My students need an LCD projector in order to view professional performances of the play we are reading and to have access to powerpoint presentations for both teaching and group presentations.
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.
"Be you deaf Mary Warren?" one of my 11th graders shouts, embracing his role as John Proctor in "The Crucible." He turns to me and breaks character, "This grammar is not right, is it?" I have to laugh and explain that people spoke differently in the 1600s. However, inside, I'm beaming. In my 11th grade inner city English class, I yearn for all questions that challenge a text, relate to our content, and reflect my students' investment in our class. The student shakes his head, shrugs, and continues.
Moments like these make my job at a high risk, high needs public neighborhood high school in a dangerous area of the inner city worth it. Our school is a zone neighborhood school meaning that we accept any and all students, unlike charter schools in our city. My students (or my kids, as I think of them) have been shuffled to many schools and vary in reading level and writing skills. They are determined and persistent students and I feel lucky to be there 11th grade English teacher. When I began teaching, I had no idea how much I would care and think about my students. Though they can drive me crazy, I know that I need to prepare them for the world outside of high school and prepare them for college.
In my effort to prepare my students for college, I face challenges beyond 6th grade reading levels and incoherent sentences. I often lack the necessary supplies that my students need to be on pace with their competitors in the world. While I can supply them with pencils and notebooks, I cannot afford to purchase an LCD projector which will offer them more opportunity to engage in learning.
With an LCD projector in my classroom, I could allow my students to show the slideshows they are creating in our library in their character analysis groups. I could also show them professional performances of the play they are reading and then show them taped versions (from my camera) of their own performances for comparing and contrasting. Aside from the current unit on "The Crucible", I would like my students to be able to do SAT review as a class from websites. My students PSAT scores are lower than many of them want and I believe integrating weekly SAT games with teams would help. A LCD projector will both engage my students and, in a school without photocopies, make this possible.
Your help and generosity will make these projects and SAT preparations possible for my students. They need technology in their classroom and I cannot provide it without your help. You could be a part of giving 110 11th graders the opportunity to succeed in a competitive world that, so far, has not given them all the chances they need to succeed. Please help me make my classroom better for my phenomenal students; they deserve nothing less than the best and we can't do it without you!
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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 Ms. LaHair and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
