My Students

Our school lacks even a single LCD projector to share slides, data, and multimedia with classes at large. If we expect our students to be technologically competent, a projector is a must for a science room.

My school is the alternative campus for expelled high school students in our district.

Students arrive after committing "Class III" offenses (those typically involving drugs or violence) or while matriculating back to public school from incarceration. Despite clear challenges in their daily lives, my students are earnest, eager, and wildly capable scholars with college aspirations and unmatched tenacity. I am the sole science teacher at our high school, and instruct students in Earth Science, Physical Science, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Environmental Science. We are expected to deliver the same content as elsewhere in the district, but lack some fundamental resources to do so. While this affords the opportunity to be creative in the classroom, some material shortcomings are clear obstacles for instruction. If we are expected to keep on pace with the rest of the district, state, and nation, an LCD projector is a must.

My Project

On our students' standardized graduation exit exam, they are asked to identify how technology impacts scientific discovery. Despite this expectation, our school's technological resources are limited to the computer lab. If I wish to share a video clip highlighting a particular lesson, I must ask students to crowd around my laptop. A projector would make multimedia presentation a regular part of lessons. Given my unofficial role as college counselor, guiding students through web navigation is paramount. In the collegiate and professional world, students will be expected to understand basic programs such as Excel and PowerPoint, which are incorporated into class only nominally because we lack a projector. I plan to guide students through their own professional-style presentations with the use of such equipment. Teaching slides will clarify the occasionally tedious lesson, familiarize students with practical technology and save paper. The projector will be shared with all classes.

Our students are expected to master the same material as those throughout the district, and should therefore be taught with equipment on par with other schools.

Obtaining an LCD projector is an enormous step in showing students their education is not being shortchanged for budgetary reasons, and in proving to students that others are invested in their learning. For our students to be competitive scholars and job seekers, the exposure an LCD projector will provide is vital to their learning.