During the election season, teachers have found themselves educating students on what it means to vote and the importance of having one’s voice heard. This certainly applies to Lisa Mangham’s special education classroom. 

“I think they learned a lot, and I had a lot of fun doing it,” Mangham said.

She discussed with her students the importance of voting, giving each student an opportunity to cast their own ballot. She also agreed that it is significant to teach students about voting during election season, especially one as vital as this. Mangham hosts these voting booths each presidential voting season for her students. Though, her students were not the only ones to participate.

“And then we brought in the other classroom,” Mangham said, “so we’d have more friends involved in the process. They really liked lining up, and the teachers voted as well.”

It appeared that after all the votes from the class-led election were counted, it was a near tie between both candidates. Mangham told her students about ties and tiebreakers. She also discussed the current events happening in the election.

“We talked about how it was really similar to what was going on in the election at the time, and how it was neck and neck,” Mangham said.

This classroom event was also aided by the program that Mangham uses to teach her students about weekly current events.

“We do a program called News-To-You, and it’s developed for kids of special needs,” Mangham said, “It’s about current events, and the current events that week, of course, was the election.” 

According to Mangham, she thinks the program is important and helpful in educating her students. She has used it for many years.

“I like how it’s adapted for kids, and that it has picture cues to help them learn the vocabulary words. It has the whole curriculum. It’s really a wonderful program,” Mangham said.

Learning and teaching about voting in elections is becoming a more common practice every four years. Students in Mangham’s classroom found the activity to be fun.

“They’re excited, and they wanted to take their ballot home with them at the end of the election,” Mangham said.