Celeste
Willis Teacher at Alice Maxwell Elementary
Seeing Results in the Classroom
First grade teacher at Alice Maxwell Elementary, Celeste Willis, shares how
the Parent Teacher Home Visits she is doing every week are changing her, as
well as her relationships with the students and families.
“I had the older sister in my class and now I have the younger one.
They live with a single father and the two girls are the exact opposite of each
other. When I saw them at home I realized that how the girls acted at school
was the same as they do at school, but I could tell they felt freer.
The family lives a distance from school in a low income area
in an apartment complex. During the visit the girls wanted ice cream, so we
walked down a side street and a trailer park separated them from the ice cream
truck. I was wondering how we were going to get there because there was a fence
blocking us from the ice-cream truck. The next thing I knew, the older sister
goes up to a chain link fence that looks just fine, peels it open and crawls
through it.
She was so bold, although it was dangerous, of course. It was one of
those moments that showed how me how these kids know how to survive, how they have street smarts.
I see that Parent Teacher Home Visits are bridging a gap and that
my relationships with the families and students are so much deeper now. I can see that this is creating a better
learning environment in the classroom.
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