There is no such thing as a 38mm camera. You are confusing some other marking on a camera with the number you are looking for.
A 35mm camera is a film camera. It's called 35mm, because of the size of film it uses. 35mm is a standard film that most cameras used up until the digital age (you can still buy those films in drugstores sometimes). The 38mm you see is probably marked on a lens and indicates a focal length, which is a completely different beast and has nothing to do with what your teacher asked.
What you need is a film camera, and most likely a fully adjustable one too, not a point&shoot. Because in photography 1 you learn how to use the manual features of your camera and how to process your own black&white film.
LEM.