St Charles North High School in Saint Charles, Illinois on DonorsChoose

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One of those students, Lissa*, is a Spanish speaking student and while she has been here for a few years and has some English language development, it is not enough to help her with the academic vocabulary of a US history course for which she also has no context. The other student, Anna*, had just moved to the United States from Vietnam. She had zero English development and had not been in a formal education environment since prior to Covid, but she was eager to learn as much English as she could as fast as she could. I was at a loss of how to best support these students beyond translating all of my documents into their native languages. That might help with the texts used in class, but it did not help these students understand the direct instruction and classroom discussion. Enter my request for donations from DonorsChoose for translation earbuds that would allow for my lecture and directions to be understood by these student in class.\r\n\r\nThe implementation of the technology took both students and I a bit to understand and get into place, but once we did, boy did it make a difference. The technology works as each of us has an earbud in one of our ears. As I am speaking into my earbud, the student is receiving the translation in their own language in their ear. On their phones they are also receiving a text translation in their native language of everything that I am saying. These translations are saved within the cloud in the app and can be accessed by the students later. What had previously been a practice of using Google Translate on the laptops and Chromebooks to communicate with each other, which took a lot of time away from instruction from the rest of the class, now learning was happening for everyone at the same time. One on one work time to help with writing skills became effective and efficient. One of those barriers to learning has while not solved completely, been reduced to a large extent.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately Anna and her family ended up returning back to Vietnam one month after implementing the program. I have those earbuds waiting for the next student who will need them as we have multilingual students entering our classrooms in my high school all of the time. As for Lissa, she has communicated that the earbuds have made a huge difference for her understanding in the classroom. She admits that she still struggles to understand the content, which comes from having a lack of context on American history. We continue to work on this together. But when it comes to class instruction and directions for what she needs to do, the difference in her level of understanding was immediate. The earbuds were used for one lesson prior to our content assessment for that unit. On the questions on the test regarding that content, Jessica correctly answered 4 out of the 6 questions. She only correctly answered two other questions on the rest of the assessment. This was immediate data for me of their success.\r\n\r\nI share all of this with you to understand that this is a project that is different from some others on here. It impacts a very small number of students. The impact can be seen immediately in student ability to hear the lesson and success can be measured by the improvement of scores on assessments. But I would argue that the biggest level of success is measured by the sense of belonging these two students felt and now feel in the classroom. Rather than sitting in the room just passing the time, feeling on the outside and like they will never be able to engage in that room, they now have a greater feeling of connectedness to their classmates and the learning taking place in the room. And it is for that reason that I say this project has been a success and I am grateful for you and your donation. Please know that you have made a difference in the life of for sure one student right now, and the future multilingual students that will need the technology in my classroom in the future. On behalf of the students and myself, thank you. \r\n\r\n*Names changed for student privacy and protection.","fullyFundedDate":1731948617367,"projectUrl":"project/empower-learning-amplify-voices/8949588/","projectTitle":"Empower Learning, Amplify Voices!","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Mihalik","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://cdn.donorschoose.net/images/placeholder-avatars/272/teacher-placeholder-9_272.png?auto=webp","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/9840776"}],"pageName":"schoolpage_29863","usesDonorsChoose":true,"infoPageType":"school","demographicsInfo":{"numStudents":1788,"numTeachers":135,"percentFrplEligible":20,"percentAsian":8,"percentBlack":2,"percentWhite":72,"percentIndigenous":0,"percentLatinx":12,"showFreeAndReducedPriceLunchInfo":true,"showDemographicsInfo":true,"sourceTooltipString":"the National Center for Education Statistics","gradesServed":"9 - 12","studentTeacherRatio":"13.2:1","demographicsDataSource":"MDR School","equityFocus":false,"titleOne":false,"metroType":"SUBURBAN","ncesMetroType":"SUBURB_LARGE"},"inStateSupporters":100.0,"schoolId":29863,"financialInfo":null,"twitterShareText":"Learn more about St Charles North High School on @DonorsChoose:","schoolName":"St Charles North High School","canonicalPageUrl":"schools/illinois/community-unit-school-district-303/st-charles-north-high-school/29863"}

About this school

St Charles North High School is a suburban public school in Saint Charles, Illinois that is part of Community Unit School District 303. It serves 1,788 students in grades 9 - 12 with a student/teacher ratio of 13.2:1. Its teachers have had one project funded on DonorsChoose.

Public School

Grades 9 - 12

1,788 Students

135 Teachers

255 Red Gate Rd

Saint Charles, IL 60175 View local requests

Evidence-based impact

Inspire teachers to stay in the classroom and boost student achievement.¹

Give to this school

Ms. Vero, a DonorsChoose teacher for 9 years.

Kindergarten teacher at PS81 - Robert J. Christen School in Bronx, NY

St Charles North High School Teachers on DonorsChoose

Mrs. Mihalik

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St Charles North High School Demographics

20%

of students receive free or reduced price lunch

Source: the National Center for Education Statistics

22%

of students are Black, Latino, Native American, or Asian

Schools in districts that mainly serve students of color receive substantially less state and local support than similar districts that serve primarily White students. Learn more about this gap, why it exists, and how you can help close it.

St Charles North High School Support on DonorsChoose Last updated Dec 5, 2025

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