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.
Fund my class, so we can learn to have amazing conversations about our writing, reading, math, and the world around us!
About a year ago, my school was written up as one of the most underfunded schools in New York City and with recent budget cuts, technology supplies will get more scarce. My school is a title I school, which means that the large majority of our families are considered low-income. We use a dual language approach to teach our kids (mostly Spanish dominant) to be bilingual and bi-literate. Despite being severely underfunded, our school makes the dollars stretch far. The staff, the students, and their families are incredibly hard-working and dedicated, so much so, that our school received an A rating from New York City 2 years in a row.
My students often come from families with relatively low education levels. As a result, they are not typically accustomed to school language. In my classroom, we do a lot of partner talk to give the students more experience talking about academic topics, like books and social studies. However, it is difficult to show kids what an exciting academic conversation might look like. Last year, I video-taped the kids' best moments on my digital camera and then replayed the tape, so we could watch this conversation as a class and talk about it. The kids got really excited about talking about books and ideas and their conversations helped them to think more deeply about the books they were reading, the math problems they were solving, etc. Their performance in all subjects moved so much across the course of the school year.
My husband recently recalled my digital camera that he hasn't seen in over a year. It seems we have no family pictures from this past year, because I have been using the camera on a daily basis at school. In addition, the digital camera really doesn't have full video capabilities and the sound and quality of picture have not been ideal.
This proposal is for a digital camera for my classroom that will allow me to video my students on a regular basis again this year. In addition to videotaping conversations between partners, I would like to also use the camcorder to videotape the kids as they work in groups and look together at the ways that kids can work through conflicts and solve both those conflicts and academic problems in groups.
You will make it possible for my students to work effectively in partnerships and groups and have meaningful conversations, make arguments, and defend them with facts. All of this will prepare them well for the business meetings that I hope they will be running in the future!
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. Woolley and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
