Our school has about 15% chronically absent students. That means they miss more than 18 days in a 180 day school year. This impacts their ability to learn and progress both socially and academically. As a school, we have formed an Attendance Task Force to reduce the number of student absences.
As a school, we have identified specific students who need extra support to regularly attend school.
We are doing home visits, contacting parents, and pairing teachers with the targeted students to encourage and advocate for them. These students vary in socio-economic status, culture, and ethnicity. Many are affected by home situations that are out of their control, such as no transportation or having to stay home to babysit younger siblings.
My Project
We provide an 8th period class, which is after school, that promotes student involvement in extracurricular activities. These classes are fun, motivating and creative. They create bonds with the students and good will in the community. During this 8th period, a ping pong class could be provided that would reward targeted students, while also engendering friendships, relationships with peers, team building, and feeling a part of the school community. Ping pong helps to improve hand-eye coordination, focus, and mental acuity.
It is our hope that a ping pong table and accessories will be a satisfying and motivating incentive for our chronically absent population.
It will provide a wider variety of rewards and what students are exposed to in their lives. We would like it to create a different kind of connection between teachers, students, and administration, while fostering friendly competition and exposing opportunities to teach life skills.
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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. Torres and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.