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.
About My Students
Our students are individuals who have emotional disturbances but still participate in the general education curriculum. Our students still desire things that are present in all schools like being on a sports team and feeling like they belong. On a regular basis, our students converse about our intramural basketball team, but often have mismatching apparel to use. Rather than sitting back and looking like they are on different teams, it is important to provide our students the ability to look like a unified team. After participating in their first game this past week, our students came back asking if their coaching staff could get them matching pants to wear on the days they have a game so they look like a team
What may seem like a team to us, is much more to our students.
To them, this is a sense of family, and a reason to come to school, to get two hours of practice in the gymnasium every day to play with their friends. Together we can build up our intramural sports program around our students, which in turn will improve their school participation! Together, these athletic pants can raise mental and emotional wellness while improving team unity.
With these materials, my student-athletes will be provided with matching sports apparel that they currently do not have. Once the first whistle blows to start practice, our students start practice in gear that is not appropriate for any form of intramural athletics. Many times, our students are trying to play any sport in jeans, or tight-fitting pants and sometimes even boots. When you combine inappropriate clothing that is prone to breaking with students with emotional disturbances, this can be a ticking time bomb. Rather than letting that happen, we can use these athletic pants to improve social and emotional wellness!
In Their Own Words
When we have a basketball game, we want all members of our team to have similar clothing to build team unity and create a name for our team. Even more than that, plain and simple, our team should have appropriate clothing that we wear, so that my all my friends can have the right team equipment. Not all of us are lucky enough to have the financial ability to purchase sports specific clothing, so we make due. With these matching team pants, we will not have to make due, we can build team unity while feeling like we belong!
During practice one day we had a discussion about what type of athletic apparel we need to build team unity. While most of us want to play basketball, most of us need the right clothing to wear when we practice or go to our games. Having team pants would be important because we can show the other team that we mean business.
Basketball specific pants is something that most of us do not have. During practice, a good chunk of my teammates can not give their all because they are worried about breaking their jeans or ruining the few clothes they do have. Even more we want to look like a team when we have games against other schools. Our coaches constantly tell us to think, be, live, team. With these pants, it will help us be a team. Together we can improve social and emotional wellness by just simply having pants.
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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. Harris and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.