Thread: Teacher of the Year Gave Trump Letters from Refugee, Immigrant Students

Teacher of the Year gave Trump letters from refugee, immigrant students


May 2, 2018

BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN


The woman named this year’s National Teacher of the Year said she gave President Trump letters written by her immigrant and refugee students in a separate meeting outside of Wednesday's award presentation.



Mandy Manning, who teaches immigrants and refugees as part of the “Newcomer Center” at Joel E. Ferris High School in Washington state, told CNN that she spent most of her acceptance speech discussing her students.



Trump presented Manning with the Teacher of the Year award Wednesday, but media was not permitted to cover her remarks.



Manning also said that she and Trump met separately and that she personally delivered the president hand-written letters from her students, explaining who the letters were from.



According to Manning, Trump said he was excited to read the letters. She also invited him to the school to meet her students.



As Teacher of the Year, Manning told CNN that she wants to “elevate my students’ voices and be that vehicle for them.”



“My goal is to share my student stories,” Manning said. “But to send a message, to not only by immigrants and refugee students but the LGBT community, that they are wanted, they are loved, they are enough and they matter.”

“Her incredible devotion has earned her the adoration — total adoration, actually — and respect of students and colleagues throughout her school district, community and the entire state,” Trump said at the ceremony.



“Teachers like Mandy play a vital role in the well-being of our children, the strength of our communities and the success of our nation,” he added.



Manning’s students come from countries like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan, according to her award application.



“Most of my students come to the U.S. seeking safety, but they don’t always feel safe here,” she wrote in her application. “I must help them understand current events, know their rights, and provide a safe and welcoming environment.”





The Trump administration has moved to limit the number of refugeesentering the U.S., citing threats to national security.



Trump has issued travel bans on refugees from several majority-Muslim countries and announced in 2017 that no more than 45,000 refugees would be allowed into the U.S. this year.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...-and-immigrant

That is over $50billion a year for ESL teachers so they can comprehend what she is saying. If you can't speak English, hire a tutor. It is on the parent not on the taxpayer. English is the language of USA, speak it or learn it - do not burden us to teach you.

trump where is your budget now? oh for this, you have heart? Have heart for American citizens that is what you where elected to do!

immigrants and refugee students but the LGBT community,

Why are American citizens no longer a part of the conversation - we did not elect hillary so as to correct this crush/push to disregard Americans & have them PAY FOR ALL OF THIS! NO THANK YOU! Peddle your crap elsewhere.

Trump presents Teacher of the Year trophy to Spokane educator of teen refugees

May 2, 2018

AP





President Donald Trump gives the National Teacher of the Year trophy to Mandy Manning during a ceremony in the East Room at the White House May 2, 2018 in Washington, DC. Manning is a math and English teacher at Newcomer Center at Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington, and works with refugee and immigrant students. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday presented the National Teacher of the Year award to a Washington state educator who leads a classroom for teenage refugees.

But Trump did not mention the kinds of students Mandy Manning teaches during a White House ceremony held to honor her and other winners. Manning teaches English to new refugee and immigrant students at the Newcomer Center at Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane.

“Teachers like Mandy play a vital role in the well-being of our children, the strength of our communities and the success of our nation,” Trump said. “The job of a teacher is not only to instruct the next generation of workers but the next generations of citizens to teach our children to care for others, to think for themselves, to love their country, to be proud of our history and to be true pillars of their families and their communities.”
The word “citizens” was written in all-caps in the president’s prepared remarks while the other words were lowercased. The remarks were projected on three teleprompters in the room for him to read.

TRUMP PRESENTS TEACHER OF YEAR AWARD


Trump has taken a hard-line approach to both legal and illegal immigration and for a period suspended the U.S. refugee program. During his Republican campaign for president, he compared refugees fleeing war-torn Syria to a Trojan horse carrying would-be terrorists, and he proposed banning Muslims from entering the country.

The National Teacher of the Year Program began in 1952 and describes itself as the "oldest, most prestigious national honors program that focuses public attention on excellence in teaching."

Every president since Harry Truman has honored its winners in a White House ceremony.

At the Newcomer Center where Manning teaches, students spend five hours a day working to set up a base of academic knowledge so that the teens can ultimately join their peers in general education classes. Manning also helps them adjust to American culture — from navigating the cafeteria and reading body language to understanding classroom etiquette, like taking turns when speaking.

Manning's students come from all over the world, many escaping chaotic, conflict-torn homelands across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas.

"My goal is to share my student's stories," Manning said. "But to send a message -- to not only my immigrant and refugee students but the LGBT community -- that they are wanted, they are loved, they are enough and they matter."
But while she had a record 33 students in the fall of 2016, she's now working with just five.

It's a correlation Manning can't ignore — that there has been such a drop in the number of refugees and immigrants landing in eastern Washington coinciding with the Trump administration's tightening immigration policies.

Fewer refugee families mean the children just feel more isolated in their new world, she had said.


http://q13fox.com/2018/05/02/trump-p...teen-refugees/

Why the teacher of the year gave Trump 45 letters from refugee students


May 2, 2018

Sean Rossman


President Donald Trump has presented the National Teacher of the Year award to Mandy Manning, a Washington state educator who leads a classroom for teenage refugees.



