Ealy Elementary fourth-grade teacher Heather Raab commemorated Veterans Day in her classroom by welcoming U.S. Navy veterans Sally and Dean Holland to share stories from their service.
The veterans tied their service into Raab's current unit on geography and the continents by displaying countries where they served on a map, as well as giving motivational talks to the students.
"Sally left us with some really thoughtful messages about not stopping until you reach your goals," Raab said. "It doesn't matter your demographics, your gender, anything like that."
Sally's story, Raab said, is inspirational in its own right. She shared with the students that while in college, she retook a course she had failed the first time around, striking up a bond with the professor, who then floated to her the idea of joining the Navy. After learning she would start her service from a more advantageous position if she was a top-of-her-class graduate, Sally set her mind to doing just that and ended up, Raab said, the first female to serve on her combat ship.
The Hollands, who met during their naval service, also brought in poppies for the students and explained the meaning of the poppy, a symbol usually associated with Memorial Day for its association with those who die in the line of service.
They additionally had the fourth-graders decode a message using Morse code; Raab said the message decoded was the famous A.A. Milne quote, "Always remember that you're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." Students who succeeded in decoding the message received a small American flag.
Three other veterans were part of the activities, one each representing the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Two of the five veterans in the class, Raab said, now have jobs relating to their military service.
"One is a water filtration expert in Muskegon, and one works for Consumers Energy keeping control boards managed on airplanes," Raab said. "It was really neat stuff and the kids just loved it."
The Veterans Day activities were just the latest in what Raab described as an intentional effort to tie in students' studies to holidays and observances. The Morse code exercise tied into a recent unit about cryptography and phonics. The class also just completed a mock election designed to teach students about the three branches of government and how they work with one another. The class, which Raab shares with fellow team teacher Kaley Anderson, even works to pass "class laws," such as launching a weekly yoga lesson, with the students who are appointed as Supreme Court justices charged with determining whether such laws fit the class's Constitution.
"If a law is passed that the judicial branch deems unconstitutional, then it gets struck and they have to start over again with changes to the law," Raab said. "All these concepts are really connected with the military and the President being in charge of it...(We) are intentional about telling students that if they didn't get voted in, they are civilians, and they are now the voice of the bills that are proposed.
"Civic duty is alive and well in public schools. I just don't know if it's publicized all the time."
