I need tuition, flight, lodging, and meal costs to attend a five-day professional development training in Art in Motion in Bloomington, IN.
$2,422 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.
I teach English and Art to middle school students in a neighborhood that has a significant immigrant and refugee population. Many of our students coming from low-income households and/or are dealing with hardships beyond education.
My students have the desire and passion to create through art, and could absolutely improve and expand their craft with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).
Although they may not always clean up their messes, they enjoy experimenting, learning HOW things work, or what elements WORK TOGETHER (in art, with technology, in sports etc.) They strive to stand out or prove something/others wrong. The diversity does not divide them, but rather adds to their characters and growth. Many beyond what I could imagine for a middle school student, but all of them persevere.
When I started teaching here I was told, "If you could 'survive' here, you could teach anywhere." The students can be tough, oftentimes hesitant or resistant with the things they do not understand or find difficult, but they are curious and are constantly challenging the norm. I don't just survive here, I thrive here, with them and their help.
My Project
I am always going to be a student, even as an educator. It could my first year or my twentieth year teaching and I am certain there will always be a conference or professional development that informs me about how to improve my skills. This is why I am interested in attending a weeklong summer institute hosted by Infosys Foundation, USA.
The course I applied and got accepted to involves integrating computer science into art classes, in order to broaden the scope of how art can be used in other disciplines, as well as allow students to see their potential as coders.
During the training, I will be able to use a Hummingbird Robotics Kit and Scratch Program to create moveable sculptures, in hopes to implement this project in my own art classes next year. My credential was completed through a Project Based Learning (PBL) cohort, but this will be my first time really getting to do something interdisciplinary with PBL. I have only taken one introductory computer science course and I am absolutely ready to try, fail, be confused, problem solve, learn, and be able to model that process and bring that experience to my students. All in all, this is a wonderful opportunity to help push art beyond the paper and learn how to create through STEAM.
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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. Calimlim and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
