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.
Most of our brilliant students are first and second generation immigrants, primarily from Mexico and Central America (we also have significant Asian and African-American populations). The mission of our school is to provide an excellent public education to students in order to expand their life choices.
We provide our students with a rigorous academic experience focused on Health and BioScience.
We are committed to providing authentic learning experiences through project-based learning, field trips, and extensive health and science internship programs.
Almost all of the wonderful students at our school come from households where English is not the primary language. Developing academic literacy is a foundation we build with students in all subject areas, so they can grow as scholars.
My Project
It is hard to grapple with complex scientific principles when you are still mastering English. My students are smart, dynamic and curious, but whole class instruction can be hard for all of us. While I can't do anything about class sizes (our school has 32 in a class), I can adjust my teaching practice to address student needs.
Using outstanding online resources, I plan to "shrink" my class by having half of the students using Newsela, EdPuzzle, and myriad other science and literacy web tools, while I work with the other half of students.
This will allow students to get more attention from me and operate successfully in the smaller group one day, then "switch" and let them view demos, read articles and use science websites on the computer the next. In order to make this practice more than occasional, I will need more classroom computers.
I have scrounged seven Chromebooks from kind teachers and used a DonorsChoose project to buy five more (thank you!). I purchased a cart to keep them secure and the headphones so students can use audio features, and now I need three more computers to complete my half-class set.
Please help get this project to the finish line, so my terrific students can become tomorrow's scientists and problem solvers!
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. Grossman and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.