In my classroom you can find connections between modern day events and certain events that have happened before. Students get to see first hand that history is something that happens in different ways and everything is connected. I want my students to understand the importance of education.
My students are really amazing!
They have their ups and downs but at the end of the day they are ready and willing to learn. They are always making connections between what they have heard or read in the news to what they have learned. To me, that's when I realize they not only understand but can make connections between past and present. Even though some of them don't have much, you would never get that if you step into the classroom with them. My school is a low income school located in a neighborhood that many people stay away from or feel that is "dangerous." However, these students don't let their environment bring them down but they are really trying to rise up above it. My school gives students certain things they don't have in their everyday life to family, experiences and even the basics of a computer. These students need to understand they are not the only ones with issues or struggles.
My Project
Going to see the documentary "He Named me Malala" would be such a great experience for my students. Believe it or not, being exposed to her actual book was from a student who was reading it. This powerful story helps my students to see that there are other people in this world that go through horrible experiences but use education to rise up against what they have faced. As a history teacher I want to incorporate the history behind her story to the class and make connections to other children who have been oppressed but rose up. They will learn that struggling to get an education comes in different shapes and forms. They can see that immigrant children who came to the United States during the 1900s had to work instead of go to school and how a girl like Malala could not go to school due to war in her country. Students will create a project to understand how education was taken away from children and how laws helped them to go to school.
Having the opportunity to go and see this documentary I hope encourages and pushes the students for the rest of the school year.
Many of my students might not have a chance otherwise to be exposed to this documentary. This documentary will help students understand that their struggle is something they can rise above and make something of themselves. Where they come from cannot be changed but it does not have to define them.
More than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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