I teach a class of 46 adorable, curious and hardworking Grade 5 kids at the Kottur Primary School run by the Corporation of Chennai. Despite the corporation's best efforts in the face of challenges of huge-scale, there is a scarcity of resources made available to the school. Most of my kids are from economically disadvantaged communities and thus have very limited exposure and access to learning opportunities.  In addition, most of my kids are 3 grade levels behind in their reading and math abilities.

To reduce this gap in knowledge, skills and improve learning outcomes significantly, I am raising funds to bring technology in the form of low-cost tablets to the classroom. These tablets will be loaded with textbooks and readily available content from Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.com) and BrainPOP (http://www.brainpop.com/) with the sole purpose of enabling the following outcomes:

1. Personalised learning: I am envisioning a classroom where the one-size fits all methodology is dispensed with and students can watch these videos as many times as they so desire at home and understand the concepts at their individual pace.
2. Increased productivity of teacher-student interaction: With videos effectively removing lecture time, the teacher's time will be better spent interacting with students, facilitating learning amongst peers and providing focused guidance to students,who are stuck with a particular concept
3. Reusability and availability of content over an extended period of time: Unlike paper text books which are fraught with storage and handling issues, digital content will always remain at the disposal of the students and be used at any point in time across their learning journeys.
4. Digital Literacy: In the modern day and age, the importance of digital literacy cannot be overstated. As a part of this project, I also wish to provide every child with an email account and impart them basic skills on how to use powerpoint, Microsoft office etc to better prepare them for what is out there.

The need of the hour is to bring my kids to grade-level and expose them to a plethora of opportunities. My class of 'scholars' are committed to this path and your contribution will go a long way in helping them achieve their goals.

Thank you,
Gurucharan