by Marcia Davis-Dawkins | Mar 24, 2025 | Education, Kids, Parents, Teachers
Unsung Heroes in the Classrooms as Teachers and Students
By Dr. Marci
In classrooms, there are countless unsung heroes – teachers and students whose contributions often to unnoticed but are vital to the fabric of learning. Teachers who work tirelessly behind the scenes, fostering creativity, offering encouragement, and adapting to every student’s needs, shaping futures with patience and passion. Likewise, students who quietly support their peers, overcome personal struggles, or go above and beyond to create a positive, inclusive environment, all play crucial roles. These unsung heroes may not always be in the spotlight, but their impact is felt every day, as they help cultivate a space of growth, compassion, and resilience.
It seems as if people are always being left out and or ignored and for one reason or other. For Women’s History Month, I had my students research Women Scientists who were forgotten or ignored at some point or other. We even got a chance to watch and discuss, the movie, “Hidden Figures”. An article was written about the project that the students did.
The link is below:-
https://www.tapinto.net/towns/rahway/sections/education/articles/rahway-s-roosevelt-elementary-5th-grade-students-round-up-history-s-hidden-heroes-female-scientists-take-center-stage-in-wild-west-wanted-posters
by Marcia Davis-Dawkins | Mar 10, 2025 | Education, Parents, Teachers
It’s the Little Thing
By Dr. Marci D
March 6, 2025
Recently our school celebrated Music In Our School Week and we dressed up each day just to show our musical spirits. One of the days we dressed to represent various genres of music, so some people (staff and students) represented pop, hip hop, classical, country and I of course represented reggae music. During my class, I decided to use the idea as a Social Emotional Learning activity and included questions like “What’s your favorite type of music and why? Why do you listen to music? I was surprised to hear students respond that they didn’t listen to music. I went on to explain that music is a way of life and can relieve stress as listening to music can put us in a better mood. It can also help to put us in a better mood. We had a healthy discussion about the benefits of listening to music and the positive impact it can have on our brain depending on the type of music we listen to. 
Another thing that we did was that we discussed the quote from Bob Marley’s “Trench Town Rock” – “One good thing about music when it hits you, you feel no pain.” I told them that Bob Marley was from Jamaica and that I was representing reggae music genre of music. I even played the Trench Town Rock song for them. This set the mood for our class for the day. As we got into our lesson and the project that we were working on, one of the students who is from Peru and an English Language Learner came to me with his chromebook in his hand. I thought he was coming to clarify the assignment he was working on. Well, I was pleasantly surprised when he came to show me that he had done a Google translate statement which read “mi papa es muy fan de Bob Marley y le puso a mi hermana Marley por el”. Which was translated as, “My dad is a big Bob Marley fan and named my sister Marley after him.” I grinned as if I had just won a lump sum of money. I was so excited that I had connected with him just because of my discussion of the genre of music that I was representing. I felt proud and so did he. In fact, he too was grinning! I knew that we had both struck gold for the day. Soon three other students were saying that their mom, aunt, and uncle loved to listen to Bob Marley’s music. It was also a game changer for the day.
A day later, a student bought me a snack from the cafeteria because he said that I looked sad and needed cheering up and his way of cheering me up was to treat me with a snack! I am grateful that another “little thing” came into my space to encourage me and let me know that I am still valuable as a teacher and a person. I will not take any of it for granted. It is simply the little things that can make a big difference. With so many issues that I may face during a school day, what are some of the little things that have helped to make the day bearable or even to put a smile on my face? I must count it as joy when they come.
by Marcia Davis-Dawkins | Feb 13, 2025 | Education
Everyone Needs a Cheerleader
By Dr. Marci
February 10, 2025
For a while now it seems as if my writing juices were not flowing and so I just didn’t write! It might seem strange to many, but I am sure people who write daily understand where I am coming from. Hopefully with some cheering on from my readers and some words of affirmation, the juices will start flowing again.
So, I always try to write about school and me working in the education environment and of course where part of my purpose is to educate, encourage and motivate. Most people, if not all, know that as educators we wear many hats. I continue to wear several of them.
Recently, I was reminded of a student I had many years ago who was considered, a selective mute and I met another student who is also considered to have selective mutism. Selective mutism (SM) is an anxiety disorder that makes it difficult for a person to speak in certain social situations. That’s the shortened version of it but the long and short of it, is that the student spoke softly on a one on one. The “talk” was very brief, but it was after a lot of encouragement and coaxing and a month later she was coaxed again into jumping rope during gym. Even though it was brief and short. I was excited about the fact that I was instrumental into encouraging her because I was her cheerleader. She was nervous and shy but with encouragement she eventually made my day by talking and jumping rope. This was a blessing. Even though no one else patted me on the shoulder for a job well done, I gave her a high five and beamed in my heart that I did something great.
