Teacher uses grant to enrich students with diverse pages
WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) — Hanging high and proudly inside the front doors of Oriole Park Elementary in Wyoming are the flags of a number of different countries. They represent the culture and diversity that exists inside of the school walls.
One teacher at the school is embracing that diversity, using books to make sure the windows and mirrors of those pages are big enough for her students to look into.
“I love that I look at our classroom and we have kids who are coming from families who speak such a wide variety of languages,” first-grade teacher Sarah Buys-McKenney said. “That’s a big piece of why I think our school libraries should be as big as absolutely possible, because they’re sharing a story. And for one kid, it’s a window into something they didn’t know anything about. And for another kid, it’s a mirror holding up to them that they can say, ‘Yeah, I do that.’ That’s something that’s important to me.”
With more than two decades of teaching experience, Buys-McKenney is no stranger to dipping into her own pockets to help get the right literature in her student’s hands. Most years, she spends at least $1,000 out of her own pocket. Now, thanks to a local grant from Family Fare’s One School at a Time initiative, the dedicated first-grade teacher will have $1,000 from a local organization to enrich her students with diverse pages.
“That comes to that civil rights issue for me. My kids deserve that. And sometimes that means that’s me taking care of that,” Buys-McKenney said. “Our theme in Wyoming is belonging, and that means belonging in a community and caring about each other. And to me, knowing that we have an organization, a business in the community that says ‘that’s our vision too, that’s what we want to do too’ is huge.”
Since June of last year, Family Fare has given out $9,000 total to nine different West Michigan schools through the One School at a Time grant.
“Just seeing the impact of what these kinds of programs actually do. As far as how the kids come out, going into the middle schools and high schools and that kind of thing, you can see the difference from young kids all the way up. That impact is just incredible to see,” Burlingame Family Fare store director Michael Lipscomb said.
It’s an impact seen through the windows and mirrors of Buys-McKenney’s lesson plan. When her kids leave at the end of the year, year after year, it’s not just about reading for her. It’s about community and building a window wide enough that anyone can peer in and see a piece of themselves on the other side.
Find more information about Family Fare’s One School at a Time grant here.
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