By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

Isabella High School teacher Rachel Hartsell hopes to help her history students visually connect to the subject by adding a Smart TV to her classroom.

The TV would be used to show documentaries and images of primary sources.

Funds for the project are being raised through DonorsChoose.org, a fundraising site specifically for teachers.

Right now, Sonic Drive-in is matching all donations to the project through the site as a part of its Limeades for Learning campaign.

“There are so many good apps that are out there that have documentary sources that are great for teaching history,” Hartsell said. “It’s something that we can use to go along with instruction.”

She said using a projector sometimes decreases the quality of the image and having the TV would solve this issue. She said she thinks the increase in quality will increase students’ interest.

“We always watched a lot of documentaries when I was in school and I was fascinated by them,” Hartsell said.

She said it would also make the subject matter fun for her 100-150 students.

Sharing the device with other history teachers is also a possibility.

Donations can be made at donorschoose.org by searching “Visualize History.”

The hope is to have the TV before the next school year starts.

Hartsell said DonorsChoose will have it delivered directly to the school.

Successfully funded teachers take pictures of their class using the items purchased and send them to DonorsChoose.

Earlier this year, Hartsell was successfully funded to take the IHS Historical Society students to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery.

“DonorsChoose has been very good to me in the past,” Hartsell said. “Parents and community members have been very supportive any time I’ve done a DonorsChoose.”

For fellow teachers, Hartsell said she would be happy to share information about starting a page for project funding on DonorsChoose.org. There are also helpful articles on the site about how to best get funded.