Creating Portraits of Children Facing Challenges While Healing Ourselves
My students need colored pencils, cardstock paper, and fees to participate in the Memory Project so they can create and donate portraits to youth around the world facing challenges. In helping others, they will help themselves.
Our Title One middle school is a diverse high-needs school of fourteen hundred sixth, seventh and eighth grade students. Almost half qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Many of our students receive services including ESL, special education and academic intervention.
Our students need to develop the twenty-first century learning skills necessary to be ready, not only for college and careers, but also life!
They are goal-oriented, hardworking, and dedicated children who come to school each day, knowing that they are welcomed by nurturing and knowledgeable teachers.
With the generous support of DonorsChoose.org donors, our donated library makerspace encourages students to learn and create. Through design thinking challenges, they have realized that it doesn't matter what tools you use to create prototypes with. Great design begins with considering the needs of others. Our Kids Kindness Kart program offers students activities that they can participate in to make a difference. They wrote letters for the Macy's Make a Wish letter writing campaign and painted welcome home signs for Habitat for Humanity. Our student "techsperts" assist in the library to make all of this happen.
My Project
My sister was a great artist who had a place in her heart for everyone. Before she passed away, she participated in the Memory Project with her art class. This nonprofit organization invites students to create and donate portraits to youth around the world who face challenges such as neglect, abuse, loss of parents, violence, and poverty. My sister used her artistic skills to create a work of art that is now a piece of another child's personal history. Using photographs of children in residential homes, schools, and care centers from various countries as inspiration my students will have the opportunity to practice kindness and global awareness. Our students need to transcend tolerating others' differences, to accepting and celebrating, the diversity of humanity.
In honor of my sister, I would like my students to have the same opportunity to touch the lives of others through art.
Did you know that the 3rd leading cause of death for people between 10 and 24 is suicide? (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). Each year about 44,193 Americans die from suicide (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention). Students spend more time in school during the day than at home with their families. It is our obligation to help them adjust and develop a sense of well-being. We don't teach curriculum, we teach children. This project will help our students to reflect and to develop empathy for others. According to a study entitled "Open Hearts Build Lives: Positive Emotions, Induced Through Loving-Kindness Meditation, Build Consequential Personal Resources" when a person demonstrates empathy to someone else it increases their own life satisfaction and reduces depressive symptoms. When we participate in an act of kindness dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin production increase. This, in turn, gives us a boost in our mood. In helping others, we help ourselves.
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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. Holzweiss and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.