Help me give my students a quality, Covid-era music education through quality digital resources, music-specific tech tools, and a Covid-related communication aids for my socially-distanced classes and ensembles.
I am honored to serve as music teacher to a wide array of students. From children requiring specialized educational interventions to those who are labeled "gifted and talented", from low-income to upper-middle class, from numerous races, cultures, and languages, I teach them all! And the best part is, I get to teach them in a subject area that touches every part of their development-- intellectual, social, emotional, and even physical! My students, like all people, NEED music in their lives.
My Project
In the midst of this pandemic, teachers are working tirelessly to adapt to the drastically new realities of our mission because we know that, in the end, it is the children who will either benefit or suffer from our ability, or lack thereof, to meet their needs. As a music teacher, I am faced not only with the general challenges, but also with subject-specific barriers to meeting these needs.
The items in my Donor's Choose project will help remove a number of the barriers my students and I face both in our current virtual education environment and in our return to in-person instruction during this Covid era.
Currently, my students are only able to receive virtual, asynchronous instruction from me. To provide them with the absolute best possible educational experience with these confines, I am asking for your help in accessing top-notch virtual resources for them through Teachers Pay Teachers. Additionally, the provision of computer keyboards designed to drastically increase efficiency with my music notation software will, in the end, free up more of my time to provide other, much needed support to my students.
Additionally, as I plan ahead to when we regather for socially-distanced, in-person instruction, I am looking for ways to maximize my ability to communicate clearly with my students. The provision of a wearable microphone, that will work with my existing sound equipment, will better allow students to hear me through my face mask. In terms of musical communication, a larger, more visible conducting batons will allow the students in my ensembles to better see me from farther distances as they will have to be spaced out for social distancing. In both of these situations, improved communication will result in more effective learning for my students.
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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. Polman and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.