Help My Students Recognize the Power of Giving in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

As I sat and watched tonight's coverage of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, I could utter nothing except, “Oh my god.” As tears welled in my eyes, I realized I must help in anyway I can. While I can make a personal contribution to one of the charities organizing relief efforts, I recognize that would fall short of my potential. As a New York City middle school teacher, I have an obligation to teach my students not only the textbook knowledge they need to know to become functioning adults, but I must help awaken their social consciousness so that they become contributing citizens worthy of leading the next generation of Americans. I would be disserving them if I did not teach them – as explicitly as any other subject matter – of their obligation to help their fellow Americans in times of need. That is why I would like to organize a series of classroom activities around Hurricane Katrina. As part of our English Language Arts curriculum, each member of the class receives a newspaper. Undoubtedly, we will discuss the developments of the relief efforts in the aftermath of Katrina. I do not want these discussions to be stifled within our classroom walls. If they did, many of my students would fail to recognize the urgency of the national crisis at hand. It would seem distant and separate from their everyday lives. I want my students to recognize the power they have as citizens of the country; they have the ability to contribute to the relief efforts. While you are reading this, you may wonder why I need your assistance if I feel so passionately about the issue at hand. I teach at an under resourced school in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. One hundred percent of my students qualify for free lunch and most live in public housing. They do not have the monetary resources to make a contribution they will feel proud of and if they did, that means that they would be sacrificing their own food and water, which is often in short supply. I am requesting a donation of materials so that an eighth grade classroom in the area devastated by the hurricane can be rebuilt. When appropriate shelter is provided to the refugees, this class will need notebooks, pencils, markers, construction paper, and folders. It is my intention that my ninety students will relay these materials to eighth grade students in the hurricane's path. By doing so, the relief effort will not be some abstract idea they read about in the newspaper. It will be a tangible activity they have contributed to. By recognizing your generosity of contributing to the relief effort, my students will be immediately awakened to the power of charitable contributions. In addition to these materials, my students will design banners, greeting cards, and posters that the eighth grade class can utilize in their new space. When so much hardship is going on in the region, the students should not have to sit in an unhappy classroom. My students' work can help brighten the environment and make the space something the hurricane victims enjoy visiting. My students will express their heartfelt sympathies and share the information they have learned about the disaster. Through these activities, I am certain they will learn the important lesson of the meaningfulness of giving to charity. Please make this possible.