Homeless Children In Homeless Life

Every individual has a different background and it is our job as educators to take that into consideration as we educate our students. While reading the articles and watching the film, I realized that not all students are fortunate enough to have a stable household and some may not even have a roof over their heads at night. I was in awe by the amount of homeless youth that are out on the streets of Chicago every night. In the film, The Homestretch, it stated that 2,000-3,000 youth were out on the streets every night. It also stated 19,000 students are registered as homeless within Chicago public schools. This made me realize the challenges they go through just in one single day. I began to realize that education is not their number one priority,

When I was reading and watching the movie I realized that transitioning to adulthood is harder than I thought. When homeless youth, students with disabilities, CLD students, and foster care students work towards adulthood, they face greater barriers. When I was watching the film, Roque had to go through obstacles to receive identification. He was working so hard to receive an I.D. because he needed it for the college he was applying for. His goal was to get a higher education, but being homeless throughout high school and not having an I.D. made an impact on his transition. He had great help from his teacher who was allowing him to live in her house with her family. Roque also had to get signatures from his biological parents to sign for his identification. Once this was finished he could begin applying to schools that would accept him and his grade point average. This made me realize that some students must put in a lot of work to further their secondary education. Also after reading the articles I reflected on the resources and services students go through to work towards transitioning. I learned that there are multiple job coaches, counselors, churches, disability agencies, and more that help students reach their goals in furthering into education or getting a job. Another huge step for students to reach is developing self-determination and independence. In the article,

I started off with believing I will be an educator and that is it. I was wrong. I need to work hard to make my students’ futures better in an academic aspect and in a functional aspect. I want to create a class in high school where it educates students on basic job skills. I want to create a class in high school that helps students get ready for college and help them apply for different post-secondary education. I want to have a job coach come in and work with my students a few times a month. I want to provide a service where I provide meals for my students over the weekends if they need it. I want to find a safe and open home for my homeless students to live at. I want to show my students that they can get a job and/or go to college. These are all my goals and my roles that I want to contribute as a teacher. It is my responsibility to prepare all my students for a successful transition into adulthood. All of these goals that I stated can benefit my students and lead them into a brighter