Asbury in Mission (AIM) is asking for Asbury members to help show our support for educators at our partner school, Luis A. Ramos Elementary School in Allentown. All education at Ramos is now virtual due to COVID-19. Teachers are really stressed attempting to teach online, particularly those involved with younger ages, ESL students, and those with learning disabilities.
Sign up to write a personal, hand-written note of encouragement to one or two teachers or staff members! AIM will include a $5 Wawa gift card as well.
Sign up now by adding your name to this Google Sheet. Please write a note to that person before November 20th (we’d like to deliver the notes before Thanksgiving)
Put the teacher/staff member’s name on outside of the envelope, leave the envelope unsealed and place it in the container outside Asbury’s top entrance
AIM will add the address and gift card, and stamp and seal the envelope for mailing.
Not sure what to say? While you’re encouraged to make it your own, if you have writer’s block, here are a few phrases/ideas to help you get started:
• I want you to know that you are seen and you are valued. You may not be listed as essential workers. But you are essential.
• As a former teacher, I know all the work that goes into teaching under typical circumstances. Teaching during this coronavirus pandemic is so far from typical. It’s literally nothing school systems have ever done before.
• This isn’t what you signed up for, and yet you’re doing it anyway. You’re putting together distance learning plans. You’re adapting your teaching in the blink of an eye.
• I know you miss your students, the classroom community, and the culture you cultivated. I know how much your students mean to you—how they become “your kids” year after year—and how much you love seeing them light up when they learn something new.
• Even though it may not feel like it sometimes, you’re teaching. Right now your kids are learning social-emotional skills that no curriculum could account for.
• You’re the first teachers to tackle a challenge like the one we’re facing now. Years from now, 2020 will be remembered as the year we all learned how to live life at a distance from each other and continue to function as a society.
• Pause a moment and realize that what you’re doing matters. It matters not just for the students you have in your classes today, but also for the future. You’re part of large-scale systemic change and are making history.
• For now, it’s OK to cry together, too. (Or on your own.) If you’d all known that goodbye would be the last for the year, maybe you would have hugged a little longer or high-fived more often. It’s OK to grieve those hugs and high-fives.
• Teachers, parents can’t replace you. You are essential. Take care of yourself. Be well. Try your best. And thank you for being there.
• The #1 factor in the success of our children is having quality teachers who care about them! Thank you for being there!
• From the sidelines, know that our community is cheering you on as you make the very best of a challenging situation in the classroom this year. Thank you for all that you give to our children, families, and community! You’ve got this!
• During this time of much uncertainty, your passion for teaching and your creativity to make learning dynamic and fun for our children is nothing short of amazing! Keep doing what you love, and spread your light to everyone you work with! You are an inspiration to me!
• Thank you so very much for serving our community as a teacher! With much uncertainty ahead, know that you are deeply admired and appreciated for your work with our children. Thank you for all that you do! We believe in you.
• “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” – Proverbs 22:6
• “Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.” Deuteronomy 32:2
• “Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.”-Proverbs 4:13
• Sign your note with your name “and your friends at Asbury Church”
Additional information on Asbury and Ramos:
Luis A Ramos Elementary School at 15th and Allen is a long-time Asbury mission partner.
The student population at Ramos ranges from 700-900 depending on the year; and over 90% of Ramos families live below the poverty level.
Over the years Asbury members have been actively involved in the support of Ramos teachers, staff, students and their families.
• Obtaining Books for the Library (Christmas Eve Offering)
• Concert to raise money for musical instruments
• Donation of used musical instruments
• Annual work day to mulch playground and beautify grounds
• Key supporters of the construction of a new playground at Ramos
• A dozen or so Asbury members volunteering in classrooms (prior to the pandemic)
• Backpack drives in the fall
• School supply drives
• Coat, hat and mitten drives
• Adopting Ramos families at Christmas
• Packing holiday gift bags before Christmas
• Gathering cleaning supplies to help teachers keep their classrooms safe
