Projecting Knowledge (LCD Projector)

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

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.

I teach one 6th grade math class, one 7th grade math class and two 6th grade science classes at JHS 117 Wade Academies, a middle school in the Bronx. I am in my second year of the New York City Teaching Fellows program. Because of low standardized test scores, we are a School under Registration Review. However, in the past two years, we have seen improvements in both Math and ELA scores. Within the next two weeks, two computers will be added to my classroom and having an LCD projector would greatly enrich the learning experience for the students in all of the classes that I teach. In my classroom, students work collaboratively in groups. An integral part of this learning experience is sharing the work the group has done with the class. I would love to allow them to use Microsoft PowerPoint as a vehicle for presenting the final product of major group projects. A projector would greatly enhance my own instruction as well. The focus of the 6th grade science curriculum is life science. Unfortunately, I only teach single periods of science and I do not have access to a science lab. For example, I could project images using the Virtual Electron Microscope, offered by the Discovery School web site. In math, both my 6th and 7th grade students are beginning to learn algebraic concepts. Microsoft Excel is not only an excellent application for introducing these concepts, but also an invaluable program for organizational skills. Having a projector would allow me to teach Excel basics to the entire class, so that they would be able to complete assignments on the classroom computers. Finally, Discovery Education has set up a website called United Streaming, which is an educational digital video library, offering excellent standards based videos in all content areas. I would love to be able to share some of these math and science features with my students. An LCD projector in the classroom would benefit my classes in so many ways. It would introduce them to a wide variety of technology applications, give them an opportunity to present their work in a professional and organized way, and expose them to countless new learning experiences. My students and I thank you in advance!!