My students are fantastic, enthusiastic, wonderful, and pleasant! The enthusiasm for education starts at a young age, which is why we must all assist in creating, preserving, and prolonging that zeal.
Despite students’ strong and sincere zeal for learning, they are daily victims of systemic challenges pertaining to finance, race, and other extraneous variables.
I teach in an ICT classroom, which means many of my students are exceptional learners! Some students are classified as having ADHD, ADD, Learning Disabilities, Autism, and Emotional Disturbances. Nonetheless, our neighborhood is in Howard Beach, one of the most economically devastated towns in Queens. More than half of students are statistically living in poverty.
Many of my students live in homeless shelters and in temporary housing. As a result, my students' school is a Title I school (according to the United States Department of Education) because of "high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families." In essence, my students’ unique and highly intelligent minds are not being adequately or equitably educated or bettered due to bureaucratic reasons beyond their or their teachers’ control.
My Project
Help me give my students snacks to power through the day, because the school day is extended and there is a large gap between when they have breakfast and lunch. Snacks through the day would help my students significantly. As an adult, I can sympathize with being unable to attain to a task when hungry, but can only imagine and recall that pain from being in kindergarten.
Oftentimes, when I ask my students why they have their head down or are off task, they explain it is because they are hungry and waiting for lunch time.
A hungry belly cannot support a learning environment by keeping a young mind alert. To ensure that instructional time is not lost we will try to have a very quick snack time at certain time intervals in class.
More than three‑quarters 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 Dr. Verma and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
