Our school serves students grades 7 through 12 and is located one block from city hall. Civic students from many areas of the city are identified when they experience difficulty, allowing the focus to be on intervention rather than remediation.
For the most at-risk students, those with habitual truancy, significant behavior issues, and histories of suspension and expulsion, the goal is to change behavior so that these students will stay in school and earn enough credits to graduate. In 2014, we established the first library and are including popular urban lit, graphic novels, and books about the justice system.
Last week students came to talk to me with sad expressions! Then they explained that they had been creating lots of projects in our library makerspace and now many of the supplies were used up!!!
As we talked, students eagerly listed some materials they wanted (needed) like beads and tiny boxes to decorate. To help with this project, ESL students are using literacy skills to discuss and write as well as math skills to estimate amounts of craft supplies they want.
I suggested that they inventory our maker space and then they could help write a DonorsChoose.org grant. Once they had generated the long list of maker supplies, they discussed and ranked the most necessary for projects, especially for the holiday season.
Thanks to their hard work, our makerspace will be be full of supplies for creative winter projects.
In Their Own Words
Norma-Our makerspace is used almost every day & now most of the supplies are used up.
Magda-We made tiny boxes & it was fun but now we don't have any more boxes.
Lizette-I want lots of beads to decorate fabric & other projects. And I will show some of the new students how to make fun projects.
Norma-Right away I will be in charge of organizing the new supplies. We have collected several sizes of plastic bottles for storage. Also I will print out labels for all the storage containers.
Magda-I like to make 'how to' charts for different projects.
Lizette-I will be a leader in showing others the steps for some great projects.
Norma-The makerspace projects help us learn job skills so one day we might have a craft business & sell our designs!
Magda-When we decorate the little boxes we can use it to hold our 3D pendant that we designed.
Lizette-All the students like to make crafts for family, for babies & for themselves. These supplies will let us be super creative!
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 Ms. H. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.