Computers are the key to teaching 21st century skills to high school students. From creating successful presentations to Internet searches, blogs, and videos, students ability and confidence to use computers begins with their exposure to this everyday piece of technology.
Our students are some of the brightest in NYC, who challenge themselves everyday both in and out of the classroom.
And though we expect all of our graduates to go on to four year universities, we do not have the resources to properly prepare them for the technological times we live in!!
We are a school with countless afterschool activities, academic competitions, textbooks and tutoring sessions, but when it comes to technology we are severely lacking. Most teachers are still using overhead projectors and no classroom has a dedicated computer!! Even more upsetting is that in a school with over 3300 students there is only one classroom with computers that teachers can bring their classes to!? How can we prepare our students for college and the workforce beyond with the most basic tools of today's world?
In any classroom computers can be used for writing papers, preparing presentations and surfing the web. Students can edit videos, prepare portfolios and conduct literature searches.
My Project
In a science lab, however, computers can also help to bring abstract topics into focus!! And so the teachers in my department have decided that we can no longer hope the money we need will appear in the schools budget. We are using our combined accounts to ask for a class set of laptops to be used in our science lab classes.
These computers, when hooked up to probes, will allow students to not only examine the oxygen content of solutions, determine the acidity of compounds or conduct water quality examinations, but then analyze the data they collect and create presentations of their conclusions!!
And when these computers are not in use by the lab classes they will be available for teachers to use IN OUR CLASSROOMS, so that students can participate in Internet activities and write lab reports and create PowerPoint presentations. They will have the opportunity to do all of the activities that we take for granted everyday!
Having laptop computers available for student use seems like a basic right in this age of technology, but having worked with students at my school, I know that is not the case.
I want to be able to offer the access and skills training for this technology which helps build confidence in young learners.
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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. Manwell and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.