The high school students I work with come from a wide range of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, and they make up a truly exceptional group of unique and promising individuals. The school philosophy is one of project and community-based learning, so our students develop into engaged, empowered and proactive citizens.
Our school culture is small and close-knit, so students become comfortable expressing their wonderful uniqueness in a safe and supportive community.
One of the most rewarding parts of my role is watching a student arrive new to our school insecure and reserved, and find themselves in a few short months embraced and dropping their walls to reveal their amazing uniqueness.
My Project
My 9th grade students asked for a contemporary alternative to reading To Kill a Mockingbird. My 12th graders voted to read something new together.
Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi is an extraordinary novel that illuminates slavery's troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed -- and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of a nation.
Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery. Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem.
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 Ms. Terry and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
