When
reflecting back over this course there were many things I enjoyed. The course
readings, videos, and discussions were all insightful and thought provoking. I
felt I really connected with all of Shaun’s videos. He is such an inspiring
person and has led a hard life that he has learned from and is now teaching
others about. I love how he took his incredibly difficult experiences and
turned them into positive ways to learn and help others. During my own research
for my course project I studied and researched the effects living in poverty
has on children and their families. What I was surprised most to learn was that
20% of our children nationwide are living in poverty and that 9% of them are
living in extreme poverty. These numbers really made me think about what we can
do as teachers to help these children who are living in these difficult
situations. My hope is through my research and future research I will be able
to find more resources to help these students and their families. My ultimate
goal is to find a way to give these families the help and resources they need
to avoid living in poverty situations altogether. Being able to provide
families with a list of local resources that are available to help them is a
place to start. Many families in my local school district don’t know what is
available to them or how to access what is. Through my research in this course
I learned a great deal through one of my interviews about our local YMCA
programs that help children in need and their families. One program in
particular stood out to me called Y-TEENS.
This program provides group activities
three days a week after school to sixth-eighth grade students who come from
poverty living situations. Activities include: gymnastics, team sports,
swimming, WII sports, and crafts. The program is always looking for energized
compassionate mentors to provide great role modeling. I am very interested in
becoming involved with this program as a mentor because it services an age group
of children I don’t normally work with. My future aspirations include working
with a wide age range of students in need not just children who are early
childhood age. I feel that sometimes the middle school age group gets
overlooked when needing help so I would like to reach out to that age range. Seeing
children in need always motivates me. Whether that need is food, clothing,
personal care, or academic support I feel that anyway I can help I would like
to. Through this course I took a deeper look at how to assist families living
in poverty in need of services for housing and food. Overall I have taken away
many new ideas of how to help families, what their needs are, and most
important what the lasting effects are on their children if we as teachers don’t
get involved.
