Future Sustainability Leaders in Need of Technology Today!
Help me give my students the power to deepen their education in a sustainable way while exploring creative solutions for our future through the resources accessible with these computers.
We are a 6th through 12th grade in-district charter school within the Boston Public School system. As one of the few non-testing, optional schools in the city (we selects student through a lottery system) students choose to come throughout the city of Boston. Many of our students travel for over an hour each morning on public transportation from neighbors including Roxbury, Dorchester and South Boston and many more.
Our students are using technology to become sustainability leaders!
Our mission focuses creating students who are educated on and empowered to advocate around environmental and equity issues impacting our city and our world as a whole. This ranges from various grade levels growing produce in our small but mighty "outdoor classroom", to middle schoolers planning and running fundraiser bake-sales for our local MSPCA during last year's project week, to a majority of our high school students participating in the walk out and climate change rallies taking place in downtown Boston earlier this school year. Our students care. They care about their community, their environment, and their futures, and strive every day to learn how to turn this care into actions that can impact their world!
My Project
In today's world, technology is becoming a vital part of our educational system. Beyond the news sources, databases, articles, and other sources it puts at their finger tips, computers allow the students to explore, create, and share out their learning in more rigorous and sustainable ways. Our students need a consistent and accessible place to seek out these opportunities. Currently our library is the only space with a stationary computer set, by which I mean 9 computers, all of which are older than my teaching career and half of which take a good 5 or more minutes trying to load a webpage, before erring out. The other half generally just don't turn on anymore.
The diverse population of students that currently attend our school are empowered to learn about and lead in sustainability for our future, but are doing so on widely outdated and failing technology.
These computers will be a start at providing a necessary resource to be more successful in doing so. From doors open at 7:30 students will have access to them for finishing assignments and emailing teachers and group mates. Throughout the day, our middle school students will use them to navigate a broader world through book selection during class visits to the library, while our high school students will search for news articles to support their green project thesis, peer edit their 10th grade personal struggle narratives, assemble their 11th grade portfolios, or search for 12th grade internships within their larger community. After school each computer will be occupied by students who may not have technology home, but are still determined to complete their homework. Our students are working hard to not only learn for their futures, but for that of our world. These computers will provide them with the technology opportunity to go further!
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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. Zeng and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.