Self-contained Special Education scholars from Uplift Grand got a chance to meet the Mayor of Grand Prairie, Ron Jensen, via Zoom.
“Our unit this month is about leaders, so we learned about them at home, at school, in the city, the state and our country,” said Ms. Kelley, Special Education Teacher at Uplift Grand.
This unique experience first began when Ms. Kelley mentioned to her scholars that the staff had the opportunity to meet the mayor of Grand Prairie when Uplift Grand opened their new building. Her scholars were so excited to find that out and they expressed a huge interest in meeting the Mayor as well.
Ms. Kelley then proceeded to email Mr. Jensen’s receptionist, and within 30 minutes she received a great response.
“For my scholars, this is a real-life experience for them,” said Ms. Kelley. “I think it makes a huge impact on them to be able to make that connection to what they were reading and learning about in school.”
Throughout his time visiting with the class, Mayor Ron Jensen talked about a variety of different topics including his background story, his career leading up to becoming the Mayor, what it means to be a Mayor in our community, the various number of meetings he has every week, the creation of new jobs and business opportunities and the importance of voting.
“I wasn’t taught about voting until I was finally in college,” said Ms. Kelley. “Just letting them know the importance of it now, will help them understand their importance in their community, and what they can do to help long-term.”
“I got to meet the Mayor, and I was nervous, but I got to ask him what his favorite thing to do was,” said Xavier Vazquez, 5th grader at Uplift Grand. “He told me that he loves coming to classrooms, and that made me feel happy and excited.”
“Like Mayor Jensen said, hopefully he can come visit them in-person, that would be even better,” said Ms. Kelley.
At Uplift, we are proud of these important life lessons for our scholars and the impact they will have on them long-term to connect a lesson to a real-life example.
Uplift Voices 