This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
Do you remember a childhood filled with print, books, and art? My students don't often have that experience in their own homes, so I am always looking for engaging ways to show them new types of writing, artwork, and also how to celebrate their work as a learning community.
My school is an arts integrated charter school in the urban setting of Buffalo, NY.
I am an English Language Arts Teacher, but I teach reading writing skills in the context of historical, scientific, and artistic investigations. My students primarily come from low-income families, where families don't always have the luxury of reading with their children, therefore having an enriched and engaging experience with a variety of forms of text in an interactive and authentic way at school is crucial. This piece of technology would allow me to show students great pieces of literature, works of art, and their own work celebrated on the screen for their peers.
My Project
Imagine my class was studying the use of symbolism by poets during the Renaissance. I could begin by showing a color painting to the class through the document camera, discussing various imagery we see in the painting. We could then decide how these colors, objects and symbols make us feel and what they could stand for.
I would then replace the painting under the camera with an actual book of poetry one would find in the library of our classroom, and we could read the poetry together, noting on post-its (which they could also see) the imagery we find in the poem, and how that symbolism affects our reading experience.
Finally, students would go to a piece of poetry they were working on, and try to use symbolism in the same way we saw mentor authors use it. When I observed a student doing a particularly great job of this, I would take their notebook and put it straight under the camera, celebrating that student, and using the document camera to make an instant teachable moment.
This piece of technology will be CENTRAL to everyday instruction for a group of students who desperately need the latest possible practices in teaching.
Please consider donating and helping my classroom become a classroom for the 21st century, and make today's readers and writers the great artists, poets, teachers, speaker, and culture shapers of tomorrow.
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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 Mr. Hossack and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.