A Place for All

"I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my proposal. I am a first grade teacher. I can’t imagine working anywhere else. It has been a privilege to be apart of such a wonderful school. We do, however, face challenges every day that many suburban schools take for granted. Ninety two percent of our students come from homes at or below poverty level. Despite the many hardships we face, I have always thought of our school as a diamond in the rough.

I have twenty-eight students very eager to learn and work collaboratively with one another. However, it is very difficult to gather my twenty-eight students together during meeting time. The rug that I have in my classroom fits twenty students at the most and has been torn from years of use, making the edges of the rug shred. The remaining students are forced to sit in chairs around the rug. This makes learning very difficult because the eight students are often distracted, compromising the important group dynamic that I struggle to build. Having a spacious rug that sits up to thirty students would allow every single one of my students to actively participate in whole group instruction, math activities and provide two reading areas during center time.

If I could acquire funding for this project, not only would there be a place for everyone to sit and learn, but the students could easily identify their group just by finding the vibrant color-coded rectangular squares. My students have already had an active part in this process. They came up with their own group names - The Red Apples, The Orange Mustards, The Green Grapes, The Blue Blueberries, The Purple Jellies and The Yellow Lemons. I can’t wait to see the smiles on their faces when they see how wonderfully the squares coincide with their group colors!

Once again, thank you for your consideration. I would really appreciate the opportunity to make sure there is "A Place For All." You can count on seeing those smiling faces for yourself and all the active participation taking place if you choose to fund our classroom with a new rug.