Somali White

I have been teaching math to middle school students for the last 18 years. Over that time I have realized that most of my students had the math skills I was teaching but they were lacking the experiences in life that make problems make sense. Over these past years I started to create lessons that involve applying math skills to real life situations. This became a very expensive endeavor because school funds don't cover the materials I need to make these lessons come alive. I have also started to incorporate more field trips in my teaching for the same reasons and noticed that the socioeconomic status of the schools I have worked in have limited the type of trips I could take and the number of scholars that could participate. I have spent the last few years so focused on trying to raise funds along side with my PTA to off set the cost of some of these experiences but we have had to pass on opportunities because of the lack of funds. I am hoping that this year this program along with all the other forms of fundraising can allow me to provide experiences for ALL of my scholars and not just some. I often have to create criteria that eliminates scholars because we can't afford for them all to participate. I have been teaching math to middle school students for the last 18 years. Over that time I have realized that most of my students had the math skills I... read more