Making Real-World Connections to Alternative Learning: Building the Experience
Help me give my students the experience of building a life-size greenhouse made out of chicken wire, PVC pipes and recycled water bottles that we have been collecting.
My scholars are mostly Title I scholars coming from low-income homes. Our scholars come from all over the city to receive a transformative education using the social-emotional learning route to tackle academics and behavioral excellence. Because our school is not a new building, we are starting from scratch, and students currently have very few supplies. The school is located in the historic 5th ward of Houston.
Our scholars not only desire the best experience in art, but they would also like to take with them a skill they can use for the rest of their lives, no matter what career path they choose.
This year, we are focused on real-world application projects. Our scholars need the necessary tools to grow so that they can become contributing members of society.
My Project
When traditional forms of learning do not work, we must seek other ways to engage and connect with our students. PBL (project-based learning), experiences, and cross-curricular action-based learning are the most successful at our campus. We've seen students' behavior change and learning happen with these types of strategies. This year's big project will be to make a greenhouse in the school's garden. We will be using construction and recycled materials for this project.
With your contributions, students who normally struggle in school can learn a new skill, connect what they learn to actual careers, feel empowerment when building something to completion and learn to solve complex problems by using strategies that we teach daily involving safety, information synthesis, pulling from prior knowledge, teaching/ leading others, Design Thinking, working with peers, following instructions, and measuring.
Working on this project will further develop their social and emotional learning. Because this project is so big, literally life-size, we need your help in making this possible as the school budget simply will not cover these supplies.
Once built, the greenhouse will stand as a source of pride for our students and the school. We will continue to dispel assumptions that people sometimes have about students in an alternative campus. Our students will see themselves as accomplished and will inspire others to tackle challenges in their own lives.
If you donated to this project, you can sign in to leave a comment for Ms. Holnes.
DonorsChoose is the #1 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. Holnes and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
