The students at my school are a very diverse group. There are many different nationalities, some are native Californians, some have only recently moved to the United States. Some are fluent in English, some have just started to learn the language. Some have been to pre-school; for others, going to Kindergarten is their very first experience in learning outside the home. What do they have in common? They're all excited about school and eager to learn.
The coronavirus pandemic has hit us all very hard.
School, as we knew it, was closed just after our 3rd Trimester began. Suddenly, without advance notice, we all had to switch to 'distance learning', and families were given new responsibilities in their children's education. Our lessons had to be changed to work with Zoom calls, everyone had to learn how to log on to our reading and math programs at home, Google classroom became indispensable, with printables added regularly.
My Project
Covid-19 will have peaks and valleys, but 'distance learning' and 'remote learning' will not be going away soon. Although nobody can accurately predict the future, it's quite clear that the traditional classroom as we know it is a thing of the past.
In our school district, on-site instruction abruptly stopped on March 13, 2020.
The 2nd Trimester had just finished, teachers' minds were brimming with ideas and inspirations to fill the 3rd Trimester and end a spectacular year. Then came the presence of Covid-19, necessitating teachers to re-plan, re-organize, and re-configure lessons. Emails, texts, phone calls, and Zoom calls quickly became the new normal as we persevered through the curriculum. But there was a big problem--not all families had access to a device for their students to use. Some families had no device at all, others had several children sharing one device, still others had only their parents' smartphones to use to access instruction. Our school loaned Chromebooks and iPads to many families, even borrowing some from the neighboring middle school. This was helpful, but not enough. Our school supply was exhausted, leaving us unable to fulfill the technological needs of our families.
I decided to initiate a Donor'sChoose project, with a goal of procuring 5 new Chromebooks that would be available to loan to my class each year. That way, I would be reassured to know that everyone in my class would have access to the technology needed to succeed during distance learning. If 'we're all in this together', it's crucial that all have the equipment to enable our learning.
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 Ms. Rodemsky and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.