Rather than being lost in a world of struggle from hormonal changes, family struggles, and peer pressure, my 8th grade students are looking to expand their voice to a global audience through the use of writing in a professional manner.
I am an 8th grade Language Arts teacher who has had the opportunity to experience writing for various publications as an opportunity, while I see the deficiency of these students to imagine the possibility of using writing for a career. My goal is to use the National Writing Project's ideology to focus on helping these 8th graders write, publish, and distribute their work on a national scale.
We are located in a rural area, where students tend to only see sports as a means of being noticed, while educational goals as a professional writer seem out of reach for many. Working in a big city at a newspaper, for example, is beyond their career scope.
Sadly, we are with a lack of resources for these students to have their own means of publishing. Short of pencil and paper, we do not have the printers, recorders, and computers needed to allow students time to focus their writing into a professional format. This is where the community can really help us. We are solely focused on the idea that we wish to build a life-long love of writing and to give the students real-world writing experience, thus encouraging opportunities other than manual labor as a job possibility.
We are in need of printers, laptops, an ipod, printer ink, grammar books, and any other publishing-oriented donations in order to assist students with publishing their work. They will meet with the "Editor" (myself), as they finish their group projects, based on type of writing they agree to at the beginning of the year, and we develop their voice and send their work to places that might publish their work, such as local and national magazines, newspapers, and blogs. Students will not only hone in on their writing skills, but they will see the emphasis on career-oriented writing opportunities within the classroom.
Please help us to make the writing project a success with these under-served students! By helping these rural kids to see a career-oriented writing opportunity is out there, they will be interested in writing as a life-long goal. The kids are thrilled to have this opportunity and I promise you that any donation will truly go a long way to help these 8th grade students of all educational levels to see the value in the written word.
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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 Ms. S. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.