My students need a portable public address system to learn more about the world's biomes and adaptations, and to enhance clarity, communication, and presentation skills.
$498 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! 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.
If it's true that the world is a stage, then our students need to experience the splendors that this grand earth has to offer. Not only do I wish for them the personal presentation skills that will take them confidently into the 21st Century, but that they also appreciate the dynamics of our world.
Thirty-three third grade students are housed in our classroom, and what a terrific team we make!
We embrace our school wide tenets of being respectful, responsible, really safe, and ready to learn. Representing California's diversity, our classroom includes students with a wide variety of learning styles and preferences, and also supports a GATE cluster. We are an active and curious group and are always looking for ways to bring learning alive. More than half of our children are second language learners, and as a Title I school, a majority of our students have not had many opportunities to see the world beyond their local community. We enthusiastically participate in a comprehensive arts-based curriculum and when applicable, we weave drama, dance, music and visual arts into our content-standard areas as a way to demonstrate what we are learning. We also love infusing technology and teamwork into our activities. Our school truly embraces its families and is a hub of learning.
My Project
An area of study for us is to learn how plants and animals adapt to their environments within the world's biomes. Likewise, a cornerstone speaking activity is to plan and deliver an informative/explanatory presentation that follows a logical sequence, includes details, and uses clear and specific vocabulary. Utilizing various resources, including multimedia materials, textbooks, and hands-on lessons, student teams would discover how particular features thrive in a given region. For the culminating activity, students would construct their own representation of a biome that depicts the indigenous flora and fauna, and share these findings with the class through an appropriate animal's perspective. For many students, even adults, public speaking can be an anxiety-filled task. For my students, I want their early speaking engagements to be rewarding and fun. A portable public address system will give them a dynamic boost of confidence, and allow everyone to hear their insights and findings.
Song collaborators Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, wrote the music for Disney's movie "Pocahontas".
One of their most poignant lyrics reads: "But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew you never knew." The world is such an immense place, that for my students to walk in the footsteps of strangers would undoubtedly open new portals for them. I hope that together they will embrace that world, and will confidently cultivate their own presentation skills.
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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 Mrs. Lawhorn and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
