It is hard to believe that I have already been teaching for two years at Aspire Langston Hughes Academy, and will be heading into year 3 very soon. The last two years of my teaching journey have been filled with growth and life-changing moments for both my students and myself.

An important awareness I gained while teaching is the intentional practice of educating the whole child, and the import this will have beyond students' graduation. Educating the whole child means that, in a democratic society, schools hold an innate responsibility to go beyond teaching our children fundamental skills. This means that educators and school administrators have a duty to ensure that each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged, set the standard for comprehensive, sustainable school improvement and provides an environment for long-term student success.

In order to uphold my duty  in educating the whole child for ALL of my student scholars this upcoming year, I need to ensure that every one of them has access to the most crucial school supplies, and more. 

One of the biggest hurdles that students in high need schools face is a lack of the necessary materials that are needed daily. It makes it infinitely more difficult for students to take part in activities and classwork when they do not have basic supplies. Another challenge I encounter in my classroom is a shortage of complete class sets of the novels my curriculum is centered around. Each class set of books (there are 3 sets total needed), will cost approximately $180.  With complete class sets of these novels, my students will be able to check novels out of the classroom to read them at home, and thereby maximize our class time to focus on literature circles, discussion time, and further analysis of the text. 

Another tenet of my classroom environment is cultivating a growth mindset and celebrating ALL students' growth, in both literacy and social-emotional learning. 

In regards to cultivating a love of literacy in my students, I aim to include supporting reading materials (beyond our main 3 novels) that are culturally relevant and interdisciplinary to keep my students engaged and making connections to literacy across disciplines. Statistics consistently show that reading volume matters - for students' fluency, comprehension, success in school, and overall enjoyment of reading. In other words, the more you read, the more you know.

In my classroom, there are several things I do to support our students on the road to reading more:

Classroom Library - I work hard to stock my classroom library with "just right" books to challenge my kiddos to grow. My students have a variety of interests and reading levels, and it's vital that students have books that will help them fall in love with reading. If you were to donate, the highest priority after essential supplies would be culturally relevant texts for my students. 

Monthly SWAG (Students Who Achieve Goals) Parties - Every month students who reach their monthly goal for reading get to attend a celebration. These celebrations range from pizza parties, ice cream parties, etc.

Perseverance Celebrations - Last year I wanted to make sure all students got rewarded for their hard work. I held a special celebration for students who were struggling in reading but worked incredibly hard both increasing their reading level and meet their monthly word goals. 

Reading Benchmark Rewards - At every major benchmark on their way to five million words read, I will give students a prize. As students read more and more, the value of the prizes increase. When students get to a million words, they get a shirt commemorating their accomplishment. When a student gets to five million, they get their own gift card to Barnes & Noble.

As you can see, I enjoy celebrating and encouraging students' hard work. However, as our school grows, we have less money to spend on these events and incentives. With your help you will be able drastically increase the chances that ALL students will have a positive experience, growth-oriented experience in the 2018-19 school year. Your money could help fund class-wide celebrations and individual prizes for students going above and beyond their personalized literacy goals.

PledgeCents allows me to keep whatever I raise, so anything you can contribute really will make a difference for my second year. I want to make a great impression and a lasting impact on my third group of students and letting them know that they have a community that supports them both near and far will definitely get us on the right track. Here is a complete list of the materials that your generous investment will help provide for the students of my classroom:

Anything you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you so very much!

-Erika Cuevas

Back Up Plan