My students need 2 pairs of professional headphones, acoustic sound tiles, a voice-over booth, an external monitor, and a rug to complete our in-school recording studio.
FULLY FUNDED! Mr. Levy's classroom raised $1,008
This project is fully funded
My Students
Students enter class to a beat playing and circle around. Bobbing heads, students begin checking-in with each other through verse. Post check-in they converse about an emotional theme, knowing afterwords they'll have space to reflect on, and share, their thoughts and feelings through lyric writing.
The vast majority of my students are Bronx, NY born and raised.
I say this because, so is Hip Hop culture. My students are hip hop to the core and are best summed up by the phrase "real recognize real". These young people are incredibly eager to learn, they want to do well in school, but will not give you the time of day unless you show them respect. This respect comes from the formation of academic spaces that make students feel comfort and belonging. Showing them they can use who they are to be successful in school and beyond. Luckily the high school in which I work is dedicated to engaging young people through their culture, and helping them develop emotionally and academically. I have been given the green light by my administration to do this Hip Hop Therapy work. My school is centered in a fairly underdeveloped area of the Bronx and is a prime location to begin integrating culturally relevant counseling curriculum.
My Project
The requested materials will help to establish a safe space for my students to better engage in lyric writing and recording.
The acoustic tiles and voice-over booth will help me constructed a recording booth. This is crucial to the process because rapping within a booth creates a more engaging environment, increasing students willingness to explore themselves. In addition, rugs are a common accessory in studio spaces. Having one in our studio will aid the creation of a calm atmosphere necessary for writing.
An extra 2 pairs of headphones would help me establish various work-stations within the same classroom. Knowing that students are so engaged in the work, a lot of our lyric writing can happen independently, and the more headphones we have, the more individual stations I can create. The monitor would function similarly in that it would allow me to set up an additional computer station, so multiple students can work simultaneously.
Most of my students' academic struggles don't come from intellectual deficits, but stem largely from emotional struggles in and outside of school.
What's worse is that quite often these issues go unaddressed in school, or the attempts made to address them are culturally irrelevant and undesirable for students. Hip Hop Therapy is a culturally relevant approach which helps young people cultivate the emotional skill-set necessary to navigate difficult situations.
More than three‑quarters of 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
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. Levy and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
