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.
My Students
As the school media specialist, my morning starts with our daily school broadcast. The idea behind our broadcast is a daily reminder to "be awesome"! We want our students to use their minds to be in charge of their success. The LEGOs will provide an outlet for creativity to become awesome!
Our students are high poverty, at-risk students.
The majority of our school is below-grade level in reading and math; and many of our students have parents who are illiterate. Additionally, our school is located in one of the most violent neighborhoods in our city. However, we strive to provide a safe and inviting educational opportunity for our students. We start the morning off by providing breakfast to all students. Also, we provide after school enrichment opportunities such as a drum corps, step team, basketball, and tutoring. One of our most successful after school programs is our Hydroplane Club. This club is a partnership with a local college. Students work year round to build a hydroplane and then compete in a citywide competition. We were the champions of this competition last year! I would describe our school as challenging-but we teach our students to live up to challenges and not give up. We want our students to be "awesome"!
My Project
As the school media specialist, I see every student in our K-5 school. Our students have many difficulties both academically, socially and emotionally. As a positive behavior management approach in the library, classes "earn" stickers towards a "PAT" day. Classes must meet library expectations and adhere to class norms to earn stickers. Once they earn six stickers, their next class is "PAT" day. "PAT" stands for preferred activity time. One of the most sought after preferred activities is playing with LEGOs. Currently, I have one small set of LEGOs. I would envision this resources to help students work together during "PAT" time. I also, realize that they love using their hands and heads to create. Many of our students don't have LEGOs at home and they absolutely love just playing on the floor with the LEGOs and being kids. I have had great success with this behavior management strategy; and I hope that by having more LEGOs students will strive to find their "awesomeness".
I believe that this project will improve our library by providing an opportunity to be creative.
Not only do I want students to read, but I want them to find out what their interests are and explore creative approaches to learning and solving problems. In the library, students seek to find information. By having more LEGOs for this outlet; I believe it will stretch them to read and learn. The LEGOs are just the beginning to what students can do if they just put their minds to something!
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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. Travis and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
