This week, we're helping a teacher in Houston ISD, which is currently under attack by Texas Republicans because HISD teachers in high-poverty areas can’t work miracles despite being underfunded and forced to teach to flawed standardized tests for decades now. As always, Republicans have refused to take responsibility for their failed policies—they’ve controlled the Texas legislature and all statewide offices for decades now—and are trying to shift the blame to others.
From the Houston Chronicle Op-Ed linked in tweet above (my emphasis):
[T]he root of education issues is almost always poverty — and tests won’t fix that. Unfortunately, our school system is now entirely based on passing the test. This methodology has placed a stranglehold on our classrooms that prevents teachers from meeting the needs of their students and keeps kids from learning.
That’s why the prospect of a TEA takeover is so worrisome. The agency perpetuates a narrative of failing schools based on testing, and then promotes privatization policies as the solution. The threat is clear: Accept a charter or risk hostile strong-arming by bureaucrats. State government is holding a gun to the head of the public and demanding we surrender our students.
Of course, our efforts here cannot solve this issue, but we can help provide resources for this science teacher and his students. We hope that readers who support quality public school education will help by sharing or supporting our featured projects.
Update: The main project described below has already been completed, so I’m adding a new long-term project with a triple match: let’s help to provide a digital microscope to a never-before-funded elementary school class in San Juan, Texas.
The Inoculation Project is an ongoing, volunteer effort to crowdfund science and math projects for red-state public schools in low-income neighborhoods. As always, our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that facilitates tax-deductible donations to specific, vetted projects in public schools.
Surprise! Last week’s project has already been completed, so we’re beginning a new one this week. Let’s take advantage of the triple match offer to help this never-before-funded Houston ISD teacher. Who can resist The Lorax?
MAIN PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students Stem Classroom Bundle, books, and Snap Circuits so they can be successful in the real world.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Kelso Elementary School, Houston, Texas
Total: $694.98 (all donations currently tripled)
Still Needed: $694.98 Completed, thank you! Please consider added long-term project below.
Expires: January 19, 2019
Teacher’s Comments from Mr. Lahrmann:
My Students: My students are eager to learn and enjoy challenges. However, some of our challenges at our campus include lack of school supplies and technology. Being part of the largest school district in Texas has its downfalls. Most if not all of my students have zero to little school supplies and needed resource used to be a successful student. Despite the many challenges my students face they come to school every day with a positive attitude and the desire to do better and be better. My students push me to be the best teacher and person I can be. It is my duty as their teacher to do what I can for them. Resources are needed and very much appreciated.
Students at my campus are filled with life and have the desire to grow as students and individuals.
Never have I seen students that appreciate and actually want to learn. Students need a lift in the right direction to help them become the leaders of tomorrow.
My Project: Supplies are limited at my campus and I am constantly spending my own money on markers, crayons, color pencils and things of that nature. Help me help my students and give them the basic essentials needed in the classroom to be successful. My students want to be creative and have the desire to read; however, we are very limited with resources that are up to today's standards. Students will use the markers to create their interactive notebooks as well as poster board illustrations. My students love to be creative and they love to have friendly poster board challenges. Help my students with some essentials needed to create and design our interactive notebooks.
Students will use snap circuits to create and design a circuit of their own as a model home. Students will have a portion of the project to identify and describe the different forms of energy used in their model home and where that for of energy comes from. This is where the alternative energy books would come in handy to help build background knowledge of the subject to my students. Weather and climate would then play a role in where we build our new home and how our home may need to be constructed or the different forms of alternative energy we may need to use to power our new model home.
The books are crucial to helping build background knowledge to allow my students to transfer what they have learned from a book into a project of their own. I tried my best to briefly describe how we would use these resources in the classroom. Help make this story a success and many pictures will come to follow of how we put everything to use.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Edited to add a long-term project posted by another never-before-funded teacher. This one also has a triple match:
LONG-TERM PROJECT
Resources: Help me give my students a digital microscope that they can use to explore the world around them. It will allow us to be able to display what we are looking at onto a big screen.
Economic need: Nearly all students from low‑income households
Location: Vida N Clover Elementary School, San Juan, Texas
Total: $751.75 (all donations currently tripled)
Still Needed: $719.11 $469.58 ($157 from us!)
Teacher’s Comments from Ms. Romero:
My Students: We are a Title I school located near the Southern Texas border with Mexico. Our students are at risk with 100% free breakfast and lunch. Many of our students are Hispanic and do not speak English at home.
My students are full of science questions!
They absolutely love hands-on, active, engaging activities that allow them to think outside the box to find solutions!
Each child in my classroom absolutely loves learning science, but don't have the resources to always do all they are capable of in the classroom.
My Project: The digital microscope will make it possible to display those exciting things my students want to explore. We can use it to explore life cycles of plants, animals, and insects. We can also use the digital microscope to see many small things that my students can not see with a hand lens.
With the digital microscope, I will be able to display a meal worm, a pupa, and a beetle onto a big screen for the whole class or a small group of students to see together instead of having to use a hand lens.
The digital microscope can also help us communicate our findings through 21st century technology. It can take pictures and video of what we are learning to include in their projects and presentations.
You can make a difference to my students.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Thanks in large part to a huge assist from our donors and a matching offer, last week’s main project — STEM! All Day Every Day! — was completed! Thank you notes from the teacher:
In the words of Albert Einstein, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” With your donation, you have helped to awaken that joy and fun in learning. Students enjoy coming to my class and having the proper items to make each day more engaging really helps. I tell them science is everywhere and it can always be fun when we are learning. Thank you for all that you have done to make that possible.
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I can't wait to get to school on Monday morning to let all of my students know that our project was funded. Just saying thank you is truly not enough to show how much we appreciate the kindness all of you have shown towards my future scientists and engineers. You have created a path to further their interests in STEM and making learning extraordinary. Thank you.
With gratitude,
Mrs. B.
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project combats the anti-science push in conservative America by funding science and math projects in red-state classrooms and libraries. Our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, a crowdfunding charity founded in 2000 and highly rated by both Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau.
Every Sunday, we focus on helping to fund science or math projects, preferably in neighborhood public schools where the overwhelming majority of students come from low-income households. We welcome everyone who supports public school education — no money is required!
Finally, here’s our list of successfully funded projects — our series total is 714! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.org.