week of 2/23-2/27

This topic can have a devasting affect on education.  If a child is in a home where meth is used, they will be more concerned with how their home life is, if they're going to be beat or abused in some other way, or if they're care givers are going to be okay.  Therefore, they are not going to be focused on school work.

Also, if a child is living in a meth users home, they take the risk of digesting the drug themselves, which can affect their school work.  According to the video, a child's memory can be affected with being exposed to meth.  Also, a child can have problems with normal developing of a child's gross and fine motor skills.  This can affect all sorts of a child's education, even down to holding a pencil.   

week of february 10th

Poverty can have a major effect on children in today's school systems. Many times when children go to school from an impoverished home, they are not concerned about school. They are more concerned about where their next meals going to come from or where they're going to sleep that night. If a child comes to school they might not have gotten any sleep the night before because of not feeling safe where they stayed or they could be hungry. However, most schools offer free breakfast programs, so that may not be such an issue. As a result, their school work suffers, which can have devastating effects on the student for the future. They may never be able to get out of the poverty level of living. Also, the child may be worried about parents', siblings, or other issues at home, so their focus is on that when it should be on their school work. In addition to having the problems with their school work, they may have health related problems, rather it be stress related or food related. This may cause the child to become depressed. The child may not have friends or get teased a lot because of their living situation.
As a teacher, I can make sure that I provide resources for the families that need them. I can let the parents know that if there is anything that they need to let me know and I will help them as much as I can. I can also monitor the students in my classroom and make sure that they don't need extra care outside of the classroom. Sometimes all they may need is somebody they can trust to talk to and rely on to help them.