Past projects 4
Preparing 21st Century Learners
Funded May 7, 2015The technology from this project has completely revolutionized our classroom! I cannot thank you enough for your generosity. This project truly would not have been possible without your support and we are very grateful.
There are so many incredible resources available at our fingertips - when we have access to technology and the Internet. Thanks to our new pair of chromebooks and your generous donations, my students are now able to have access to these resources each and every day.
Technology is such a valuable learning tool. Not only does daily access teach my students the life skill of being technologically literate, but it provides them access to an online reading intervention program that makes reading fun for students who otherwise may not feel this way, allows them to listen to a multitude of books read aloud so that they can develop fluency to strengthen their own reading skills, complete math practice and games during our math center time, and publish their writing in a way they can be proud of. It truly is a game-changer in the field of education and in my students' experiences in the classroom.
Thank you again for your generosity and commitment to my students' success!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Walen
Getting Hands-On with Math
Funded Apr 11, 2015I cannot thank you enough for the generosity you showed by donating to our project. The resources you provided have added so much to math time in our classroom and it is exciting to see the children in my class explore math in a hands-on way each day.
For many of the students in my class, math can be very intimidating. As third graders, they are moving in to studying more abstract concepts and it can be hard for many students to visualize what a fraction is or learn to tell time by looking at the hands on a clock. My students learn best by doing and the resources from "Getting Hands-On with Math" make this possible for every single student, every day. We use the resources from this project in many different ways in our classroom. When I am teaching a mini-lesson to the whole class, I use the counters, blocks, and patter pieces to model what I am teaching. This gives them a real-life visual. When, my students work in centers, they use the dice to play math games that make learning fun and use the pattern blocks and counters to work on many different activities. While some students are in centers, you will find still others working in a small group with me, where I am leading an activity or lesson. We use the resources from this project heavily in these small groups and I am able to witness first-hand on a daily basis how putting resources in the hands of children can help a concept stick.
The resources from this project have certainly helped my students achieve. They learn more by having access to these materials daily and we utilize them on a regular basis. I cannot thank you enough for your commitment to my students' education. I am so very appreciative for your support.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Walen
Making the FUNdamentals of Grammar FUN!
Funded Aug 22, 2014Thank you again for the generous donation of a library of picture books to help my class learn the fundamentals of grammar. What an impact these resources have had already!
A command of grammar is essential when building strong readers and writers - yet studying grammar is not always very fun. My students now love our grammar study time because they think the books you helped donate are so funny and entertaining. They even look forward to studying grammar because they can't wait to see what story we will read next.
As a teacher with limited funds and a big dream for my students, it is truly a blessing to have donors like you who are willing to support our class. We enjoy utilizing our new books daily and without your support, we certainly would not have them in our room at our fingertips. Thank you again for your support of my students!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Walen
This classroom project was brought to life by Gates Foundation Back To School and 4 other donors.I Want to Write Like That!
Funded Dec 31, 2013"The Best Story gave me some really good ideas for writing fiction," "These have helped me understand how to use dialogue," and "I Wanna Iguana showed me how to persuade someone without having to bribe them!" were just a few of the statements made by my students when exploring the package of books that was delivered to our classroom thanks to your generous donations.
Our materials arrived on the very eve of the beginning of our persuasive/argumentative writing unit and were put to use the very next day when I used "I Wanna Iguana" and "Dear Mrs. LaRue" to introduce the unit to my students. These texts have been such a wonderful addition to the writing program in our classroom. My students respond so well to seeing the traits of good writing in a real book that they can read, touch, and feel. I encourage them to think of themselves as "real" authors, much like the authors of our mentor texts are. I have asked them to read these texts with a writer's eye and it is so inspiring to see them taking note of the type of introductions, conclusions, imagery, figurative language, and dialogue used in each of the books we received.
We use these materials on a daily basis in our classroom. I will often read a text aloud to students and they will listen as detectives for the qualities of good writing present in that text. I then encourage them to incorporate these into their own writing throughout the unit. It has been so helpful to have such a large selection of quality mentor texts in a wide variety of genres. This has allowed my students to notice qualities that are unique to writing in each genre as well as those that are the same and represent strong overall writing. My students are able to refer to these books throughout our writing workshop and use them as models to mentor their own writing. We are so very grateful to have such quality resources at our fingertips each and every day and it has greatly improved our writing workshop already.
Thank you again for your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Walen