My students need two digital cameras so they can grow in their photography skills and so they can produce quality pictures for our yearbook and journalism classes.
Over the past three years, our yearbook and newspaper classes have grown to include over 60 students. These students bring their love of photography and design to my class, but we are without the equipment necessary to help them with that love. Quality camera equipment is desperately needed.
My students attend a high poverty school in Oregon.
My students are exceptionally diverse. Many students are first generation Americans or recent arrivals. Over 65% of the students in our school receive free or reduced priced lunches. Poverty and occasionally homelessness is a major reality for the students I teach. Despite the challenges my students face, they are dedicated and hardworking. We achieve amazing things inside the classroom and outside the classroom.
My Project
When my yearbook students arrive in my classroom, we go over the requirements for the year. Most of our yearbook standards are linked to photography and building a picture base. Last year Donors Choose helped us raise the money for a new camera. Between that camera and one other camera, these are now the only two working cameras we have between 60 kids.
Having more access to technology and digital equipment will help me be able to loan the camera out to students who are talented photographers, but do not have any way to purchase or borrow a camera of their own.
Many of my students are sad and frustrated when they learn we have limited cameras. And many of them come from homes where owning a camera is a luxury they can't afford. I want to put cameras in their hands and foster their love of photography.
The two requested digital camera are a necessary components for a class that relies on photography to succeed.
When students in poverty enter a class that requires technology, it is our responsibility to provide them the technology they need to succeed! By having more cameras available, I hope to have more students feeling involved and less embarrassed that they do not have a camera of their own.
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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 Ms. W. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.