math assignments that offer rewards for completion. Teachers could do this via video—if students have access to computers and internet.
Break learning into smaller chunks. Provide more frequent feedback through comments on posted documents and chats with students.
Communicate with parents to help them feel more confident in their new role of “teacher” during this time of home schooling. Provide them with clear expectations and frequent support. Provide them with multiple ways to contact you should they have questions or need assistance.

Enlist Others in the Community to Help with Disseminating Information. Put learning packets, books, and learning games at food banks, clothing closets, TANF/welfare offices, convenience stores, Laundromats, neighborhood stores, and wherever food is being distributed.

Use school esources to help students and families. Have school buses continue routes to deliver games, books, and learning materials. These buses can also be used to deliver meals to children.

Help with basic needs. Provide a list of available emergency resources in the community for families to get help with utilities, rent, food, medicine, and any basic human needs. Below are some examples of national organizations that are likely in your community. A resource directory is only as good as the person giving it has checked to ensure 1) the phone/address is correct, 2) there are actually resources available; and 3) the resources is what the family/person is needing; and 4) the person you are referring qualifies for the services you are offering.

Feeding America. This organization helps feed communities and individuals facing hunger across the United States through a nationwide network of food banks. You can locate your foodbank at this link
Community Action Agencies
Faith based organizations Search local office
SNAP Food Stamps Search local office
TANF Welfare Search local office
St. Vincent De Paul
Salvation Army

Increase Access to Internet and Computers

Families living below the poverty line, can get low-rate internet and/or free internet. Provide instructions and phone numbers for how to access services in your area.

Free/Low Cost Computers

There are organizations (some listed below) that offer free/low-cost computers to students and families living below the poverty line. There may be some doing this in your community. Provide specific instructions to families for how to access these resources.

Use online learning platforms to help students learn:

Google Classroom
Zoom
and others

Login to free educational resources online and share relevant resources with students and families:

Amazing Educational Resources (a Facebook group) has created a public spreadsheet of resources for reading, math, history, Chinese, coding, music and more.
Scholastic learn-at-home is offering free online resources during the crisis, including 20 days of lessons for grades pre-K to 9 and up to three hours of lessons a day.
Teaching Tolerance has a bank of resources that can be adapted for take-home or online learning—filtered by grade level, subject and social justice topic: including their Student Text Library and film kits

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Amarillo has seen some of the greatest progress in fighting poverty. Listen to why!

Donna — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 00:16:52 +0000

Amarillo has seen some of the greatest progress in fighting poverty. Listen to why! Donna Thu, 12/05/2019 - 16:16

Anette Carlisle, Beegle Poverty Coach and host of "Anette of education" podcast interviews me about strategies for breaking poverty barriers community-wide. Have a listen!

podcast

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Education

Hope and Confidence are the Wings for Gaining a Skill/Education

Donna — Wed, 29 May 2019 06:19:17 +0000

Hope and Confidence are the Wings for Gaining a Skill/Education Donna Tue, 05/28/2019 - 23:19

On the first day of the pilot Women In Transition (WIT) program, the four-member, all-women staff began by sharing their own life experiences. My 26-year-old self was amazed. Because I had only known people from generational poverty, I had never heard the life story of a middle-class person before. I learned that most of the WIT staff members lived in one house their whole childhood. They had gone to the same school for more than three or four months--which is something I had never done. I learned that they had never been hungry, nor watched family members treated badly or arrested. I learned that they had never been evicted, nor lived in a "roach motel" (like my children and I were doing at the time).

One of the teachers, Stevannah (Stevie) Mercer, caught my attention. I watched her as she taught and moved about the room. She was so graceful! I thought, “I wish I could sit like her. I want to talk like her. I want to know what she knows.” I thought she was so much better than me. When she shared her story, she told how she was a single mom who had used food stamps. I was stunned. HER? She was perfect. No Way! I hung on her every word. I tried to copy the way she walked and the way she sat. I wanted to be like her.

While listening to the middle-class stories, I had an epiphany. For 26 years, I had been taught by society that my family and I were the problem. That something was wrong with us because we could not get out of poverty. The middle-class life experiences illuminated why some people have better lives. It was not their intellect, ethics, or morals that paved their paths. They were people--just like me--who had different experiences and different opportunities. They had educated parents who had their teeth. They did not say “ain’t.” They had money to pay for garbage service. They lived in the “right” neighborhoods and went to the “right” schools. They even had doctors and credit. I was slowly realizing that they were not better humans. I was someone just like them, but I had had very different experiences and opportunities. I never had the luxury of going to one school for more than a few months. The schools we went to were ones that middle-class people would never send their kids to. We were constantly evicted and fighting hunger. All of my energy was focused on making it through the day.

No wonder middle-class people were on the other side of the table. For the first time in my life, I was able to externalize the negative, deficit, “what’s wrong with you and your family” messages that I had been pelted with since the womb. Poverty had taught me loud and clear that I was not even worthy of people looking up when I walked in a room to ask for help. No one wanted to know my name or asked what was going on with our family. Everyone worked hard, but we still could not afford both rent and utilities. Whenever we asked for help, we could feel that we were a bother.

I felt an excitement bubbling up in me. Oh my gosh! If they weren’t better than me, then maybe I too could get educated and take care of my kids. The beginnings of hope emerged. I pulled out my brown pleather diary and wrote, “I am going to try to get that GED they’ve been talking about. Then maybe, I’ll be somebody."

Editor's note: The photograph above was taken by Donna on her trip home from one of her many presentations across the U.S.

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Education

Top Ways to Help Students in Poverty During the Corona Virus Crisis

Top Ways to Help Students in Poverty During the Corona Virus Crisis

Communication Strategies to Assist Students with their Learning.

Increase Access to Internet and Computers

Free/Low Cost Computers

Use online learning platforms to help students learn:

Login to free educational resources online and share relevant resources with students and families:

Add new comment

Amarillo has seen some of the greatest progress in fighting poverty. Listen to why!

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Hope and Confidence are the Wings for Gaining a Skill/Education

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