I teach at a STEM school, where my students are working hard to complete a year's worth of content over the course of a single semester. They work themselves so hard so that they are able to get all As and take college classes while in high school. Being at a STEM school, my students come from very diverse backgrounds. They not only come from all kinds of areas around the city, but they and their families also come from places all over the world.
My students and their families come from places like Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Laos, Pakistan, Japan, and many more.
Even with this diversity of backgrounds, the students are brought together by their dedication for learning and their commitment to learning about each other's cultures and communities. Every day in English class, we aim to share our own experiences while also cultivating empathy and understanding for others in our community and around the world.
My Project
Being at a small, new STEM school, we have a very small school library, as in 100 books small. As one of two English teachers at the school, I've worked very hard to develop a diverse and expansive classroom library to give my students access to literature. Through years of work scouring second hand sales, I've managed to curate a collection of 700 books for my students to check out and read both inside the classroom and at home.
However, with so much cultural diversity in my school, I've noticed that my books with stories that reflect my students' backgrounds—those about immigrants and refugees, young people of color, and Muslims—are perpetually checked out and being read.
In order to keep up with this demand and give my students even more access to stories both about and written by people who come from diverse cultural backgrounds, I am requesting several new books with diverse characters and authors to add to my classroom library and curriculum. This will allow my students to check these books out to read outside of school, as well as giving them access to more diverse books inside the classroom through the utilization of literature circles.
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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. Beatty and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
