Our school is located in the middle of a mass planned community, emphasis on the community part. Every single student of mine lives in the neighborhood, and most walk or ride their bikes to and from school. Our school happens to be the largest elementary school in the district with about 750 students but with the sense of community in the neighborhood, it makes our school feel like a quaint, small town.
From the second my students walk through the door at 7:30am, they are all ready to get the day started and find out from their teacher "What are we going to learn about today?" The joy on their faces just to know what I am going to teach them in the short 6 hours that I have with them makes my job worthwhile.
We are a family at our school but even better, we are a family in OUR classroom.
My Project
This year, we are trying something brand new to our school - departmentalized second grade! With that being said, I will have not one but two classes! Specifically, I am shifting from being self-contained to only teaching Math, Science, and Social Studies. With this change comes a need for a lot of changes in my classroom. A few years ago, I was blessed to have a DonorsChoose fulfilled granting my classroom, a set of book boxes for my students to keep their Guided Reading books in, and they are still in amazing shape! Now, those boxes, along with the second set I am asking for (for my second class) will be used as "Math Boxes."
These boxes, or "Math Tool Kits,” are somewhat of a brain-child I've had over the past year and will be a resource to every student when they are completing rotations or just simply need a handy math tool.
Inside the boxes, students will keep their Math journals, a set of manipulatives, and pieces that can be used interchangeably at any and all math games placed in rotations. These tool kits will assist students in operating through Guided Math independently, while also serving as an organizational piece to keep our classroom running smoothly. I’m also asking for an electric pencil sharpener so that my students will always have access to sharp pencils while completing their rotations, instead of fighting over the manual one in the classroom that always breaks - or spilling their shavings all over the floor from their handheld ones.
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 Mrs. Carter and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
