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
When I tell people I am a middle school teacher, their knee jerk reaction is "Wow, that must be scary", "Wow I am in awe of your patience, kids are awful at that age", and I respond with "these middle schoolers are a vortex of emotions and that makes for great class discussion." I love teaching and learning with my students. They are highly opinionated, curious, and always compassionate towards their classmates.
My students say things like, "The President is ill-informed, he needs to cite evidence when he speaks." My students have an opinion on everything, down to what I should be eating, "Miss, do not eat that donut, it isn't healthy for you.
You should know better!" Can you tell our days are never, ever boring?
And along with their love of speaking their mind, they love questioning authority and this translates into an innate curiosity about rules and systems in place across the curriculum. With us not being able to physically meet, my students are finding ways to stay connected via Zoom, Instagram, and Tik Tok. I am just going along for the ride.
My Project
How do we build our students' courage to overcome their fears? In such uncertain times, it is up to us, the adults, to reassure and prepare our students for the world around them. One of the best ways to learn about the human condition, is through reading about insightful characters in extraordinary situations.
My teacher goal this year is to help my students stay calm and feel loved and I plan to do so through reading together.
After two weeks of getting to know them better as people and readers, I found they share a love of horror and fantasy stories. They love Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, among others, but none have read, Coraline, by Neil Gaiman! This story is about a young girl who must muster up the courage to face her biggest fears. I know that all of my students can identify with this!
I look forward to giving each child in my classroom their own paperback copy of Coraline, in order to annotate and learn from this powerful story.
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
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. Chamorro and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