National Teacher of the Year Mandy Manning gave President Trump 45 letters from her refugee students during a private meeting with him on Wednesday.


The 18-year teaching veteran had just delivered a speech at the White House when she found herself with a few private moments with Trump. She handed him the letters in a manila folder titled "Dear Mr. President" and a return address.

She told USA TODAY the package included the letters from Ferris High School students and other residents of Spokane, Washington. Manning teaches at Ferris High's Newcomer Center, where she teaches English to immigrants and refugees who have gone through trauma.


Trump, she said, was very polite and seemed sincere when he thanked her for the letters and said he was excited to read them. He instructed an aide to put them on his desk. Manning also invited him to visit the school and the students.


The Council of Chief States School Officers, an organization of public education officials, announced Manning as the 2018 teacher of the year in April. Realizing how rare it is to get an audience with the president, she urged her students to write Trump a letter for her to personally deliver.

"She uses experiential projects like map-making to help her students process trauma, celebrate their home countries and culture, and learn about their new community," the organization said.


Read more: LGBT teacher uses hand fan in photo with Trump, who loves it


The letters from the students varied widely — "both positive and pointed," Manning said. Some urged the president to watch his language when talking about immigrants and refugees. Others told the story of their journey to America, expressed thankfulness for making it to the U.S. and shared their dreams and ambitions.


Manning said her goal was to express to the president "the beauty and potential of our immigrant and refugee students and how much they contribute to our nation."





President Trump and Mandy Manning, a teacher at the Newcomer Center at Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane, Wash., stand after the president presented her with the National Teacher of the Year award during the the National Teacher of the Year reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Wednesday. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster, AP)



Trump, who has worked to halt travel from several predominantly Muslim countries, later honored Manning in a ceremony in the White House's East Room alongside Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta.



Manning wore several pins during the ceremony to represent her students. There was one for trans rights, a rainbow apple for gay rights, one for immigrant students another for the Peace Corps.



"Those pins were specifically for my students to see that I was there for them," she said. "I hope that it sends a message that all of our students and all of our educators, they are wanted, they're loved. They are enough and that they matter."

As national teacher of the year, she will travel around the world speaking to educaiton orgranizaiotns, sharing her expereince, but mostly, listening to others.



"I am just honored to be in this position," she said, "and I understand the gravity of this situation."


https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ers/576224002/

Teacher of the Year Slips President Trump Notes from Refugee and Immigrant Kids


May 3, 2018

Tierney Mcafee

When National Teacher of the Year Mandy Manning traveled to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to accept her award at the White House, she was there to do more than just celebrate her success — she was on a mission.

Manning, an English language development teacher from Spokane, Washington, and the 2018 National Teacher of the Year recipient, had brought with her a stack of letters written by her immigrant and refugee students and addressed to President Trump, The Washington Postreported.


When Manning met Trump briefly on Wednesday, she gave him the letters and explained how eager her students were for him to read each of them.


Manning said some students wrote about their experiences coming to the United States from countries such as Syria, Iraq, Uganda, Burma and El Salvador because they “felt it was important for the president to understand the really rigorous and difficult process and length of time it takes to come to the United States as a refugee.


Others told the president of their dreams and aspirations, how they wanted to contribute to society and how coming to the United States gave them hope.


“The thing about our immigrant and refugee students is that they have this innate hopefulness,” Manning told The Washington Post. “They have gone through very, very difficult experiences, but they see coming to the United States as an opportunity. They feel that they can have dreams, and that they can potentially achieve those dreams. It’s really quite beautiful, actually, because no matter what — no matter what they experience — they still have this hope, this resilience.”



Trump has long taken a hard line against accepting refugees into the United States, including those from Muslim-majority countries, Central American nations, and African nations like Haiti and El Salvador, which he infamously allegedly referred to as “s–thole countries.”


Manning told the Post that Trump accepted the letters kindly on Wednesday, and then handed them to an aide, telling her to place them on his desk because he really wanted to read them.

“Of course, I can’t be sure that’s going to happen,” Manning said. “But like I said, my students are innately hopeful.”

Trump praised Manning’s “tireless dedication” during Wednesday’s ceremony, saying, “Sometimes all it takes to begin the next great American success story is a teacher who really, really cares.”


Manny has seen many examples of such success stories in her work at Joel E. Ferris High School’s Newcomer Center, where she has taught young people who have come from war-torn countries, from refugee camps, and some who have fled to the U.S. to escape religious or political persecution. Some of the teens have already experienced unimaginable horrors in their young lives, including coming home to find a mother killed, holding a brother as he died, or being forced to hide inside a cave to escape being killed themselves, Manning told the Post. Some arrived knowing no English and without any family to help them find their way.


Despite their hardships, the students go on to graduate high school and pursue higher education.


“It’s so amazing,” Manning said. “We can all learn so much from them.”


http://people.com/politics/teacher-o...rant-kids/amp/

Smile pretty for the camera trump; ELS costs us over $50billin a year, where is your budget now? We can do w/o this! - anything to get over the "storm".

SEND THEIR NOTES TO THEIR PRESIDENT

DEPORT THEM ALL!

WE HAVE AMERICAN KIDS TO TAKE CARE OF!