Who am I? Who are these kids?
I'm a first year Spanish teacher at Castlemont High School, and teach Spanish 1 and 2 for nonnative speakers. My students range from 10-12 grade, and we're in a high poverty area of Oakland, California. Last semester I also taught an advisory course, and I committed to taking all those in my junior advisory to a college tour if they were interested. My students are motivated, interested in going to college, and potential community leaders. Let's help them get there!
What is this for? Where are they going?!
I know it's complicated, but I'm asking for funding for two different field trips. Each will cost between $200-250 to do well, but Indiegogo has a minimum $500 limit, so instead of two small projects I'm doing one BIG ONE. I have used Donor's Choose for other projects but they require a long lead time between projects, and I'd really like to do these field trips before spring. Also, they have compex rules about funding field trips. So, let's do it ourselves!
Comemos en Español - Let's Eat in Spanish (Project 1)
As non-native Spanish speakers, my students work very hard to increase their Spanish vocabulary and verbal confidence. My goal for them is to be conversational in Spanish by the time they leave my class and able to interact with native Spanish speakers in real life.
I really don't care how they do in a textbook. I want them to be able to go to any Spanish speaking country in the world and get around, whether it's at a party or at a restaurant. And for that they need real life experience.
The best practice is real-life communication, whether that means going to their local taqueria or playing futbol with members of our school's 50% Latino population. There are racial lines at our school and in our community, and through projects that make Spanish fun and emphasize communication and cultural competency, I hope to help make those divisions a little bit blurrier. As such, I want to take them to a local Oakland Mexican restaurant for breakfast.
Their field trip will take up a morning, and be done all in Spanish. We (thanks to this project!) will pay for transportation and food. The students will be graded on ordering in Spanish, speaking in Spanish the whole time, and using culturally appropriate behaviors at the restaurant. This means saying "puede ser," it means appropriate language, it means asking all the servers and restaurant workers how their days are going, and listening to their answers IN SPANISH.
My students live in one of the culturally richest cities in the country and, for many of them, the height of Mexican cuisine is Taco Bell. Please, help their cultural competency and help their palates!
Estimated Cost:
15 students + 3 teachers ($10 food each) = $180
Bus pases/ asking teachers to drive them to the restaurant = $20-50
What happens if I don't raise the money = I'm doing it anyway, so help me not go broke!
What happens if I raise too much money = It will go right back into my classroom, depending on the amount either towards a field trip for Spanish 1 classes OR into basic classroom materials and supplies
Let's Go See some Colleges and Universities! (Project 2)
Last semester I was a junior advisor at Castlemont, and had a class full of extremely motivated minority students who are really passionate about going to college. One thing that can be tough for them is getting the chance to do real college tours - transportation can be prohibitive, or they simply don't know where to go or what to do when they get there.
Our school discontinued advisory this semester, but we as a class committed to Saturday field trips throughout this semester to give them the same kind of college access those of us who went to fancy high schools got. Each student signed up for a different college they would go to, and I committed to six Saturdays of college tours with them.
While our school has College Access programming, not all programs are available to all students. For example, I had some undocumented students in my advisory who are not eligible for any federally funded college access programs. I am determined that status in the country should not impact their ability to be college bound.
We started something amazing in my classroom last semester, help me finish it by helping to fund these Saturday trips!
Students signed up to visit: CSU East Bay, San Jose State, the Culinary Institute in San Francisco, the Art Institute of California, San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley.
Help me keep my promise, and help them get to four year colleges!
Estimated costs:
20 students + 2 teachers ($7-10 transportation) = $154-220
What will I do if I don't raise enough money? - We're going anyway, help me not go broke!
What will I do with extra money? - Even buying lunch is a hardship for some of my students (my school is close to 100% free and reduced lunch). Extra money specifically designated for this project will go to buying snacks/ lunch for the students on the day of the college tour - I'll bring my own :)
