Our school is located in an urban neighborhood and it was put on probation by the No Child Left Behind act but thanks to its dedicated educative team, it has made tremendous progress in test scores and attendance over the past two years.
The school has 712 students and 88% of them qualify for the free or reduced price lunch and breakfast program.
It is my first year at this school as the Music teacher and I teach all grades from pre-k to 8th. The school hasn’t had a decent music program for the past 15 years and I have to rebuild it from the ground up. I am very fortunate to have two music rooms (one in each of the two buildings) but I have barely enough instruments to accommodate one class (run-on 30 students) and I have to make up all my own materials, as there are no textbooks available.
We have been getting by fine for the past few months except when the time comes to use the piano. Indeed, the pianos in the auditorium and in one of my rooms are missing so many keys that I can’t use them for teaching or accompanying the students.
The first assembly was extremely painful as I attempted to play the National Anthem on an out of tune piano which was missing many of the notes necessary to play the melody. Moreover, I recently started a before-school Choir and our rehearsals have been greatly hindered by the fact that I can’t accompany the warm-up exercises on piano or demonstrate what the melody is because the piano is missing keys and is completely out of tune.
I feel that my role as a music teacher is to develop my students’ ears and to give them the appropriate tools to appreciate any type of music. Unfortunately, without a decent piano it is impossible to do so. I need not only to be able to accompany the students when we sing but also to be able to illustrate key musical concepts on the keyboard during the lessons.
The students here are very excited to have a music program and by providing a keyboard for them you would help the program grow and give the students the opportunity to develop new and important skills.
Nearly all 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
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 Mrs. Esposito and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.