This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
It's the land of scholarly behavior, scholarly reading, and scholarly service.
I teach Language Arts to seventh graders at a high-need middle school in Maryland. We are a Title One, 100% free and reduced lunch school with the potential to change the world.
Our school just lost a third of its staff to budget cuts. The students come from across the city to attend this historical school - the first school opened for African Americans. They come bearing the weights of poverty and the hopes of a new generation.
My school does not have any supplies and is losing about 10 teachers in the next couple weeks, but the students are still hopeful. They come to my classroom knowing that in that space, the doors of opportunity open. And they work hard. But there are ways that I could more effectively teach them, but the school doesn't have the resources for it.
We need an LCD projector. Language Arts is a text-rich subject. The students are reading anywhere from a 2nd grade level to 8th grade (above grade-level!) and an LCD projector will help us bridge that gap. Right now I write all notes on a chalkboard, but the students are endlessly tired of me standing in their way and getting chalk all over their clothes!
An LCD projector will allow my more advanced students to be involved in lesson planning because I can branch out of the text book and into the world of textual resources available on the Internet. And it will, perhaps more importantly, allow my students will special needs and IEPs (individualized education plans) the access they need to guided notes. All the while, we are saving paper and staying away from the environmentally unfriendly resources in our dinosaur-aged duplicators.
If you can imagine classrooms filled to the brim with poverty-stricken, hopeful children, you can imagine my classroom. The walls are covered in homemade posters, trees, and student work. And you will make it possible for them to fulfill their individual reading growth goals by empowering these students (and their teacher!) to make texts come alive right in front of them.
You can make it possible for kids with all the obstacles in the world in front of them to see the light at the end of the tunnel - the light towards high academic achievement.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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. Karre and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.