5 Ways to Help Teachers and Students this Fall
Sometimes, the change starts with you
Back-to-school ads always had a scary edge to them, but this year they truly do hit differently. The shots of backpacks thumping down a hallway or tiny fingers crafting a masterpiece simply hit differently when most individuals haven’t found themselves in a crowd for months. Frankly, an episode of Little House on the Prairie would probably be more accurate than any of the Target ads gracing my screen. We can all agree that this school year is going to be very different from anything we have ever experienced. What hasn’t changed, however, is the fact that millions of children still deserve an equitable educational experience, and millions of teachers still deserve a safe and fulfilling job.
The news, unfortunately, rarely covers any parties’ actual interests. Instead, they are used as pawns in a political argument. Rarely does a commentator bring up any action individuals can take to alleviate the plights of America’s schools, instead opting to wave a finger at an arbitrary elected official and move onto the weather. I may not have the most popular opinion in the room, but I believe that we can’t expect a change in local governmental opinion at this point. Not, that is, without the intervention of individuals like ourselves. It’s time for Americans to find our own ways to support the teachers and students in our lives who need our help now more than ever.
- Check out DonorsChoose
Donors Choose is a sort of teachers’ GoFundMe; financially strapped teachers can submit proposals for projects and you can choose which projects you fund. Many teachers are now either scrambling for online resources and technologies they can share with their students, or they are scrambling for resources to make their in-person classrooms safer. Some of the most touching projects I found in just a quick search included installing HEPA filters in classrooms, financing face shields for students, and purchasing Chromebooks for students in online learning. You can also sort projects by location and poverty level in order to make sure that you are making the most impact possible. Some projects have donors who have promised to match up to a certain amount, which also helps your money travel farther.
Donors Choose is also a very financially transparent agency. 95% of all donations go straight to programs (for reference, the Wounded Warrior Project only uses 70% of its revenue for programming).
Although you shouldn’t expect any reward from these donations, some classrooms will write thank-you cards to their donors; they serve as a great memento of the amazing things children are learning through our nation’s educators!
2. Donate Supplies
Remember when you cleaned your room during quarantine but all the thrift stores were closed? Most libraries in schools around the country are probably going to stay closed for a while longer, meaning that many kids are going to lose access to reading material quickly. Early reading is a consistent indicator of future success, meaning that many kids at the critical age for reading are in a rough spot if they fall further behind. Consider using a neighborhood Facebook group or Nextdoor to donate any old children’s books to kids stranded from their beloved libraries.
It doesn’t just apply to books, either. Maybe you have an old laptop that you haven’t been able to sell on Ebay yet (spoiler alert: you never will). While an older computer may not be the best for a computer programmer or video-gamer, many parents are scrambling for an extra machine so they can work while the kids are on Zoom calls. Again, if you can fix up a computer so it has basic functionality, there are plenty of parents online who will be singing your praise.
3. Consider Volunteering as a Tutor
There is no doubt that online schooling doesn’t work for every kid, and experts predict that without intervention a large portion of children will be behind in their education due to COVID-19. This is especially more likely to impact children in lower-income households, ones with working parents who don’t have access to one-on-one support, or ones with parents who don’t speak fluent English. The non-profit Learn To Be is currently recruiting volunteer tutors to meet one-on-one with kids over the Internet who may need help with their assignments. The application process takes only 10–15 minutes, and scheduling is flexible!
4. Take a Positive Spin on a Bad Situation
Whether in-person or online, no educational situation is going to be ideal this fall. What parents and community members can control is their attitude about it. Making sure kids going back in-person are cautious and hygienic is important; making them fear for their lives with inaccurate information will make them feel unsafe at school and unable to learn as well. On the flip side, online students shouldn’t have lofty expectations. At the same time, if adults are complaining about how impossible it is for them to learn over Zoom it may set them up for failure.
Some specific ways you can help the kids you know get excited for in-person OR online learning is to:
- Offer to make them a mask with their favorite pattern or character
- See if you can find some scented hand sanitizer for that one eight-year-old you know who loves smelling candles at Bath and Body Works
- Help them set up a space at home for online learning. Even if it’s just a corner of a room, offer to help decorate it so it truly feels like their space
- Find a way to help them keep playtime in the routine. Maybe set up a commitment to take your neighbor’s kids to a park regularly, or offer to come over with some fun outdoor activities.
5. Contact your Representatives
Your representative’s job is to answer to you, their constituent! Regardless of your opinion on schools, you can urge representatives to value the expertise of teachers, offer more funding to support safe/virtual reopenings, and take facts into account before politics. We tend to blame the federal government for most of our conundrums, but education takes place at the state level; teachers are employees of the state they teach in, not the country. To truly make sure your voice is heard, it’s important to start locally. Email your state senator, Zoom into your local school board’s meeting and ask to speak, or write a letter to your governor. With the elections occurring this November, remember that the president isn’t the only one on the ballot. Now is a good time to also research local representatives on the November ballot, and how they plan to support educators during their term.
You can find your representative districts by address on vote411.org/ballot, and from there you can find your representative for that district using ballotpedia or Google.
