My students need chess sets to use in class and in clubs to expound their logical thinking in ways they will not normally see in their high poverty homes.
When was the 1st time you remember successfully thinking outside the box? These days, students have to be able to to process and think in many different logical forms. Many of our students come from high poverty homes where strategy and problem solving are not emphasized. Chess can change that!!
Our students are middle school aged (10-14) and many of them come from a very high poverty part of town.
Due to the low income and high unemployment of our students' guardians, we have a high turnover of students. Therefore, we often have a limited time frame to influence our children. They are a high-energy group that has a desire to learn, and we just try to get to them as much as we can in any way that we can. The group of students that this project is for is a very unique group. These are kids that probably are not going to be in the athletic or musically gifted section of students. They are blessed in more intellectual areas, but need an area to express and explore with students of the same interests and other similarities. This group of students is made up of both males and females and they are excited for the opportunity to work together and to get better at using their "smart sports" (as we call it) part of their brain.
My Project
There are two other middle schools in our district and you will not find our kind of demographics in the other two schools. We are a high poverty and high turnover school, but that we have exceptional expectations for our students. We want to provide every opportunity to growth we can, especially in an area that see that these opportunities are not being provided much in the homes of our students.
We are starting a chess club, open to all of our students. We are requesting chess sets and one large chess mat. Our shop class will be making 18" chess pieces to be used with the mat. Some of our special needs kids will use the large chess mat. They need concrete, physical, hands-learning to understand most concepts, and we can give them that!
This club will provide a safe place where students can be different; where they can safely try and possibly fail; where they can succeed and be recognized for their extraordinary efforts. Our kids need opportunities like these to grow.
This is a chance to give to a group of students that has little or nothing at home.
Many of our students are new to our district due to the recent tornado relocating them into a different area of the city. These kids have been through a lot recently, but our kids are tough. They will bounce back, we are certain. We are just trying our hardest to give them every opportunity we can for them to stretch their wings at this very impressionable age. Thank you for your invaluable contribution.
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