I am a first year teacher in a high-need district, but I teach at a smaller school. The students I have come from extremely diverse backgrounds, but all face an uphill battle to receive a quality education and to graduate from a district with 50% drop-out rate. I will do anything to get them there.

As a history teacher, I am always in search of ways to engage my students in the material they struggle to apply to their own lives. I hear groans and see rolling eyes whenever I ask them to take out and open their history text books. I don't blame them. The text books are too big, too opaque in their explanation of controversy and have become a symbol of 'boredom' and busy work. I recently started reading them excerpts from historian Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the U.S." and students have loved it. They get excited whenever I get it out and seem to enjoy the perspective and tone the book sets for history. It's as if I am a storyteller when using Zinn's text, whereas before I was a salesman with the regular text.

The "People's History" I have been using is a personal copy that is written for high-level readers. It has no pictures and is hundreds of pages long. Whenever I read it, I need to first read through and remove grandiose vocabulary in order for them to understand it. Thankfully, Zinn's text has been adapted for young people in two volumes. I want to order class sets of these texts for my students to keep in the classroom and use in coordination with their regular texts. This version has pictures, as well, and is full of primary sources to analyze and use in our application of history. I can see my students now...willingly opening these books to partake in a journey through history, telling the stories themselves and learning from it. On a day to day basis, our current text books have proven to be less and less productive tools in the classroom.

Your donation of any amount will literally change my classroom dynamic. If this project is fully funded, I will finally have my student's attention and engagement. They WILL respond to this text, and I want them to have that experience. In addition, this is a long-term investment for my classroom. These books will be laminated and tracked to prevent theft and vandalism and will be used for years to come. Please consider funding this project to your ability. Thank you!