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
I proudly teach Middle School Math (6-8) at a public charter school in the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Over the past few years, Slavic Village has undergone a beautiful aesthetic transformation due to an influx of funds from the city to repair crumbling infrastructure. With a repaired street, newly opened businesses, updated green space, and an active community organization, Fleet Avenue has never looked or felt better.
While appearances of our community have drastically improved in a short period of time, the economic conditions for our wonderful families haven’t kept the same pace.
Our students and their families continue to face extreme obstacles in their quests to meet even the most basic needs. These financial difficulties then put an enormous strain on their abilities to procure the best tools to help them excel academically.
I look at my students in amazement when I consider the odds that they must face each day entering the classroom. Despite an unbalanced and unfair allotment of academic resources to help them progress, they continue to persevere. Their dedication and commitment to excellence is inspiring, but they alone are not enough to close the academic gaps that an unfair educational system has created.
My Project
Part of the beauty of mathematics is that it is performed, checked, and completed utilizing the universal language of numbers. Mastery in mathematics thus partially prepares our students to become exemplary citizens of a global community. While often frustrating and sometimes tedious, mathematics can also light up the heart and mind of a child like few other subjects. It is indispensable as a means of communication in business, engineering, science, and all other areas of human endeavor.
While no tool can ever surpass the importance of human intellect, calculators are a gift of human progress that can be used by students to free up time for critical thinking and essential skill-building.
Our current inventory of calculators is effectively non-existent, with most lacking any form of adequate functionality and all lacking the scientific or higher-order operations that are critical at this level.
With successful funding of these resources, my incredible students will have additional time to focus on building, developing, and practicing the skills that they desperately need. This will also help to provide effective and efficient differentiation for students with special needs who may require additional time and resources to solve problems independently. Lastly, the procurement of calculators will allow students to excel on state tests where calculators are often permitted, but not provided.
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. Grimm and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
