Celebrate Black Teachers and Students
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
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Ms. Nelson from Chicago IL is requesting other through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
My students need assorted xylophones, metallophones, and mallets.
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
Nearly every day of my life, I hear the same question. Students are always asking me "Can I play your xylophone?" And by xylophone, they mean the one, singular, lonely Orff instrument in my classroom with mismatched bars and missing pegs. Clearly, we need some more instruments to go around!
My school was created as a model school for the inclusion of students with special needs.
It is also an urban school, serving a population of students who have minimal access to fine arts programs. It is a mid-sized school with about 400 students. Each student, regardless of disability, comes to fine arts class once every three days.
Children have an innate desire to create music. They want the chance to improvise, to compose, to create accompaniments, and to be more like "real musicians". I could stand in front of my classroom all day and explain all the mechanics of music theory, but what my students crave is the ability to figure it out for themselves. Learning the difference between steps and skips, learning how two or more pitches sound together, and learning how to create a melody or accompaniment are some things that can only be learned from experience. I am requesting assorted xylophones, metallophones, and mallets. Orff Schulwerk is an approach to Music Education that makes the experience of performing, composing, and improvising music accessible to children of all ages and ability levels. Though Orff instruments are of high quality, they are designed with children in mind. They have large, removable bars that are easy to arrange and adapt to meet the needs of the music and the child.
Entrusting students with "real" instruments is a privilege not to be taken lightly, and I believe it can instill them with a real sense of self-worth.
In addition to regular use in the classroom, these instruments would also be used for performances, giving individual students their chance to demonstrate their abilities. I don't think that poverty, academic struggles, broken families, or any of the other problems my students face should prevent them from having successful musical experiences.
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