Homeless students Essay

Many teachers at some point of their career have homeless students. National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty reported about 3.5 million of homeless people in the USA including 1.35 million of children. As a rule, children move to school because of the hardships in their families. Their family situation prevents their success in the class. Teacher can improve their chances of succeeding in the class. Some simple rules can help these students. This paper contains some useful advices for new teachers working with homeless students.
Homeless students
It is important to remember that physical and psychological comforts are very important factors in student’s life. Every student despite of his or her family situation can have problems with succeeding in the class if he or she feels hungry or needs morale support. However, homeless students and students living in temporary shelter are the most vulnerable for such kind of problem.
Teachers working with this category of students should ensure students are enrolled in free or reduced-price meal program. It is also necessary to ensure proper hygiene at school, so teacher should keep some necessary toilet items on hand. It is also recommended to have a supply of nutritional snacks in the classroom if it is possible. Teacher also should control the problems of clothing and basic health care for such students. These simple measures can help to create the feeling of physical comfort in homeless children.
Psychological comfort is more complex to achieve. Teacher should work not only with homeless students but also with other students, teachers and student’s parents to achieve it. First, it is necessary to know and be aware of common characteristics of homeless children. Teacher should contact with parents to learn more about student’s family situation and coordinate an educational plan with school counselor taking in attention this situation. If it is needed and available, teacher can refer to the on-site education assistance program.
Second, it is necessary to create and keep the friendly atmosphere in class to make homeless student feel welcome. Other students in the class should not believe the stereotypes regarding homeless people and teacher should work on the possible bias prevention. However, teacher shouldn’t bring the special attention to their situation on front of others. To improve the communication between students teacher can select a student to be the “buddy” for homeless student for a proper period of time.
Third, homeless student should have an opportunity to take part in all kinds of class and non-class activity in school, before and after school. If the student is new in the school or class, it is recommended to analyze the notes of previous teacher. Teacher should propose such student necessary tools to complete the learning task. It is very important to distinguish the tasks under the student’s control and not under control: for example, student can have no possibility to acquire materials for art. At last, it is recommended to propose the special individual task for such student: to take care about the plants in the class, for example.
Conclusion
For many homeless student school is the only stable place in their life. They need special care and attention to achieve the success in learning. Knowing the basic rules of work with such student teacher can improve their chance to learn better. Basic rules include stabilization of basic children needs, work with other students and teachers, and at last, the work with the student.