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" My students are thirsty for knowledge and they love math. I teach fifth grade in a low-income school in Los Angeles. The students receive little enrichment, and our school has few supplemental activities beyond textbooks. We have no funds to buy materials such as Equate, which is an excellent to... " MORE

" My students are thirsty for knowledge and they love math. I teach fifth grade in a low-income school in Los Angeles. The students receive little enrichment, and our school has few supplemental activities beyond textbooks. We have no funds to buy materials such as Equate, which is an excellent tool for teaching algebra, computation, and problem-solving skills. This is a public school with no PTA, no community sponsorship, and nearly 100% free breakfast/lunch. The community cares for their children, but cannot provide the resources needed to elevate students' learning opportunities.

My students are an amazing bunch; of thirty children, nineteen have been identified as academically gifted and talented. I want to give them the resources their curious minds deserve! However, the odds are stacked against them. Our school is publicly funded, grappling with test scores and basic English proficiency, and focused primarily on helping at-risk learners. I certainly agree that those students deserve extra attention and resources. However, this is at the expense of higher-achieving students, who are left with the same pencil-and-paper, rote-learning programs designed for slower learners. I want my students to soar! They definitely have the potential to exceed "average" expectations, if they are given the opportunity.

I would love to implement the EQUATE math game in my classroom.

This class set of game boards and pieces challenges students to create open-ended equations with the number and procedure tiles they have at hand. The game, along with the supplemental activities included in the teacher notebooks, provides hours of opportunity each week for students to sharpen their problem-solving skills -- they calculate answers, apply math processes, and utilize strategic methods for creating accurate equations while blocking their opponents. These games are reusable; this grant would provide years of math enrichment for students who deserve the chance to transcend labels such as "basic" or "proficient".

With your help, I can show my students another world. A world where people engage in mathematics for the challenge and fun of sharpening their skills. A world in which the goal is not a neat row of answers from a textbook, but an engaging activity where quick thinking, analysis, and strategizing are valued. These children are the future of our country -- please help me provide them with the higher-level thinking skills that mold great learners, workers, and leaders!

My students need a class set of Equate, a challenging and wonderful hands-on math game, as well as advanced tiles and activity notebooks.

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