#IWishMyTeacherKnew: Third Grade Teacher Gets Heartbreaking Responses After Asking Students What They Wish She Knew [VIDEO]
Third grade teacher, Kyle Schwartz, teaches at Doull Elementary in Denver, Colorado in which most of her students come from underprivileged homes.
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She decided to see what how her children would respond when she asked them to open up. What she got surprised her.
"Ninety-two percent of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch," Schwartz told ABC News on Thursday. "As a new teacher, I struggled to understand the reality of my students' lives and how to best support them. I just felt like there was something I didn't know about my students."
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For the lesson plan, students wrote down a thought for their teacher to share something they would like her to know about them, Schwartz said.
"I let students determine if they would like to answer anonymously," she said. "I have found that most students are not only willing to include their name, but also enjoy sharing with the class. Even when what my students are sharing is sensitive in nature, most students want their classmates to know."
"I wish my teacher knew I didn't have pencils at home to do my homework," one of the student letters read.
"I wish my teacher knew I don't have a friend to play with me," another revealed.
"I wish my teacher knew sometimes my reading log is not signed because my mom is not around a lot," a student wrote.
"I wish my teacher knew how much I miss my dad because he got deported to Mexico when I was 3 years old and I haven't seen him in 6 years," one said.
Schwartz was "blown away" by her student's responses and is not encouraging fellow teachers to employ the same lesson with their own students.
"Building community in my classroom is a major goal of this lesson. After one student shared that she had no one to play with at recess, the rest of the class chimed in and said, 'we got your back.' The next day during recess, I noticed she was playing with a group of girls. Not only can I support my students, but my students can support each other," Schwartz said.