"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
Albert Einstein
Teaching is like that! Different students learn the same things but in different ways.
The students who attend my school all have the same basic demographics.
They come from low income families with multiple parent combinations and lots of siblings on all sides. Our school has numerous teen pregnancies every school year. The neighborhood is full of gang violence, and has all the sights and sounds related to being in or near a gang. Despite this, our school is a place where the can feel safe, stay warm, and eat regular meals. Many of our students know they want a better life but aren't sure how to achieve one. Learning to them must be interesting and be something in which they can actively participate.
My Project
My students need a variety of activities to capture and hold their attention. Using the students as teachers, along with multiple demonstrations and projects, will increase their eagerness to learn as well as inspire them to achieve the things that can change in their lives. Using markers to make charts and posters, the students will be able to visualize survey results, they can illustrate concepts and ideas, and design their own advertisements and brochures. An overhead projector would be the perfect tool for some of our students to utilize in our health classroom. Some of our students are extremely hard to reach. Because of their home lives and gang affiliations, they are "put off" by an educated white lady trying to teach them anything. In these cases, other students make excellent teachers. They are able to reach these so called unreachable students. An overhead would provide me the ability to use some of the materials I already have, but am unable to use.
My school believes all students are teachable.
We, as teachers, must find the key to reaching these students. Eliminating teen pregnancy is a high priority at my school. These resources are much needed to help decrease the number of pregnancies my school sees each year. Not only do we want to decrease the first time pregnancy rate, but stop the repeat pregnancies. My students are amazing. They are intelligent and creative and they inspire me to be the best teacher I can be. But my school needs help.
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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 Mrs. Bogart and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.