Our school serves students in grades K-6 and provides rigorous academics to amazing, motivated language learners in a safe learning environment. Our goal is to prepare our students for success in high school, college, and future careers. The students in our school are about 70% ELL and speak about 20 different languages.
The students in my New American classroom are English language learners who have been in the country for less than one year.
Not all students who are non-English speakers are selected for this setting. My students are refugees from several different countries. They have had limited or interrupted schooling in their own countries due to lack of resources and upheaval. This year, I have students from Congo, Somalia, Uganda, Tanzania, Guatemala, and Honduras. There are many different languages in my classroom and several different cultures. For these students, life in our city is very different from their lives before coming here. We strive to be at all times respectful and appreciative of each other's culture and strengths. We believe that we all have gifts to share, and that, with education, we will have the power to do so.
My Project
My students are resilient, strong, intelligent, beautiful people. They very seldom complain, even when they could easily do so. Both the students and the families are driven for success. Most of the students in my class arrive at school by 7 am, even though we don't begin our day until 8:15. They work hard all day and go to an extra 3 hours of tutoring after school each day. We do our best to keep the students fed throughout the school day with school meals and with snacks (provided by generous donors) at tutoring. However, on the weekends and over breaks students are still hungry.
My project is simple – ensuring that each of my students has enough food to eat, both throughout the school day and at home.
I am requesting shelf-stable foods, including rice, cereals, nuts, tuna, pop-tarts, pasta and more that will be given to children over the weekends and long breaks, so I can meet their basic need of food. These foods are culturally responsive and low-prep (just add water). When students have a stomach full of food, they can focus on developing their English and academic skills.
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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. Jensen and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
