My students need a clean, inviting, academically relevant place to read, access our interactive white board and come together as a community.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Mendez's classroom raised $389
This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My Students
Have you ever walked into a room and gotten a whiff of something damp? Have you ever been seeking a seat and found only worn, stained fabric with a decade of lint and dirt ground in? This is what my students experience daily when they enter my classroom and approach our carpeted meeting area.
I teach in the South Bronx.
90% of my students receive free lunch. Most come from working class families, where moms and dads are working long hours and several generations may be crammed into very, very small apartments. In many cases, the classroom environment may be the only place where my students have access to books and/or computers. Our carpeted meeting area serves the dual function of classroom library, where students can spread out with books on any topic from squirrels to snow to outer space, and meeting area, where children come together to access lessons displayed on our interactive white board.
My Project
The rug we are currently using is ten years old, and has been spilled on, flooded courtesy of a damaged window frame, trodden on by hundreds of feet and just plain worn out. After daily occupation by dozens of small bodies, this focal point of our classroom is no longer an attractive learning space--it is, to use an inelegant but highly appropriate kindergarten phrase, "Just nasty!"
I believe that my students have the right to begin to explore the delights of literacy in a clean, comfortable, attractive environment. When they sprawl out with The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Knuffle Bunny, they deserve not to be breathing in a decade of dust and mildew. When they meet to participate in an interactive lesson on the Smartboard, share ideas and discuss their learning, they have the right to an aesthetically pleasing setting that informs them that in the school environment we respect their present abilities and future potential.
In this time of economic strain, it may be easy to write off classroom rugs as supplemental frivolities.
However, what message do we send to our children when we ask them to spend a large portion of their day in a less than clean space that is slowly falling apart? Do they receive the idea that their learning is unimportant, or their classroom community is second rate? Please help fund this project, so that we can send the message to my students that their learning and community are valued.
More than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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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. Mendez and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
