Our vision is simple. We are in the process of restructuring the educational experience for our students to reflect the rigors and challenges that they will face in the 21st Century. We realized that our traditional methods of teaching and counseling were not accomplishing this mission and we believed by combining our expertise and knowledge, we would serve our students better. We have already begun this process by creating the Success Zone: A Partnership for Learning in the 21st Century and its initiatives: Early Morning Advisory, Food for Students, Leadership Advisory Council, Transition Cohort, and the Community of Scholars, in addition to our regular classes.
Research has shown that technology can help “level the playing field” for at-risk, learning-challenged, and disadvantaged students. Integrating technology into every component of the Success Zone will give our students access to the knowledge, skills, and competencies that will be required of them in the 21st Century. This grant will allow us to make technology the foundation of our Success Zone. We will use flash drives to provide our students with learning enhancement technology to address their learning challenges.
There are almost 500 students. They are inner-city high school students. They are all minority: African American, Caribbean Hispanic, Indian Sub-Continent, and African. Most of them hope to be the first person to graduate from high school in their family and hopefully attend, and graduate from, college. Nearly one hundred percent of them live below poverty level. The overwhelming majority come from broken homes, foster care, or group homes. About twenty percent of them have been classified as special education students and another twenty percent are English Language Learners (ELL). Many more are not at grade level or have yet to be diagnosed as special education students. Their difficult situations make them feel so isolated even though many are enduring similar situations.
I serve the student body as a teacher and a college counselor. I have partnered with the school social worker who works with the most severe special education, ELL, and mandated counseling students. As the college counselor, I serve the entire student body and I often work with our most advanced students while our social worker often works with the lowest level students. Our goal is empower all of our students to achieve at their own highest potential.
With this grant we will purchase flash drives for our students. We have learned that flash drives act as “portable computers” for our students. With their own personal flash drives, our students will be able to write and save their projects and papers, project their work using an LCD projector to their class to demonstrate what they have learned. With their own personal flash drives, our students will be able to complete and save their college and scholarship applications and personal essays. They will also be able to save websites to their flash drives to access when Internet is not readily available. Our students will be able to show their peers their homelands through interactive presentations that they have saved on their flash drives that combine pictures, music, websites and Google Earth which will help to break down the barriers that can separate and isolate them from each other. Imagine students being able to “plug and play” their ideas for their classmates and then leading their classes in enriching, though-provoking discussions.
Our most learning-challenged and ELL students who often struggle with hand-writing notes, will be able to take their notes on a computer and save them on their flash drive. They will also create and maintain computerized learning logs using MS Office to annotate what they learn in their classes. This will benefit our most learning-challenged students because the computer will be able to read their notes to them when they review their notes later. In addition, flash drives will help our students throughout the college, financial aid, job application, and resume writing process because they will be able to view and save the applications and materials. We intend to give students an opportunity to work through the college application process in school because they lack the technology (a computer) to do so at home.
Your donation will enable our students to learn difficult concepts and prepare for college while becoming self-directed learners who can lead their own class. They will improve their problem-solving skills by leading class discussions using their own work and research as a visual aid for their classmates. Our students will learn cooperation and teamwork. They will successfully complete the college application process because they will have the technology to do so. You will give our students the chance to develop their technology skills that will enable them to become competitive in the 21st Century while leveling the playing field for some of our most learning-challenged students.
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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. Rodgers and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.