This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
My students are imaginative and willing to take risks in the classroom. They have a desire to learn, and come to school genuinely interested in what we read in my English Language Arts class on a daily basis. It is equally exciting and heartwarming to hear how passionate they are regarding the issues we read about.
As exciting and passionate my students can be, I have also seen the impact that not having the basic school supplies can have on a student's ability to perform.
My school does not have the funds to provide the materials included in this project to me or my students. They frequently ask for supplies as simple as a pencil and paper, which I am often happy to oblige in lieu of my school doing so.
This previous year, however, those costs ran well beyond my usual purchases for the schools year. My students deserve to an equal education with their national peers. They see the value of education and hope to go to college some day, but we need your help now. My goal is that this project will provide for all of my students' basic academic needs for this entire school year.
My Project
With these materials in hand, I will be able to provide an education worthy of my students' intensity for my subject and the students will be able to participate without any unnecessary material restraint. Pencils, pens, erasers, and paper will represent the building blocks for us to practice our reading and writing skills as we practice vocabulary, grammar, and other reading comprehension activities.
Additionally, I have asked for some other basic supplies that should further supplement and even extend the purpose of the materials already listed. Dictionaries, with enough for every pair of students in my classroom, will give students the ability to encounter knowledge and learn something incredibly new. The desire to know what a word actually means comes up a surprising amount in my class. The ink will help me print my own copies of worksheets, and the few organizational items will help manage the influx of new materials.
I titled this project "The Radical Mission of Literacy" and I'm not being flippant.
When a student has the resources to engage the world around him or her, they can achieve their best. Reading and writing are at the basis of my class, but they are not ends in and of themselves. Rather, they act as means for my students to face a 21st century world as complex as it can be startling. Rather than school reminding them where they're from, I want school to be a liberating experience. That is radical.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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 Mr. Taylor and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.