I am the counselor for 9th and 10th grade students at my school. I share this responsibility with my colleague Margaret.
My role is to give all the support that they need to all the students who are entrusted to me, and in particular the 180 of them (out of 500) who are under free-reduced lunch status.
My students are boys and girls, 14 to 18, who are highly motivated. They need to keep a GPA above 2.0 to stay at school. My school is truly one of the most diverse schools in the state.
I counsel my students on academic issues, of course, helping them with their choice of courses, the level of their courses (honors, gifted or AP). But I also work closely with the social worker on emotional issues and family-related hardships.
My Project
In Louisiana, a family of three qualifies for free-reduced lunch (FRL) status if their income is less than $470/week to pay for rent, car note, food, clothes, and everything else.
It's not a lot of money, you will agree with me, Donor!
I can't even imagine what it must be like to raise a kid on that kind of income, especially during the current pandemic.
As a counselor, I help students with their academic choices, but it happens quite often that a problem in the math class is due to the fact that the student does not own a calculator. Teachers have a couple of them in class for students who don't have one, but calculators have to be shared -- there are more students than calculators available-- and students can't take them home to do their homework anyway.
It is my goal to get a bank of calculators that FRL students can check out during the remote learning period. Ideally, I would have 50, but of course it is unrealistic, so I will post requests for a few at a time until I have enough for the most crucial cases.
These TI-84 are super expensive but on the bright side, they last a long, long time. They have a life of at least 10-12 years. That means that they can serve three or more generations of students.
Thank you very much for your consideration of my project!
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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 Mr. Tran and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.