A friend of mine recently sent me a note to say that I am also so encouraging and a genuine friend over decades. Those words resonated with me and made me feel empowered. Empowered because I didn’t think I was making a difference, I thought I was just being me. Overall, I was being a cheerleader in my small and you know what? It worked and has been working. Everyone needs a cheerleader to lift them higher especially in a sometimes, cruel world!
Many of our students I realized, had, learned helplessness, which is term where some students gave up because they failed at first try however some of their peers got instantly. The students who gave up must have felt frustrated, rushed or simply that their confidence was shot. That task can also be applied to academia or applied to their lives forever. This of course can be changed if they had people who were cheering and will always cheer for them.
Are you a cheerleader? If not think about being a cheerleader for someone, so you can help to encourage him or her. Being a cheerleader will also make you feel good about yourself. So, it’s a win/win situation.
Encouraging Movement in the Classroom
by Marcia Davis-Dawkins | Apr 4, 2024 | Education, Kids, Parents, Teachers
Don’t Let Your Light Go Out
By Dr. Marci
April 2, 2024
“This little light of mine, I’m gonna to let it shine”. Those are the words of a little song I learned as a young girl, and it has been coming to me every day recently. It hit me even more a few days ago when I shared with a friend (or who I thought was a friend), how I was observed by a supervisor and that she gave me such a beautiful. I was overly excited about the wonderful words I had read about me that I wanted to share with everyone. The written words gave me added light and confidence, I wanted to shine even more in my capacity of a teacher.
My bubble burst, my bulb blew when the person, after reading the feedback, said “Is that all she had to say?” “What right does she have to observe you?” My light was beginning to dim as he went on and on, just demeaning me and I felt weak and less than my real value. My only response was to ask if that was all he had to say. I wasn’t expecting a response, but I took my feedback paper and sheepishly put it in my binder and closed it. My tears were close, but I held it together and somehow, I perked up and thought about how close he came to bury me but then I realized that it was my light that he was trying to dim instead of trying to celebrate my accomplishment and my win. Then I started celebrating me, I picked myself up and dust me off – my light won’t go out. This one person shouldn’t put out my light, he is just one dimmer, and I can think of many people who will help and have helped to radiate my light. I will surround myself with like minded people and those who will celebrate my light. My light is important even when others can’t see. Praise is so much more important rather than criticism. Criticism can only deflate and yes, dim lights. How can we help to radiate others and create goodness and mercy? I know that I won’t abandon me, but I will continue to grow since there is no growth without pain. It is important to encourage myself and think positively about myself. There will definitely be people who want me to shine. I cannot let someone else’s opinion of me, determine who I am. I will learn to grow even from the light dimmers. Some people will never value my light.
The song goes on to say, “Everywhere I go, I’m gonna to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” That will be my advice to me, and I will encourage you to do the same.
Let your light shine so others can see!
by Marcia Davis-Dawkins | Mar 10, 2024 | Education, Kids, Parents, Teachers
Our Past, Helps to Weave Our Future!
By Dr. Marci
As a Social Studies teacher, who might I add does not really like History, I always look for ways to encourage students to want to study History. That being said, for Black History I wanted to make it fun and not do the same thing over and over. I was talking to a fellow educator and telling her how I felt and she quickly suggested that I consider the novel, The 1619 Project, Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson, illustrated by Nikkolas Smith. I quickly considered the idea and ordered the book on Amazon and even decided that I wanted to be observed by my principal as I taught this novel! I was nervous but excited! I had great expectations too!
As I started to introduce the book, we discussed where each person was from, where each family originated. This went far greater than I anticipated as the students were delved into talking about themselves as well as their families. Soon we were able to write poems about where they were from. The poems were amazingly done and typed including and organized in a binder for all to see. Soon the news of the poems spread among some faculty members like wild fire – they wanted to read the poems and they did!! They were really revealing and we gathered more information about each student.
We responded to several writing prompts including How did the girl’s family make America their home? What does it mean that the girl’s ancestors were “born on the water?” What does the author want the readers to learn from this story? Explain using evidence from the text. In a sense, we were practicing to respond to NJSLA questions so students could think outside the box and at the same time learn about Black History. So there are cross curricula (Social Studies and Language Arts) woven together whilst being departmentalized. This also means that the expectations are the same for both academic classes. 
In the story, the author wanted to show that Black Americans have their own proud story of origin and it did not begin with slavery. The Black Americans adjusted to their new lifestyle after being captured from Africa. Even though they struggled they made the best of what they had and became proud of who they were.
The final part of the lesson was to demonstrate their understanding of the themes in the novel by creating a three-dimensional diorama. The students’ creativity shone through their artwork by bringing the scenes to life where they used their tactile learning skills. It was a joy to behold. It was obvious that the students were engaged and enjoyed the learning especially since we infused Project Based Learning!
Here’s that was written about the the lesson. Please feel free to read and enjoy.
https://www.tapinto.net/towns/rahway/sections/education/articles/rahway-s-roosevelt-elementary-school-celebrates-black-history-month-with-award-winning-book
