Our school is a therapeutic day school program, the task of which is to provide emotional support and academic opportunities to children who have been unable to succeed in community school settings due to emotional, learning, and behavioral difficulties. The majority of our students live at a residential children's home and are wards of the state.
Our school runs as a trauma-informed program, aiming to help our students grow from their pasts and learn how to cope in effective ways.
Despite the challenges that our students face, they are incredible children. Their resiliency, love for learning, and curiosity are truly inspiring. I strive to make my classroom a welcoming and safe community and to help my students explore learning and grow into independent and productive citizens.
My Project
Intrinsically motivating students is my number one goal. As a teacher, I would love to see my students light up with pride after handling a tough situation safely or getting a 100% on their math test.
With our population, intrinsic motivation truly must be taught from the bottom up.
We are requesting fun trinkets and toys like mini-chocolates, emoji keychains, stickers, art supplies, and bracelets. These fun toys will be placed in our classroom behavior box as well as in our school store. Students are eligible to choose a prize from the classroom prize box for "making their goal" on their daily points sheet and visiting the school store weekly to spend their positive behavior dollars.
As time goes on, we hope to slowly wean students off of these extrinsic motivators and on to more generalized and intrinsic motivators, like earning school jobs and important roles around the school building. Thank you for considering a donation to our program!
More than a third 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. Szczecinski and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
