I teach 3rd grade at a Title I school. I have wonderful students in my class who love to learn. My school is very dynamic and all of our 3rd grade teachers work together to make one-on-one and tactile learning possible for our students. Despite some personal hardships, the parents of my students are cooperative, supportive and desire that their children receive the best education possible. Many have basic necessity needs, so buying school supplies is especially burdensome. School supplies for my own 2 children were over $200 so I can understand the difficulty my parents are having. I also need to point out that our community was drastically impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and my school opened its arms to the students and their parents. My class is in desperate need of an overhead projector. I am using a chalkboard and many of my students have asthma and the chalk dust irritates their asthma. The projector I have only works part of the time so most of the time I have to use the chalkboard. These children love school and they love learning, it makes teaching them a privilege instead of a job. I buy all of our Kleenex, paper towels, writing journals, and folders. I also buy baby wipes for the children to wipe their faces after P.E and recess to refresh them. The projector that I am requesting is an Elmo TT02S (TT-02S) Visual Presenter. It is a “Teacher’s Tool, a presentation solution that enables you to bring the same exciting visual technology into your classroom presentations for the benefit of your students. Research shows that stimulating visual displays are easily grasped, retained and absorbed by students. Whether a scientifically based instructional program or math lesson, the TT-O2s will gain the attention you need to achieve positive result.” These projectors are usually $2,000 and up but the company created this more affordable kind for use in classrooms and they are unbelievable. ELMO TT02S PRODUCT FEATURES - (TT-02S) ·Simple control panel for easy, intuitive operation ·Capture vivid, live images with smooth 20 fps frame rate ·41.6x zoom with Auto-Focus (5.2x Optical, 8.0x Digital) ·Built in SD Card Slot!!!! ·LED lighting source ·180 Degree rotating arm!!!! ·‘Stroke of the pen’ easy annotation on removable stage!!!! ·Versatile input/output connections to PC, video monitor, or projector for large screen presentation ·Camera auto-adjusts to changing levels of room brightness, ensuring easy to view, clear presentations!!!! ·Microscope slides are easily displayed in microscope viewing mode ·Ultra flexible design easily handles 11”x 17” documents This is an AMAZING PROJECTOR!!!! My students have dreams of college and understand that an education is their way to success. I have tried to build relationships with my parents so they know that I will mentor the children throughout their lives, not just in 3rd grade. I love my students and it is important to me that they succeed not only in 3rd grade, but in life. In the last 2 years I have spent over $3000 of my own money buying uniforms, shoes, eyeglasses, and other things that my students need. I try to care for each child as I would my own children. This grant would go far in helping the children learn. I will gladly do whatever is necessary to comply with any and all terms associated with this grant and I thank you sincerely for your kind consideration of my request.