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.
My Students
My students are hard-working, passionate, and resilient young people who live in East Oakland. Despite facing a deluge of obstacles including poverty, homelessness, learning English, drugs, and violence, my students come to school each day excited to be a part of our school community. In our class, students are engaged in activities that help them to envision and build a better future for themselves and their community. Even though there are many systems in place working to lock my students into a cycle of failure, they continually bounce back by working hard to overcome the challenges they face.
My students get most excited about doing experiments and solving real world problems with their science knowledge.
Their favorite activities from last year included making a solar-powered water purification device, designing a cold pack that could be used during wildfire evacuations, and creating the perfect DIY slime recipe.
My Project
Teachers are doing everything they can prepare for the virtual classroom: making videos, building online classrooms, developing new online lessons, and reaching out to families to make sure they know how to best support their students. This work is incredibly important and already full of challenges as teachers learn how to use new technology. An added challenge that I have experienced is trying to do all of this using outdated, slow technology.
In order to be the best teacher possible for my students during distance learning, it's imperative that I get updated technology that will allow my online classes to run smoothly.
Currently, I'm used an outdated, school-issued Chromebook that is hindering my work in the online classroom. While showing students how to complete assignments, I am trying to juggle between Zoom, our LMS, attendance, and an assortment of other tabs. Doing all of this on a glitchy, outdated computer is frustratingly slow for myself and students. I know that having a new, updated, and fast computer will help me attend to my students' needs more quickly. I'll be able to use two screens to make class time run more smoothly. The added features that Mac computers have will allow me to do more activities with students that Chromebooks simply can't do. For example, certain websites that I use for virtual science experiments do not run on Chromebooks. This technology update will not just make class time more productive for my students, it will create opportunities for their science education.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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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. Pandolfi and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
