In Need of A Copier

At my school of one thousand students, there are no working copiers. I have talked to several administrators about getting a new one, but everyone has said that it will be two to three months before we can expect a new one, if we get a replacement at all. That means two to three months with no place to make copies-- two to three months more than I am willing to spare as a math teacher at a struggling school. In two months, my students will take the math test that determines whether they go on to eighth grade. In two months, they take the test that will determine whether they get into a good high school. (They apply for high school at the beginning of eighth grade, which means that only their seventh grade scores are available to potential high schools.) I know that standardized testing is not the only judge of learning, but for better or worse, this test determines the future of the low-income students at my school in Harlem. If they get a high score, doors open up to them. They go on to the eighth grade and they get into a good high school. If they fail, they will be held back, begin to doubt their intelligence, and eventually drop out. I have seen it again and again. Every student in my class is intelligent and has great potential as a mathematician. But each of them also comes into the seventh grade with certain math deficiencies. They come to my class from a variety of elementary schools-- most of which are on the state's failing school list-- where they have been taught very little math. In an ideal world, they would all be at the same math skill level coming into the seventh grade, and I would be able to teach the students the same thing from one textbook. But because they come from poor elementary schools, it is my job as a seventh grade teacher-- in just one year-- to get them caught up to where they should be. That means that I have to do interventions and individualize learning so that one student has extra work in geometry because it's his weakness, and another has extra work in algebra because she finds it difficult. To individualize my students' learning so that they can overcome their math weaknesses and become confident math learners, I need to be able to make copies. I have to be able to access resources beyond the one textbook that we are given. I have so many dreams for my students and so many ideas, but how can I do that without a copier? I am asking for a copier that I can keep in a spare room at the school so that I can give each student the individual attention they deserve. I am also asking for ink for the copier because I know my school will not provide it. If you would be willing to fund this copier, my class will benefit more than I can begin to say. I would use the copier everyday. I would be able to give each of them more work in the areas where they individually struggle. And most importantly, I will be able to give them a better chance at succeeding on the standardized math test so that they start believing, as I do, that they have a great future ahead of them.