I am elementary school teacher who just changed school districts four weeks into the school year. Change is good. I am looking forward to working at my new campus and conducting research in order to finish my master's degree. I want to explore the issue of poverty with my new third grade students and their families in a way that challenges the common assumptions about people who live below the poverty line.
It will also be interesting for me to experience the differences and similarities of working in a small rural district after spending nine years in a large urban one. Both places experience high rates of poverty and I can't wait to get going and start learning alongside my students!
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3 comments:
I grew up in poverty myself and so I can identify with your research plans. It is a disadvantage in so many subtle ways. Some opportunities just slip away when your family doesn't have enough money. I know in my case that I was lucky in many ways because we were below the poverty line because my mother consciously decided to stay home with me instead of working full time. I never lacked for love but I did miss out on music lessons, educational enrichment that cost money, and the right clothes/accouterments for school.
I also grew up in poverty in a single-parent (mom) home. Although we lived in a house in the burbs, we didn't often have enough $$ to keep food in the house between paychecks...
I work in a small district where there is a large economic divided between my students. All 4th grade students in my district go to the school where I teach, so there is a very diverse mix of students. I think that anything that draws attention and finds solutions to an important problem such as this is worthwhile. Education is one solution to poverty, but understanding poverty is also very important.
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