This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My Students
Our Title I school serves free breakfast for 85% of the students, and they get to the school early to eat the breakfast that they don’t get at home. My students eat their breakfast at school each morning before they come to my class. Fuel in their bodies makes them ready to learn and start the day. We are a uniform school. Some kids have uniforms that fit and are clean, and others have uniforms that are too big, too small, and don't really look clean. The majority of kids are happy, energetic, and ready to learn, but some students have trouble staying awake and staying focused. They come every day from group homes, and some are homeless or being raised by grandparents.
My students are 11, 12, 13, and 14-year-old boys and girls who are growing, trying, creating, experiencing, experimenting, challenging, and ultimately becoming educated with art in my classroom.
My classes are all year long, so I can work with these students in-depth with technology, get to know their strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and see their creativity develop as their experience with art increases and grows.
My Project
Students at this Title I school with this Donors Choose grant will have the opportunity this year to draw portraits for orphans in Sierra Leone, now experiencing the pandemic. Working with The Memory Project students will each get several photographs this year of an orphan in Sierra Leone and will then draw the orphan either by hand or using a digital platform. After the drawing are delivered to the orphans, the Memory Project makes a video of the delivery of my students drawings being given to the child in Sierra Leone and they will see the orphans receiving their portraits. We have done this important project for 8 years and students learn about a different country (this year Sierra Leone) and how the orphans live.
This is a chance to include my African American art students in the art curriculum, learning about Sierra Leone, and connecting with African orphans by drawing their portraits for them to keep.
Students make a connection with their art, they learn how to draw portraits, and it empowers them giving something they created to someone less fortunate in another country with The Memory Project.
More than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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. Baldauf and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
