Category: Thoughts About Children

Thank You… Teachers…

Our World…has virtually changed due to this Coronavirus Pandemic…that began as far back in January…

Since mid March we have shut our communities down… except for essential work…

Our children have not been going to their respective schools… Relying on their learning from computers with parent and teacher support…

And now we are beginning the month of May….After great dissonance from parents, teachers and schools here in Florida, our governor will maintain the stay at home order for children to remain home the rest of this school year… assisted by virtual learning and home schooling…

In addition….although our state will slowly be opening …even though we are still not really flattening the curve….Many of our children’s lives have been impacted greatly…

With less restrictions in place… the challenge of how to control this most catastrophic virus…Will there be some relief?

Parents and teachers trying to meet those most challenging of circumstances…
Balancing life as it is now…

We do have an opportunity to keep this virus under control if we adhere to being socially distanced and staying at home…

My hope for the future is to listen to the scientists along with the medical field…

We as a people must vote by mail for a president that cares…and who will lead… Tuesday November 3…Vote for Joe Biden…He will be that leader with a heart…

Our Children’s future is definitely depending on us doing the right thing!!!


A Better…Tomorrow!!!


Hope…

Quote• Posted on by Janis Sexton
Posted in Thoughts About Children

Idylwild Elementary School 4/9/20…

Posted on by Janis Sexton

Blessings

Dearest Idylwild…
A school filled with beautiful children…
Dedicated Teachers and Staff…
Thank You for all that you do for our children…

Continue reading “Idylwild Elementary School 4/9/20…” →

First day of Spring….
Prayers…
Hope and Faith…
Blessings…
Grace…
Gratitude…

SpringTime

🐞☘️🌈🙏🏼💖

Many of our children are now being quarantined because of the coronavirus…

Of these children…there are those that rely on getting breakfast and lunch at school….And now our communities and federal government, hopefully are reaching out to those children and families affected…

There is the unknown as to how long children will be out of schools… Schools and communities are providing resources online and parental support may be providing additional learning…

However, there are definitely those children from challenging home situations who may be at a loss…I do hope that local school communities will be providing support…

Teachers concerned about those children may even drive by their homes just to let them know they are loved..

In addition, here in Florida, standardized test will not be administered this year…And that will take some of the pressure off the lack of classroom learning…

We must do all we can to prevent the spread of this virus… Families… children and those vulnerable especially…are relying on all of us listening and following the necessary protocols…Self distancing especially…

We will come back from this…Our children are depending on their future… better and stronger….

Our Children… Spring Time

Quote• Posted on by Janis Sexton

In my many years of teaching, my main focus was….to reach all of my children…

Along with the rigors of the required curriculum…I believed in order for young children to be successful…they needed to know I cared…

Since this new millennium, especially teaching children from a diverse African American background…

I believed…those children needed to feel pride in their history…not just in February, when Black History is part of the curriculum…

I felt taking those opportunities when I could to fit in to our day..

Talks about how their values of character such as: kindness, working hard, and … never giving up!
Are those qualities that people should be judged…

And not by what they look like…

I would always call upon that memory of

” Dr, Martin Luther King” …

And how much he believed and never giving up on this Dream….

Using myself as an example of when I was a young child I would share that I would watch the news about Dr. King on television… and what a special man…he was…

…My children with eyes wide open felt that he was real , because Ms Sexton saw him!!!

I would also emphasize the story of Rosa Parks, as another real person, I also heard about when I was little, and her bravery in how she spoke out, and took a stand to something that was wrong!

I would also decorate our room with posters, and the children’s art portraying their black history…

All my personal anecdotes helped convey their history in a very relatable way…Making it relevant and hoping they too would be proud of who the are ; striving for values and achievement…

All our children, whatever their ethnicity… race… religion… would be…

Loved…And Accepted…!!!

Black History all Year…

Quote• Posted on by Janis Sexton

President Trump is definitely not a proponent for children, and those who rely on our public schools for their education…

With the fewer resources and funding this administration has taken from public education…and putting those funds into privatization…

And Now…this week at the State of the Union, post Impeachment… President Trump had an opportunity to vindicate the past…

 

He most definitely did not… He made his State of the Union Speech…a bid for his reelection….His little regard for our public schools calling them government schools…is absolutely disgraceful!

Taking this momentous occasion as an opportunity to stage a young student, who he said attended a public school,  to be a recipient of the Education Freedom Scholarship…so  she would be able to attend a private school…(Which is reportedly false)
…She is already  attending a prominent private school!He then revealed that he
for wanted Congress to fund 1 million dollars to that Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act- for those worthy students….Adding:

“Because no parent should be forced to send their child to a failing government schools!
 
