Colorado teacher shares notes of her third grade students, who wrote things they wished their teacher knew about their lives. The result was amazing and heartbreaking after the teacher knew that her students live very challenging lives. Colorado teacher shares notes on Twitter and the result has gone viral.
Kyle Schwartz teaches at Doull Elementary in Denver for three years now. As part of her activity to strengthen bond with her students, whom most belong to the unprivileged homes, she asked them to write something about their lives in order to know them better.
Colorado teacher shares notes of her third grade students in Twitter and since then, it has taken the social media by storm. She discovered that although her students seem happy at school, they are also carrying burdens at home that swept away the teacher's heart.
"Ninety-two percent of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch," Schwartz told ABC News. "As a new teacher, I struggled to understand the reality of my students' lives and how to best support them. I just felt like there was something I didn't know about my students."
The activity was called "I Wish My Teacher Knew" and everyone in her class participated by sharing their own answer in class.
Before Colorado teacher shares notes in the social media, she discovered although her students want to write in secret, they enjoyed telling their own stories to their fellow classmates, the KFOR reports.
Schwartz explained that her lesson "I Wish My Teacher Knew" was part of her initiative to know her students deeper. After the Colorado teacher shares notes she said that the activity has brought positive effect in her class. She adds, "Building community in my classroom is a major goal of this lesson."
After the Colorado teacher shares notes on the social media, Schwartz is inviting her other co-teachers to participate also in the #IWishMyTeacherKnew social media campaign. It turned out that it has not become so popular in the social media, but it has been shared also to the rest of the world.
"I think it caught on so fast because teachers are highly collaborative and freely share and explore resources," Schwartz says. "In the end, all teachers want to support their students, and #iwishmyteacherknew is a simple and powerful way to do that.
Since the Colorado teacher shares notes on Twitter, she discovered positive changes among her students. She added she has not only helped her students, but her students are also helping each other.
Did you miss the touching answers that the third graders have written? Here are some of them after the Colorado teacher shares notes on her Twitter account.
#IWishMyTeacherKnew Colorado teacher shares heartbreaking notes from third-graders: https://t.co/MxobGbjCU0 pic.twitter.com/j6HxGvvNuO
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) April 18, 2015
RT @ABC Grade school teacher sparks conversation w/ students through #IWishMyTeacherKnew notes https://t.co/7YRJ9u0oLC pic.twitter.com/JlXuexqHq5 — Karen Miller (@Kdmiller4) April 18, 2015
Grade 3 Teacher Reveals Heartbreaking Notes From Students https://t.co/fk2bGVE62j #teachers #edteach #satchat pic.twitter.com/ySVfRdihEv
— JudyArzt (@JudyArzt) April 18, 2015
Teacher reveals heartbreaking notes frm students describing what they wish their teacher knew https://t.co/am5wSFriXS pic.twitter.com/hVfIijNelh — Chris Egan (@chrisegan01) April 17, 2015
Teacher shares notes on social media that her students wrote on what #IWishMyTeacherKnew. https://t.co/43d9pfC23c pic.twitter.com/4CDx0MB5IO
— Voto Latino (@votolatino) April 17, 2015
