We ask all students to provide a set of individual and shared supplies at the start of every school year. In an effort to improve our learners' executive skills and get all of them better organized, we added zippered binders to their lists. Students are not allowed to use backpacks during the school day, and traveling from class to class can be cumbersome and messy for many.
It should have occurred to us how much of a negative impact this would have on our students' abilities to start the school year on even footing with one another, particularly in the case of children whose parents are unable to provide even the basic supplies. Teachers typically fill the gap by providing the lacking supplies for our students, but requesting zippered binders has placed an extraordinary financial burden on more of our families than expected and, as a result, on us. An informal survey two weeks into the school year revealed that almost 25 of our 90ish students do not have any binders at all, much less a zippered version.
Additionally, this is the first year that the district has provided individual laptops for our students to use throughout each school day. While this is a welcomed and much-needed improvement for teaching and learning, we have already had an armful of dropped laptops as students struggle to balance their books, notebooks and laptops as they pass from class to class. The "haves" and the "have-nots" are quickly separating from one another as a result of the lacking binders, and talking with students who do not have them quickly reveal their frustration, embarrassment, or both. Please help us to correct this situation for all of our learners.
About my class
We ask all students to provide a set of individual and shared supplies at the start of every school year. In an effort to improve our learners' executive skills and get all of them better organized, we added zippered binders to their lists. Students are not allowed to use backpacks during the school day, and traveling from class to class can be cumbersome and messy for many.
It should have occurred to us how much of a negative impact this would have on our students' abilities to start the school year on even footing with one another, particularly in the case of children whose parents are unable to provide even the basic supplies. Teachers typically fill the gap by providing the lacking supplies for our students, but requesting zippered binders has placed an extraordinary financial burden on more of our families than expected and, as a result, on us. An informal survey two weeks into the school year revealed that almost 25 of our 90ish students do not have any binders at all, much less a zippered version.
Additionally, this is the first year that the district has provided individual laptops for our students to use throughout each school day. While this is a welcomed and much-needed improvement for teaching and learning, we have already had an armful of dropped laptops as students struggle to balance their books, notebooks and laptops as they pass from class to class. The "haves" and the "have-nots" are quickly separating from one another as a result of the lacking binders, and talking with students who do not have them quickly reveal their frustration, embarrassment, or both. Please help us to correct this situation for all of our learners.
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