"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are," Theodore Roosevelt. Inner-city middle school students face many challenges. My goals is to inspire them to look ahead to where they want to be, then to do what they can, with what they have, where they are -- in reaching that goal.
My students come from a variety of family and neighborhood situations from all over the city and with various skill and motivation levels.
My goal is to inspire and motivate them to learn mathematics. Many of my students have not experienced success in mathematics in the past. My challenge is to build their confidence and get them ready to take a step. Many are not motivated to learn. My challenge is to inspire them to see the usefulness of and excitement in doing mathematics. And some of my students are overly confident in their good grades and past success. My challenge is to provide new opportunities for them to go farther and deeper.
My Project
I have requested a tablet for data collection and analysis to motivate my students in learning applied mathematics. My students will be leaving the classroom to collect data in a variety of settings: out back to our disk golf course for a tournament, in the gym class shooting basketballs and doing jumping jacks, and at the end of the year during our rocket launching. Then we will take that data back to the classroom for analysis.
By using this tablet to collect data and analyze the results from a variety of situations, my students will be willing to take a step forward, motivated to take mathematics outside the classroom, and eager to go farther in their learning of mathematics -- to do what they can, with what they now have, where they are.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Fox and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.