My students need a desktop computer to grow our digital economics curriculum to a 1-1 computer-student ratio to engage learning with digital interactive content.
$574 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
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.
Our school has no program in financial literacy or even economics! We have a semester of a business and law class to fulfill our economics requirement, but that's it! This situation is even more tragic since our school is in the South Bronx, which is one of America’s poorest congressional districts.
Our school is a Title I, low-income school located directly next to a jail in the South Bronx, one of the nation’s poorest congressional districts.
Like many students nationwide, they have few financial literacy skills. We have a semester long business class in our students' senior year and maybe a couple lectures on college scholarships. There is no economics class, no financial planning, no workshops on opening up savings accounts, no guest speakers, no educational partnerships with financial institutions. On top of that our school has few computers for students. We only have one outdated and incomplete computer lab for a school of more than 800 students. This is tragic because most of our students live in poverty. Many of our students and families are recent immigrants searching for success in the land of opportunity. Yet, we do not have the resources to help. This year I was assigned to teach our senior year business class and this year I decided to address these challenges.
My Project
Beginning this year with the help of Donors Choose, my mission is to build a classroom with a 1-1 computer-student ratio. This is what the best and wealthiest schools in the country have, and so why can't the South Bronx also have? And so one by one we have been adding computers to our economics curriculum. The results have been extraordinary.... Students are more motivated to complete assignments so that they can have their chance to complete interactive business simulations and games. When students first come into class they ask me if they will be able to use the computers. Students compete against each other in online activities, games and simulations. It has empowered students who have previously been left behind. I’m thinking of one student, “Brandon” who has a lot of behavior problems. But on the first day of the game “Lemonade Stand” he destroyed the rest of the class, made the most money, and you could not silence him from bragging. He has been hooked since!
Students need to learn how to type, navigate the internet, check sources, build websites, interact with websites, and other 21st century learning skills.
Students may have a reputation for being high tech, but I have found that only extends to some music online sites and social media like Facebook. As for web design, internet research, Office applications (Microsoft Office, Google Documents) – many are essentially technologically illiterate. So thank you for supporting our goal of a 1-1 class.
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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 Mr. Fogel and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.