Refugees Need Snacks to Sustain Them Through Long School Days
Help me give my students snacks to help them get through long days of school, including Cheeze-its, goldfish crackers, granola bars, fruit snacks, and other treats.
Our school serves students in grades K-6 and provides rigorous academics to amazing, motivated language learners in a safe learning environment. Our goal is to prepare our students for success in high school, college, and future careers. The students in our school are about 70% ELL and speak about 20 different languages.
The students in my New American classroom are English language learners who have been in the country for less than one year.
Not all students who are non-English speakers are selected for this setting. My students are refugees from several different countries. They have had limited or interrupted schooling in their own countries due to lack of resources and upheaval. This year, I have students from Congo, Somalia, Uganda, Tanzania, Guatemala, and Honduras. There are many different languages in my classroom and several different cultures. For these students, life in our city is very different from their lives before coming here. We strive to be at all times respectful and appreciative of each other's culture and strengths. We believe that we all have gifts to share, and that, with education, we will have the power to do so.
My Project
My students are resilient, strong, intelligent, beautiful people. They very seldom complain, even when they could easily do so. Both the students and the families are driven for success. Most of the students in my class arrive at school by 7 am, even though we don't begin our day until 8:15. They work hard all day and go to an extra three hours of tutoring after school each day. However, by the time the students arrive at after school tutoring, they are very hungry and struggle to focus.
My project is simple - feeding young minds so they can focus on the critical tasks of learning.
I am requesting a variety of snacks like Cheeze-its, goldfish crackers, granola bars, and fruit snacks, and other treats that will be given to children during the school days and before they start tutoring, so I can meet their basic need of food. Having snacks like these will help the students focus through the extra hours of school each day. When students have a stomach full of nourishing food, they can focus on developing their English and academic skills.
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