Celebrate Black Teachers and Students
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.
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Ms. Atwill from Brooklyn NY is requesting computers & tablets through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
My students need 14 Chromebooks so that they can email, video-chat, and co-author a story with their pen-pals!
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 and their families come from all over the world: we have students from Haiti, Jamaica, Yemen, Ethiopia, Trinidad, Bangladesh, Grenada, St. Lucia, The Dominican Republic, Mexico, The Philippines, and Egypt--to name a few! Many of them have only recently learned English or haven't been to school in several years, and almost all of our students have at least one family member who has trouble reading in English. Their parents have admitted that they don't know how to help their children with their schoolwork because of this, and this sense of isolation from their children is making them feel hopeless. Meanwhile, my students arrive at our school reading below grade level, and have few opportunities to read books at home.
My students want to explore the world, to go to college, and to find a career that can take them places.
Some have lived very challenging lives already, but all of them are eager to move forward. Many of them say that they wish they were smarter, or they wish the class was easier, but they are all learning that hard work itself will make them brilliant.
No matter what a story is about, all of us are more likely to care about what we're reading if we care about the storyteller. My students, many of whom have only ever lived in dense urban areas, are going to start a pen-pal project with students at a rural high school in another part of the country. By connecting them with people who might at first seem very different, our students can discover the many things they have in common with them through sharing stories and communicating about their experiences.
Today's social climate makes it so necessary for all of us to hear what it's like for people in other parts of the world, not just through the news, but through the actual experiences of the people who live there.
Having Chromebooks in the classroom will make this possible, as our students can email and video chat with their pen-pals across the country. Once they have gotten to know one another through a series of interview questions, they will identify what they share with their pen-pals, and begin to work with them to co-author a shared story. They will use Google Docs on the Chromebooks to write and revise their stories with their pen pals. We will present these stories simultaneously at both schools, linked via the Chromebook webcams, so that everyone can learn from and appreciate the diverse voices of today's youth.
Just as I want my students to learn that their own voices deserve to be heard, I want them to recognize that learning from and working with other people will allow them to reach a larger audience. The Chromebooks will give my students the access they need to make their pen-pal project a success.
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