Our high school serves a small socioeconomically disadvantaged community. Our students are highly resilient, practical in their learning, and enjoy meaningful work that will benefit them in their futures. They are scholars, athletes, volunteers, and employees within their community; often, they must fill many of these roles at one time.
Our school community is a strong one: students, teachers, parents and administrators are all members of our "family", and we consistently support one another.
The dedicated teachers at the high school are always looking for ways to enrich their students' academic lives.
My Project
Books can make such a difference in the life of a child, but not if they don't have access to them. Many of our students come from text-poor environments; their daily reading is limited to their social media. They know that reading is important to success, but they are daunted by it, due to previous bad experiences with reading or the mistaken notion that all books are like the "required reading" they get in schools.
Our students need books that are engaging, high-interest, and relevant.
They need new books: books on hot topics, recent bestsellers, books based on the TV shows and movies they love. They need books that they can see themselves in: their identities, their interests, their lives. They deserve to find the book that is going to resonate with them, touch them, and change their lives. With this project, we seek to provide that for them.
Several years ago, our school library was put out of commission: there is currently no circulation desk and there are no new books coming in. The English department has been supplementing with our own classroom libraries, stocking them with books purchased with school funds, books rescued from the shelves of the defunct library, and even our own personal volumes. This arrangement has several drawbacks, however: we are often without the newest and most sought-after books. Popular books are often damaged or go missing. The interests and needs of our students are constantly changing, and we struggle to keep up. The purpose of this project is to update our classroom libraries and provide our students with access to books they will love.
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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. O'Connor and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
