"Teacher! I can't hear my piano!" That is what I hear from my students when we work in our aging piano lab. The piano keyboards we have are about 16 years old and in technology years they are positively ancient. After all of their years of hard service it is time for them to be replaced.
My students are amazing children who deserve all of the opportunities we can provide for them.
Our school is a Title I school and the majority of my students are considered to be at-risk either because they qualify for free or reduced lunch or because they are learning English as their second language. Despite all of the hardship that comes from the poverty my students face every day, they are eager and enthusiastic learners who love learning and adore learning about music.
At my school we are constantly working to help improve student achievement. One of the key elements of our efforts is our 16 year old piano lab. As you can imagine my students love going to the piano lab, but they would love it even more if they could easily hear what they play. I can only imagine how much fun it would be if we could unplug the headphones and play together....We can't share our work until we have pianos that have internal speakers.
My Project
I am asking for 5 "beginner" piano keyboards in order to begin replacing the pianos in our aging piano lab. These pianos would help my students tremendously because unlike the 16 year old keyboards we are currently using, these keyboards have speakers and because they are newer, they could be networked through current networking equipment making it possible for me to hear individual students privately. This project is the first step toward a total lab replacement.
This project is important because as the pianos in our existing lab have aged, they have slowly become quieter and quieter so that now, even with the volume turned up all they way, my students can barely hear their own playing.
In order to continue to provide a piano lab for our school, the pianos must be systematically replaced in order to continue using this wonderful resource. If our keyboards had speakers then my students would be able to play for our friends and families.
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. McSpadden and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
