Past projects 1
Compassion and Connection: Books to Build Empathy in Students
Funded Jan 4, 2018Thank you so much for your gift to my students. On a base level, as a public educator and public servant, I am appreciative of your contribution to the education and future of the kids I love, and for whom I come to work every day. Giving to students and education is an investment, and it's a very important one.
More specifically, I am teaching students at the most vulnerable and malleable time in their lives (who doesn't remember middle school and how wonderful and terrible it can be?) This has been magnified by the onset of social media and popularity of computers - students spend more and more time sitting behind a screen of some kind. They are losing the information gained from face-to-face communication and are not fostering compassion in the same way as former generations. Having this book to read with our Immigration unit - in addition to improving reading comprehension and fluency skills - has already had an impact on how my students view themselves as members of a global society and on how they look at others who are unlike them.
The biggest impact from reading "Refugee", however, has been on my classes in which we have refugee students within our population. We have a number of refugees and immigrants in my classes, and they have blossomed under the story we're exploring together. Natural born students are asking questions and the students who have come here recently are having the opportunity to be experts and to build connections with their classmates. It's a beautiful thing to see, the connections being formed and the compassion being practiced.
Thank you so much, again, for helping us take this journey together through reading "Refugee". I am so glad to be able to send these compassionate, thoughtful and enlightened students out into the world. I hope your paths cross someday!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Wathen