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Ms. Donna Shafer
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North Fork Middle School
Hometown:
Mount Jackson, VA
Class Information:
Room Number: 802
Students per Class: 65
Class Description:
Our school has the lowest family income in the county with the highest number of free lunch applications. I also teach a high number of special education students and LEP students. The majority of my students have a very limited view of the world and their possibilities in it.
Position:
English
Needs:
At the moment, I could manage with a digital camera set. In the past, I taught technology, and all of my equipment garnered over the years is aged or broken. I give primary research technique presentations through the Northern Virginia Writing Project, and I would like to begin incorporating that approach to my classroom while using technology. I have been in the eighth grade classroom for two years now, and I see it as a very pivotal age. They are just beginning to see that they will begin preparing for a job and/or college, and they have no idea how to do that. I've been considering for some time that we should be using our Monday newspaper in the classroom day as a time to make them more aware of the world around them. I also know that our one-day trip to a local university and the job research they do in seventh grade isn't enough. I have taught students how to create digital storytelling projects in the past. I would like to meld teaching that skill, researching, reading, and writing into an eighth grade English class that hones their English skills while better preparing them for life choices.
My Philosophy:
Nothing is beyond my students' reach. My father was born into poverty in a family of eight with an almost absent father, and my father reshaped his life and raised my sister and I with character and integrity. I was the first person in my family to get a college degree and a Masters. I also have traveled around the world. I try to tell my students what my family has come from and what they have achieved and how they, too, can achieve it. By the time they leave my classroom and move toward ninth grade I want them to have completed projects, readings, and writings, that will create a sense of self-awareness of their abilities and possibilities.