 
He also urged Congress to pass legislation,
creating a 5 billion federal tax credit program that would fund scholarships to private and religious schools… benefitting individuals and donors…
The scholarships would be funded by individuals and businesses who want to privately donate but who would then receive a federal tax credit…

 

The President did call for more vocational and technical education at the high school level…And  the importance of the constitutional right for prayer in schools...

 

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest teachers union, said in a statement: “Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos have made no secret of their antipathy for public education. Rather than strengthen the cornerstone of our democracy and the chief enabler of pluralism and opportunity, they choose to defund and destabilize it. No amount of rebranding vouchers and privatization as ‘choice’ and ‘freedom’ changes that...

 
 
 
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In State of the Union, Trump makes clear his aversion to public schools – Article by Valerie Strauss…from The Washington Post..

Quote• Posted on by Janis Sexton
Posted in Thoughts About Children

Children’s Safety…at School… GunViolence…

Posted on by Janis Sexton

I would never have imagined gun violence would be such an issue for our children’s safety at school…

I would never have imagined that those in power would not want to do what it would take to make our schools safe…

And I would never believe those Republican, elected officials here in Florida would vote on arming teachers with a gun as an appropriate solution!!!

It is sadly all about the money and politics ; most definitely not about our children….

Since this rise in gun violence ….The powerful NRA’s (National Rifle Association) control over members of Republican members of Congress…here in Florida and the United States…has had such a detrimental impact…

Due to their monetary influence over Republican lawmakers…. We do not provide a real control over gun ownership in our Country…Nor are we providing the necessary resources and funding for those who act out with violence because of mental illness…with a the proper medical treatment…

According to Campus Safety Magazine’s article… October 2018 Edition…titled:

The K-12 School Shooting Statistics Everyone Should Know

In 2018, there were 82 school shooting incidents in the United States, the highest there have ever been since 1970…

K-12 School Shooting Statistics…
There have been 1,300 school shooting incidents since 1970…
2018 had the greatest number of incidents since 1970, with 82 recorded incidents.

The next highest year was 2006 with 59 incidents….
2018 was the highest year for the number of victims killed, including the shooter, with 51 killed….
California, Texas and Florida are the top three states in the U.S. with the most incidents….
669 incidents occurred outside on school property and 588 occurred inside the school building.

Most school shootings occurred in the morning….

Our children are scared!!!

We now have a growing population of children that have lived with this fear throughout their school career:

Children may have directly been involved with such violence; They may have become aware of such school violence through talks at home, school, friends or even the media, Their school may even have monthly practice drills if a shooter were to come on campus!!

And now because of the powerful NRA, Florida lawmakers have voted allowing teachers to use a gun at school…..

Waiting for the Republican, Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis to sign into law…

This is definitely not the solution…There may be lawsuits…ahead…

Our children must be a priority...

Posted in Thoughts About Children

2019…When will our Children be that Priority?

Posted on by Janis Sexton

When will educating all our children be a priority?

At the beginning of my teaching career in the early seventies… schools were finally integrated and and the funding of federal programs such as Head Start…were in place to provide the necessary resources to help with educating all children that were in need ….

I was so inspired and hopeful to be a part of this moment…We were giving our children opportunities they never had before….

However, progress slowed down in the nineties due to the enactment of “No Child Left Behind”… by then Florida Governor Jeb Bush…

This policy would continue through the millennium and into the present….

Even with the Obama administration, who too, was a proponent of privatization and the charter school movement…Monies that had once been allocated to our public schools were now being funneled back into private schools with our tax dollars;
Affecting many of the necessary resources and programs that had been in place, providing our children… a chance for that strong, public education….

We in turn began utilizing into the curriculum, thanks to Bill Gates and his Foundation… Core Curriculum, a developmentally inappropriate curriculum; which included the use of a sophisticated battery of standard testing…

Trying to bridge this learning gap associated to those children who struggle …

Now resulting in an inappropriate program with more objectives and standards for children to master…With fewer resources to meet those standards!

Then, just before President Obama left office, finally realizing our children in public schools deserved more opportunities to achieve success, he signed:

The Every Student Succeeds Act in December 2015 that governs the United States K–12 public education policy. This new law was to replace , the No Child Left Behind Act, …This was to be that wonderful opportunity for all children…

Continue reading “2019…When will our Children be that Priority?” →