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.
Prezis, Power Points, iMovies, Internet research, videos, quick Google searches for anything from the war in Syria to news about school closings to maps to, well, anything! These are just some of the ways I imagine my students using an LCD projector in our classroom.
My students are bright and curious and funny and, for the most part, at risk of either not graduating from high school or not finishing college.
If they do attend college, many of them will be the first in their family to do so.
They go to a large public high school in one of America's largest cities. Over 90% of our students qualify for free/reduced school lunches, which is another way of saying that their families don't make a lot of money. So, yes, my students face many challenges.
But most importantly, they are bright and curious and funny and shy and nervous and excited and disillusioned and empowered and they are named Jose and Latashia and Jonathan and Kenny and Noemi and they are interested in video games and music and cars and movies and, above all, finding out who they are and who they could become.
My Project
I imagine using this projector with all of my classes but particularly with my remedial 9th grade reading class. Many of these kids have internalized negative attitudes about school and reading, but they engage easily and enthusiastically with content they perceive to be "real" and "relevant" as well as with technology.
In order to engage my students in real and relevant content, my curriculum will revolve around current events. Coupling this curricular focus with a projector will allow me to bring up-to-the-minute on-line resources directly into the classroom. (This is especially important this year because our school's budget has been slashed and we will not have much money for copies.)
With a projector, the kids will both engage the content and create engaging 21st century, digitally literate responses -- Prezis, videos, wikis -- to that content.
I am so excited about the upcoming school year and my current events curriculum.
An LCD projector will help engage my struggling students in real and relevant content. My hope is that if they start to engage and care about what they are learning and reading about, they just might start to see school and themselves in a new way.
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 Ms. McJimsey and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
