In 1975, my parents made a decision most of us can't even fathom. With just $10 in Vietnamese currency, my family fled Vietnam for the U.S. and left behind everyone and everything we'd ever known.

While we were safe, we quickly faced a new challenge. Fitting in.

In my new school. no one spoke my language, shared my culture, or knew the trauma I’d been through. To put it simply — I felt invisible.

As an educator, it’s a story I hear all the time. Recent immigrant students and their families are struggling to find their place in our society.

So what can we, as educators, do? Here are a few ideas from my book Life, Literacy, and the Pursuit of Happiness to help you connect with newcomers in your classroom.

Share Immigrant and Refugee Stories

One afternoon, as I was reading Malala’s Magic Pencil to a group of second-grade students, one child gently stroked her hijab. I looked over to let her know it was okay to share her thoughts with the class. “I’m wearing what she wears!” she proudly exclaimed.

Stories can start the process of healing some of the trauma that newcomers experience while transitioning to a new life. By sharing stories like theirs with the whole class, we’re saying to them that they belong here and that their stories matter.

While there’s still a lot of work to be done, finding books about immigrants and refugees is much easier than in the past. Scholastic’s Culturally Responsive Immigrant and Refugee Experiences Collections are a great place to start. They feature some of the most diverse and heartfelt stories of the immigrant experience I’ve ever read.

Embrace Non-English Names

Don is my first name, but not really. My parents named me Hùng which means heroic in Vietnamese. It's a common name in Vietnam. But not so much in America. For a new kid that meant lots of teasing from classmates and mispronunciations from adults. 

In Being the Change (2018), Sara K Ahmed shares a helpful way to reassure newcomers about their non-English names. Use a mentor text like Alma and How She Got Her Name and have students write or tell stories of how they got their names and how their names are an important part of their identity.

Celebrate Traditions With a World Fair

Do you know the cultural traditions that are important to your immigrant and refugee students and their families? Recognizing them at school is an easy way to make families feel welcome and included.

One idea is to hold a World Fair event to highlight and celebrate all the cultures in your classrooms. Families can volunteer to run tables or booths where they can share cultural artifacts and food samples. Even in schools with little diversity, World Fairs can be opportunities for staff and families to study and explore other cultures.

I hope you can use some of these ideas to welcome newcomers into your classroom. I know how traumatic losing your home can be. But being seen and welcomed in your new one can make all the difference.