Julia G. Thompson

January 1, 1970

“Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.” ~Ruth Ann Schabacker

“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That's why we call it the present.” ~Babatunde Olatunji

Most of us will spend a great deal of time this month dealing with gifts of various kinds. By their very nature, gifts involve both givers and receivers. As teachers, we learn early in our careers that the line between the two is often blurred. We spend our days giving—our time, our attention, our patience, our knowledge; in return, the best gifts we receive are ones that students can’t purchase.

On those days when our students give us their undivided attention, show appreciation for the day’s topic, leave the room confident, excited, and buzzing with new skills and concepts, then we receive far more than we give. Those magic days are the best gifts of all.

Because so much of December is associated with gift giving, you can find some helpful suggestions for dealing with this topic in your professional life in this month’s newsletter. In this issue, you can find:

• How to Manage the Gift Dilemma
• Some Mistakes to Avoid This Month
• How to Stay Healthy (Germy Papers Can Make You Ill)
• Two Terrific Web Sites
• How to Help Students Living in Poverty


"Teachers, I believe, are the most responsible and important members of society because their professional efforts affect the fate of the earth." ~Helen Caldicott

The Gift Dilemma—from First-Year Teacher’s Survival Guide

December can be an extremely stressful month for teachers everywhere. One of the stressors for many teachers is deciding how to manage students who come to class bearing gifts. Perhaps this excerpt can help you with this problem.

“While it is gratifying to receive presents from students, you should never encourage students to give you gifts at any time of the year, for a variety of reasons: some students cannot afford them; some students will give gifts only to curry favor; and the practice creates undue pressure on students who simply don’t want to give their teacher a gift.

One way to head off the problem is to involve the entire class in a project that helps those who are truly needy. Discuss this with your students, mentioning that the best present they can give you and each other (in addition to good behavior and academic effort) is to participate in the project.

However, if a student does give you a gift, be careful to be gracious about receiving it. Be discreet; don’t call attention to it in front of other students. Thank the student in person and then later with a thank-you note.”

“A teacher's purpose is not to create students in his own image, but to develop students who can create their own image.” ~ Author Unknown

Some Mistakes to Avoid This Month

Because December can be such a stressful time of year for all teachers, here is a short list of the mistakes that you can avoid this month.

• Some school districts will pay teachers early this month because school is not in session at the end of the month. Budget your money carefully! You may feel rich right now, but your next payday is a long time away.
• Continue to teach. Your students will try endless tricks to get you off track during the holiday season—resist.
• Don’t believe your students when they tell you that all of their other teachers in the school will be having parties all day long instead of class. Check with your colleagues. Endless school parties result in bored and cranky students and frustrated teachers.
• Before showing movies as rewards, be extra careful to have your choices approved by your supervisors. Don’t violate copyright laws.
• Try to downplay the holiday aspects of this time of year. Keep your room decorations to a minimum and avoid cute holiday handouts that just take up time instead of instruct.
• Be sensitive to the potential for embarrassment that this time of year can create for your students who live in poverty.
• Don’t neglect your own stress levels. Usually, December activities create even more stressors for busy teachers. Be alert to this and proactive in dealing with them.

“Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions.” ~Author Unknown

How to Stay Healthy (Germy Papers Can Make You Ill) --from First-Year Teacher’s Survival Guide

“You do not have to join your students in sniffles or flu if you use common sense to take good care of yourself in the following ways:
• Exercise at least three times a week.
• Get enough rest.
• Practice stress reduction techniques
• Eat well. If you pack your lunch, be sure to include foods that are good for you. Avoid too much sugar and fat.
• Keep disinfectant handy, and use it.
• Keep tissues on hand.
• Keep your hands away from your face.
• Use alcohol-based hand sanitizers in your classroom. You can purchase large bottles for a reasonable price at wholesale discount stores such as Sam’s Club or Price Club.
• Wash your hands as often as you can. Be extra careful to do this when you are grading papers or using shared pens or pencils.”

“There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.” ~Sylvia Plath,

Two Terrific Web Sites

• If you like jokes and would enjoy sharing jokes with your students, you can find plenty of “Jokes You Can Tell in Class” at www.teachnology.com/jokes/

• If you would like access to 500+ worksheets, visit www.worksheetlibrary.com to download these free printables.

“Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.” ~Jean Anouilh

Students Living in Poverty--from First-Year Teacher’s Survival Guide

Finally, with the heightened social pressures this month, you should pay even closer attention to the needs of your students who live in poverty. As you read this excerpt, perhaps you can find a helpful tip to support those of your students who are most in need of your compassionate encouragement.

“Millions of school-age students in America live in poverty. You don’t have to teach in a blighted urban area or a depressed rural region to teach students who are from a poor family.

The lives of poor students are often very different from those of their more affluent peers. They cannot look forward to an abundance of presents at Christmas or on their birthday. Back-to-school shopping is not an exciting time of new clothes and school supplies. Even small outlays of money are significant to students living in poverty; a locker fee, a soft drink for a class party, or a fee for a field trip may be out of their reach. In addition, because they do not wear the same fashionable clothes as their peers, poor students are often the targets of ridicule.

Economically disadvantaged students have a very difficult time with succeeding in school. One of the most unfortunate results of their economic struggles is that students who live in poverty often drop out of school, choosing a low-paying job to pay for the luxuries they have been denied instead of an education.

Despite the bleak outlook for many of these students, you can do a great deal to make school a meaningful haven for them. You can help your students who live in poverty by implementing some of these suggestions:

• When you suspect that their peers are taunting disadvantaged students, act quickly to stop the harassment.
• Students who live in poverty have not been exposed to broadening experiences such as family vacations, trips to museums, or even eating in restaurants. Spend time adding to their worldly experience if you want poor students to connect their book learning with real-life situations.
• Listen to your disadvantaged students. They need a strong relationship with a trustworthy adult in order to succeed.
• Work to boost the self-esteem of students who live in poverty by praising their school success instead of what they own.
• Provide access to computers, magazines, newspapers, and books so low-income students can see and work with printed materials. School may be the only place where they are exposed to print media.
• Keep your expectations for poor students high. Poverty does not mean ignorance.
• Don’t make comments about your students’ clothes or belongings unless they are in violation of the dress code.
• Students who live in poverty may not always know the correct behaviors for school situations. At home, they may function under a different set of social rules. Take time to explain the rationale for rules and procedures in your classroom.
• Be careful about the school supplies you expect students to purchase. Keep your requirements as simple as you can for all students.
• Arrange a bank of shared supplies for your students to borrow when they are temporarily out of materials for class.
• Do not require costly activities. For example, if you require students to pay for a field trip, some of them will not be able to go.
• If you notice that a student does not have lunch money, check to make sure that a free lunch is an option for that child.
• Be very sensitive to the potential for embarrassment in even small requests for or comments about money that you make. For example, if you jokingly remark, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” you could embarrass one of your low-income students.
• Make it clear that you value all of your students for their character and not for their possessions.

For more information on how to help your economically disadvantaged students, visit aha!Process (www.ahaprocess.com). aha!Process is an organization that was founded by Dr. Ruby Payne, Ph.D., a leading expert on the effects of generational poverty on students. Her book A Framework for Understanding Poverty, published in 1996 by aha!Process, is significant because it explains how the silent culture clash between students and teachers in classrooms has a harmful effect on students.