This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
I teach kindergarten in a diverse, high-needs school. Many of my students speak another language besides English at home and are learning English in school. For about half of my students, kindergarten is their first academic experience.
The learning that takes place in kindergarten serves as the foundation for all other learning. Students who struggle in kindergarten are more likely to struggle in subsequent grades and might eventually require intervention classes. My goal is to have all of my students meet or exceed grade level standard in all areas, but this goal is challenging! My students have to work very hard every day to learn how to read, write, and use numbers to compare sets, add, and subtract.
One of the benefits of teaching kindergarten in my school district is having an extra teacher in my classroom for an hour each day. During this hour, students are split into three groups and they rotate through three different activities. While one group works independently, two groups work with a teacher to master skills that stretch across all of our state-adopted standards. This year, we have a new language arts curriculum, and there are many easy-to-read decodable books in the program. Students spend at least two days each week practicing reading and writing using these new books in the teacher-led groups. This is our second year using our state-adopted math curriculum, and there are many games and activities that students can participate in as part of the math lessons, but these small-group activities have to be led by a teacher. Now, we have a kidney-shaped table for one teacher-led group, but the other teacher-led group has to work at a rectangular-shaped table. It is challenging to see what my students are doing or hear them reading when we are sitting in a rectangle. It is also hard for all of the students in my group to see what I am doing when we are at a rectangular table.
I think it would be extremely beneficial to have a horseshoe-shaped table, so that my partner teacher and I would be able to easily monitor my students' work during small group time. If I had a horseshoe-shaped table, my students would never struggle to see the teacher during groups anymore. Because it can accommodate so many children at once, I could use it to teach English Language Development lessons to my English learners. During small group learning time, we could sit at the table to work on reading and writing. Finally, I would be able to work with a small group of students during math time at this table.
You can help me maximize my students' learning potential by ensuring that all students are easily monitored during small-group time. In addition to being a beautiful addition to our classroom, this new horseshoe-shaped table will make it so that I have an easier time teaching and my students have an easier time learning. Thank you!
More than half 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
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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 Mrs. Finucane and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
